the leg when they intend it at the head so doth this Devil whiles he drives at the Swine he aimes at the Souls of these Gadarens by this means he hoped well and his hope was not vain to work in these Gergesens a discontentment at Christ an unwillingnesse to entertain him a desire of his absence he meant to turn them into Swine by the losse of their Swine It was not the rafters or stones of the house of Job's children that he bore the grudge to but to the owners nor to the lives of the children so much as the Soul of their Father There is no Affliction wherein he doth not strike at the heart which whiles it holds free all other damages are light but a wounded spirit whether with sin or sorrow who can bear Whatever becomes of goods or limmes happy are we if like wise souldiers we guard the vital parts Whiles the Soul is kept sound from impatience from distrust our Enemy may afflict us he cannot hurt us They sue for a sufferance not daring other then to grant that without the permission of Christ they could not hurt a very Swine If it be fearfull to think how great things evil spirits can doe with permission it is comfortable to think how nothing they can doe without permission We know they want not malice to destroy the whole frame of God's work but of all man of all men Christians but if without leave they cannot set upon an Hog what can they doe to the living Images of their Creator They cannot offer us so much as a suggestion without the permission of our Saviour And can he that would give his own most precious blood for us to save us from evil wilfully give us over to evil It is no news that wicked spirits wish to do mischief it is news that they are allowed it If the owner of all things should stand upon his absolute command who can challenge him for what he thinks fit to doe with his creature The first Fole of the Asse is commanded under the Law to have his neck broken What is that to us The creatures doe that they were made for if they may serve any way to the glory of their Maker But seldome ever doth God leave his actions unfurnished with such reasons as our weaknesse may reach unto There were Sects amongst these Jews that denied Spirits They could not be more evidently more powerfully convinced then by this event Now shall the Gadarens see from what a multitude of Devils they were delivered and how easie it had been for the same power to have allowed these Spirits to seize upon their Persons as well as their Swine Neither did God this without a just purpose of their castigation His Judgements are righteous where they are most secret Though we cannot accuse these inhabitants of ought yet he could and thought good thus to mulct them And if they had not wanted Grace to acknowledge it it was no small favour of God that he would punish them in their Swine for that which he might have avenged upon their Bodies and Souls Our Goods are furthest off us If but in these we smart we must confesse to finde mercy Sometimes it pleaseth God to grant the suits of wicked men and spirits in no favour to the suitors He grants an ill suit and withholds a good He grants an ill suit in Judgement and holds back a good one in Mercy The Israelites ask meat he gives Quailes to their mouths and leannesse to their Souls The chosen vessel wishes Satan taken off and hears only My grace is sufficient for thee We may not evermore measure favours by condescent These Devils doubtless receive more punishment for that harmfull act wherein they are heard If we ask what is either unfit to receive or unlawfull to beg it is a great favour of our God to be denied Those spirits which would go into the Swine by permission go out of the man by command they had staied long and are ejected suddenly The immediate works of God are perfect in an instant and do not require the aid of time for their maturation No sooner are they cast out of the man then they are in the Swine They will lose no time but passe without intermission from one mischief to another If they hold it a pain not to be doing evil why is it not our delight to be ever doing good The impetuousnesse was no lesse then the speed The Herd was carried with violence from a steep-down place into the lake and was choaked It is no small force that could doe this but if the Swine had been so many Mountains these spirits upon God's permission had thus transported them How easily can they carry those Souls which are under their power to destruction Unclean beasts that wallow in the mire of sensuality brutish Drunkards transforming themselves by excesse even they are the Swine whom the Legion carries headlong to the pit of perdition The wicked spirits have their wish the Swine are choked in the waves What ease is this to them Good God that there should be any creature that seeks contentment in destroying in tormenting the good creatures of his Maker This is the diet of Hell Those Fiends feed upon spight towards man so much more as he doth more resemble his Creator towards all other living substances so much more as they may be more usefull to man The Swine ran down violently what marvell is it if their Keepers fled That miraculous work which should have drawn them to Christ drives them from him They run with the news the Country comes in with clamour The whole multitude of the Country about besought him to depart The multitude is a beast of many heads every head hath a several mouth and every mouth a several tongue and every tongue a several accent every head hath a several brain and every brain thoughts of their own so as it is hard to find a multitude without some division At least seldome ever hath a good motion found a perfect accordance it is not so infrequent for a multitude to conspire in evil Generality of assent is no warrant for any act Cōmon Errour carries away many who inquire not into the reason of ought but the practice The way to Hell is a beaten road through the many feet that tread it When Vice grows into fashion Singularity is a Vertue There was not a Gadarene found that either dehorted his fellows or opposed the motion It is a sign of people given up to judgment when no man makes head against projects of evil Alas what can one strong man do against a whole throng of wickednesse Yet this good comes of an unprevailing resistance that God forbears to plague where he findes but a sprinkling of Faith Happy are they who like unto the celestial bodies which being carried about with the sway of the highest sphere yet creep on their own waies keep on the courses of their own Holiness against the
and felicity if his absence could be grievous his return shall be happy and glorious Even so Lord Jesus come quickly In the mean while it is not Heaven that can keep thee from me it is not earth that can keep me from thee Raise thou up my Soul to a life of Faith with thee let me ever injoy thy conversation whiles I exspect thy return A SERMON OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING For the wonderful Mitigation of the late Mortalitie Preached before His Majestie upon His gracious Command at His Court of Whitehall Jan. 29. 1625. and upon the same Command published by JOS. HALL Dean of Worcester Psal 68. vers 19 20. Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation Selah He that is our God is the God of Salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death YEa blessed be the Lord who hath added this unto the load of his other Mercies to his unworthy servant that the same Tongue which was called not long since to chatter out our Publick Mournings in the Solemn Fast of this place is now imployed in a Song of Praise and the same Hand which was here lifted up for Supplication is now lift up in Thanksgiving Ye that then accompanied me with your tears and sighs accompany me now I beseech you in this happy change of note and time with your joyful Smiles and Acclamations to the GOD that hath wrought it It is not more natural for the Sun when it looks upon a moist and wellfermented earth to cause Vapors to ascend thence then it is for Greatness and Goodness when they both meet together upon an honest heart to draw up holy desires of gratulation The worth of the Agent doth it not alone without a â—it disposition in the Subject Let the Sun cast his strongest beams upon a flint a pumice he fetches out no stream Even so the Greatness and Goodness of the Almighty beating upon a dry and hard heart prevailes nothing Here all three are happily met In God infinite Greatness infinite Goodness such Greatness that he is attended with thousand thousands of Angels a Guard fit for the King of Heaven such Goodness that he receives Gifts even for the rebellious In David a Gracious heart that in a sweet sense of the great Goodness of his God breaths out this Divine Epiphonema Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation c. Wherein methinks the sweet Singer of Israel seems to raise his note to the emulation of the Quire of Heaven in the melody of their Allelujahs yea let me say now that he sings above in that Blessed Consort of glorious Spirits his Ditty cannot be better then this that he sung here upon earth and wherein we are about to bear our parts at this time Prepare I beseech you both your eares for David's Song and your hearts and tongues for your own And first in this Angelical strain your thoughts cannot but observe without me the Descant and the Ground The Descant of Gratulation Blessed be the Lord wherein is both Applause and Excitation an Applause given to God's Goodness and an Excitation of others to give that Applause The Ground is a threefold respect Of what God is in himself God and Lord Of what God is and doth to us which loadeth us daily with benefits Of what he is both in himself and to us The God of our Salvation which last like to some rich Stone is set off with a dark foyl To God the Lord belong the issues from death So in the first for his own sake in the second for our sakes in the third for his own and ours as God as Lord as a Benefactor as a Saviour and Deliverer Blessed be the Lord. It is not hard to observe that David's Allelujahs are more then his Hosannas his thanks more then his suits Oft-times doth he praise God when be begs nothing seldome ever doth he beg that favour for which he doth not raise up his Soul to an anticipation of Thanks neither is this any other then the universal under-song of all his Heavenly Ditties Blessed be the Lord. Praised as our former Translation hath it is too low Honour is more then Praise Blessing is more then Honour Neither is it for nothing that from this word Barac to bless is derived Berec the knee which is bowed in blessing and the cryer before Joseph proclaimed Abrech calling for the honour of the knee from all beholders Gen. 41. 43. Every slight trivial acknowledgement of worth is a Praise Blessing is in a higher strain of gratitude that carries the whole sway of the heart with it in a kinde of Divine rapture Praise is in matter of complement Blessing of Devotion The Apostle's Rule is that the less is blessed of the greater Abraham of the King of Salem The Prophets charge is that the greater should be blessed of the less yea the greatest of the least God of man This agrees well Blessing is an act that will bear reciprocation God blesseth man and man blesseth God God blesseth man imperatively man blesseth God optatively God blesseth man in the acts of Mercy man blesseth God in the notions in the expressions of thanks God blesses man when he makes him good and happy man blesseth God when he confesseth how good how gracious how glorious he is so as the blessing is wholly taken up in agnition in celebration in the one we acknowledge the Bounty of God to us in the other we magnifie him vocally really for that Bounty Oh see then what high account God makes of the affections and actions of his poor silly earth-creeping creatures that he gives us in them power to bless himself and takes it as an honour to be blessed of us David wonders that God should so vouchsafe to bless man how much more must we needs wonder at the mercy of God that will vouchsafe to be blessed by man a worm an atome a nothing Yet both S. James tels us that with the tongue we bless God and the Psalmist calls for it here as a service of dear acceptation Blessed be the Lord. Even we men live not Cameleon-like with the aire of thanks nor feed ere the fatter with praises how much less our Maker O God we know well that whatsoever men or Angels doe or doe not thou canst not but be infinitely Blessed in thy self before ever any creature was thou didst equally injoy thy blessed Self from all Eternity what can this worthless loose filme of flesh either adde to or detract from thine Infiniteness Yet thou that humblest thy self to behold the things that are done in Heaven and earth humblest thy self also to accept the weak breath of our Praises that are sent up to thee from earth to Heaven How should this incourage the vows the endeavours of our hearty thankfulness to see them graciously taken Would men take up with good words with good desires and quit our bonds
hast believed so be it unto thee Never was any Faith unseen of Christ never was any seen without allowance never was any allowed without remuneration The measure of our receits in the matter of favour is the proportion of our belief The infinite Mercy of God which is ever like it self follows but one Rule in his gift to us the Faith that he gives us Give us O God to believe and be it to us as thou wilt it shall be to us above that we will The Centurion sues for his Servant and Christ saies So be it unto thee The Servants health is the benefit of the Master and the Masters Faith is the health of the Servant And if the Prayers of an earthly Master prevailed so much with the Son of God for the recovery of a Servant how shall the intercession of the Son of God prevail with his Father in Heaven for us that are his impotent Children Servants upon Earth What can we want O Saviour whiles thou suest for us He that hath given thee for us can deny thee nothing for us can deny us nothing for thee In thee we are happy and shall be glorious To thee O thou mightie Redeemer of Israel with thine eternal Father together with thy Blessed Spirit one God infinite and incomprehensible be given all Praise Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen Contemplations THE THIRD BOOK Containing The Widows son raised The Rulers son healed The dumb Devil ejected Matthew called Christ among the Gergesens or Legion and the Gadarene Herd To my right Worthy and Worshipful friend Mr JOHN GIFFORD OF Lancrasse in Devon Esq All Grace and Peace SIR I Hold it as I ought one of the rich mercies of God that he hath given me favour in some eyes which have not seen me but none that I know hath so much demerited me unknown as your worthy Familie Ere therefore you see my face see my hand willingly professing my thankfull obligations Wherewith may it please you to accept of this parcel of thoughts not unlike those fellows of theirs whom you have entertained above their desert These shall present unto you our Bountifull Saviour magnifying his mercies to men in a sweet variety healing the Diseased raising the Dead casting out the Devil calling in the Publican and shall raise your heart to adore that infinite goodness Every help to our Devotion deserves to be precious so much more as the decrepit age of the World declines to an heartlesse coldnesse of Piety That God to whose Honour these poor Labours are meant blesse them in your hands and from them to all Readers To his Protection I heartily commend you and the Right vertuous Gentlewoman your worthy Wife with all the Pledges of your happy affection as whom you have deserved to be Your truly thankful and officious Friend JOS. HALL The Widows son raised THE favours of our beneficent Saviour were at the least contiguous No sooner hath he raised the Centurion's Servant from his bed then he raises the Widows Son from his Biere The fruitful clouds are not ordained to fall all in one field Nain must partake of the bounty of Christ as well as Cana or Capernaum And if this Sun were fixed in one Orbe yet it diffuseth heat and light to all the world It is not for any place to ingrosse the messengers of the Gospel whose errand is universal This immortal seed may not fall all in one furrow The little City of Nain stood under the hill of Hermon near unto Tabor but now it is watered with better dews from above the Doctrine and Miracles of a Saviour Not for state but for the more evidence of the work is our Saviour attended with a large train so entering into the gate of that walled City as if he meant to besiege their Faith by his Power and to take it His Providence hath so contrived his journey that he meets with the sad pomp of a Funeral A woful Widow attended with her weeping neighbours is following her onely Son to the grave There was nothing in this spectacle that did not command compassion A young man in the flower in the strength of his age swallowed up by death Our decrepit age both exspects death and solicits it but vigorous youth looks strangely upon that grim Serjeant of God Those mellow apples that fall alone from the tree we gather up with contentment we chide to have the unripe unseasonably beaten down with cudgels But more a young man the onely Son the onely childe of his mother No condition can make it other then grievous for a well-natur'd mother to part with her own bowels yet surely store is some mitigation of loss Amongst many children one may be more easily missed for still we hope the surviving may supply the comforts of the dead But when all our hopes and joyes must either live or dy in one the loss of that one admits of no consolation When God would describe the most passionate expression of sorrow that can fall into the miserable he can but say oh daughter of my people gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thy self in the ashes make lamentation and bitter mourning as for thine onely Son Such was the loss such was the sorrow of this disconsolate mother neither words nor tears can suffice to discover it Yet more had she been aided by the counsel and supportation of a loving yoke-fellow this burden might have seemed less intolerable A good Husband may make amends for the loss of a Son had the root been left to her intire she might better have spared the branch now both are cut up all the stay of her life is gone and she seems abandoned to a perfect misery And now when she gave her self up for a forlorn mourner past all capacity of redress the God of comfort meets her pities her relieves her Here was no solicitor but his own compassion In other occasions he was sought and sued to The Centurion comes to him for a Servant the Ruler for a Son Jairus for a Daughter the neighbours for the Paralytick here he seeks up the Patient and offers the cure unrequested Whiles we have to doe with the Father of Mercies our afflictions are the most powerful suitors No teares no prayers can move him so much as his own commiseration O God none of our secret sorrows can be either hid from thine eyes or kept from thine heart and when we are past all our hopes all possibilities of help then art thou nearest to us for deliverance Here was a conspiration of all parts to mercy The Heart had compassion the Mouth said Weep not the Feet went to the Bier the Hand touched the coffin the Power of the Deity raised the dead What the Heart felt was secret to it self the Tongue therefore expresses it in words of comfort Weep not Alas what are words to so strong and just passions To bid her not to weep that had lost her only Son was to perswade her to be
Mary more devout then Martha busie Martha cares to feast Jesus Mary to be feasted of him There was more solicitude in Martha's active part more piety in Mary's sedentary attendance I know not in whether more zeal Good Martha was desirous to expresse her joy and thankfulnesse for the presence of so blessed a Guest by the actions of her carefull and plenteous entertainment I know not how to censure the Holy woman for her excesse of care to welcome her Saviour Sure she her self thought she did well and out of that confidence fears not to complain to Christ of her Sister I do not see her come to her Sister and whisper in her eare the gread need of her aide but she comes to Jesus and in a kinde of unkinde expostulation of her neglect makes her moan to him Lord dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone Why did she not rather make her first addresse to her Sister Was it for that she knew Mary was so tied by the ears with those adamantine chains that came from the mouth of Christ that untill his silence and dismission she had no power to stir Or was it out of an honour and respect to Christ that in his presence she would not presume to call off her Sister without his leave Howsoever I cannot excuse the holy Woman from some weaknesses It was a fault to measure her Sister by her self and apprehending her own act to be good to think her Sister could not doe well if she did not so too Whereas Goodnesse hath much latitude Ill is opposed to Good not Good to Good Neither in things lawfull or indifferent are others bound to our examples Mary might hear Martha might serve and both doe well Mary did not censure Martha for her rising from the feet of Christ to prepare his meal neither should Martha have censured Mary for sitting at Christs feet to feed her Soul It was a fault that she thought an excessive care of a liberal outward entertainment of Christ was to be preferred to a diligent attention to Christ spirituall entertainment of them It was a fault that she durst presume to question our Saviour of some kinde of unrespect to her toile Lord dost thou not care What saiest thou Martha dost thou challenge the Lord of Heaven and earth of incogitancy and neglect Dost thou take upon thee to prescribe unto that infinite Wisdome in stead of receiving directions from him It is well thou mettest with a Saviour whose gracious mildnesse knows how to pardon and pity the errours of our zeal Yet I must needs say here wanted not fair pretences for the ground of this thy expostulation Thou the elder Sister workest Mary the yonger sits still And what work was thine but the hospital receit of thy Saviour and his train Had it been for thine own paunch or for some carnal friends it had been lesse excusable now it was for Christ himself to whom thou couldst never be too obsequious But all this cannot deliver thee from the just blame of this bold subincusation Lord dost thou not care How ready is our weaknesse upon every slight discontentment to quarrell with our best friend yea with our good God and the more we are put to it to think our selves the more neglected and to challenge God for our neglect Do we groan on the bed of our sicknesse and languishing in pain complain of long hours and weary sides straight we think Lord dost thou not care that we suffer Doth God's poor Church goe to wrack whiles the ploughers ploughing on her back make long furrows Lord dost thou not care But know thou O thou feeble and distrustfull Soul the more thou doest the more thou sufferest the more thou art cared for neither is God ever so tender over his Church as when it is most exercised Every pang and stitch and gird is first felt of him that sends it O God thou knowest our works and our labour and our patience we may be ignorant and diffident thou canst not but be gracious It could not but trouble devout Mary to hear her Sisters impatient complaint a complaint of her self to Christ with such vehemence of passion as if there had been such strangenesse betwixt the two Sisters that the one would doe nothing for the other without an external compulsion from a Superior How can she chuse but think If I have offended why was I not secretly taxed for it in a sisterly familiarity What if there have been some little omission must the whole house ring of it before my Lord and all his Disciples Is this carriage beseeming a Sister Is my Devotion worthy of a quarrell Lord dost thou not care that I am injuriously censured Yet I hear not a word of reply from that modest mouth O holy Mary I admire thy patient silence thy Sister blames thee for thy Piety the Disciples afterwards blame thee for thy Bounty and cost not a word falls from thee in a just vindication of thine honour and innocence but in an humble taciturnity thou leavest thine answer to thy Saviour How should we learn of thee when we are complained of for well-doing to seal up our lips and to expect our righting from above And how sure how ready art thou O Saviour to speak in the cause of the dumb Martha Martha thou art carefull and troubled about many things but one thing is needfull and Mary hath chosen the better part What needed Mary to speak for her self when she had such an Advocate Doubtlesse Martha was as it were divided from her self with the multiplicity of her carefull thoughts our Saviour therefore doubles her name in his compellation that in such distraction he may both finde and fix her heart The good woman made full account that Christ would have sent away her Sister with a check and her self with thanks but now her hopes fail her and though she be not directly reproved yet she hears her Sister more approved then she Martha Martha thou art carefull and troubled about many things Our Saviour received courtesie from her in her diligent and costly entertainment yet he would not blanch her errour and smooth her up in her weak misprision No obligations may so enthrall us as that our tongues should not be free to reprove faults where we finde them They are base and servile spirits that will have their tongue tied to their teeth This glance towards a reproof implies an opposition of the condition of the two Sisters Themselves were not more near in Nature then their present humour and estate differed One is opposed to many necessary to superfluous solicitude to quietnesse Thou art carefull and troubled about many things one thing is necessary How far then may our care reach to these earthly things On the one side O Saviour thou hast charged us to take no thought what to eat drink put on on the other thy chosen Vessel hath told us that he that provides not for his family
a King and Prophet without their reluctation What can we impute this unto but to the powerful and over-ruling arme of his Godhead He that restrained the rage of Herod and his Courtiers upon the first news of a King born now restrains all the opposite powers of Jerusalem from lifting up a finger against this last and publick avouchment of the Regal and Prophetical Office of Christ When flesh and blood have done their worst they can be but such as he will make them If the Legions of Hell combine with the Potentates of the earth they cannot goe beyond the reach of their tether Whether they rise or sit still they shall by an insensible ordination perform that will of the Almighty which they least think of and most oppose With this humble pomp and just acclamation O Saviour dost thou pass through the streets of Jerusalem to the Temple Thy first walk was not to Herod's Palace or to the Market-places or Burses of that populous City but to the Temple whether it were out of duty or out of need As a good Son when he comes from farr his first alighting is at his Fathers house neither would he think it other then preposterous to visit strangers before his friends or friends before his Father Besides that the Temple had more use of thy presence Both there was the most disorder and from thence as from a corrupt spring it issued forth into all the chanels of Jerusalem A wise Physician inquires first into the state of the head heart liver stomach the vital and chief parts ere he asks after the petty symptoms of the meaner and less-concerning members Surely all good or evil begins at the Temple If God have there his own if men find there nothing but wholesome instruction holy example the Commonwealth cannot want some happy tincture of Piety Devotion Sanctimony as that fragrant perfume from Aaron's head sweetens his utmost skirts Contrarily the distempers of the Temple cannot but affect the Secular state As therefore the good Husbandman when he sees the leaves grow yellow and the branches unthriving looks presently to the root so didst thou O holy Saviour upon sight of the disorders spread over Jerusalem and Judaea address thy self to the rectifying of the Temple No sooner is Christ alighted at the gate of the outer Court of his Fathers house then he falls to work Reformation was his errand that he roundly attempts That holy ground was profaned by sacrilegious barterings within the third court of that Sacred place was a publick Mart held here was a throng of buyers and sellers though not of all commodities the Jewes were not so irreligious onely of those things which were for the use of Sacrifice The Israelites came many of them from far it was no less from Dan to Beersheba then the space of an hundred and threescore miles neither could it be without much inconvenience for them to bring their Bullocks Sheep Goats Lambs meal oyle and such other holy provision with them up to Jerusalem Order was taken by the Priests that these might for money be had close by the Altar to the ease of the offerer and the benefit of the seller and perhaps no disprofit to themselves The pretence was fair the practice unsufferable The great owner of the Temple comes to vindicate the reputation and rights of his own house and in an indignation at that so foul abuse layes fiercely about him and with his three-stringed scourge whips out those Sacrilegious chapmen casts down their tables throws away their baskets scatters their heaps and sends away their customers with smart and horror With what fear and astonishment did the repining offenders look upon so unexpected a Justicer whiles their conscience lashed them more then those cords and the terrour of that meek chastiser more affrighted them then his blows Is this that milde and gentle Saviour that came to take upon him our stripes and to undergoe the chastisements of our peace Is this that quiet Lamb which before his shearers openeth not his mouth See now how his eyes sparkle with holy anger and dart forth beams of indignation in the faces of these guilty Collybists see how his hands deal strokes and ruine Yea thus thus it became thee O thou gracious Redeemer of men to let the world see thou hast not lost thy Justice in thy Mercy that there is not more lenity in thy forbearances then rigour in thy just severity that thou canst thunder as well as shine This was not thy first act of this kinde at the entrance of thy publick work thou beganst so as thou now shuttest up with purging thine House Once before had these offenders been whipt out of that holy place which now they dare again defile Shame and smart is not enough to recâ—â—â—m obdur'd offenders Gainful sins are not easily checked but less easily mastered These bold flies where they are beaten off will alight again He that is filthy will be filthy still Oft yet had our Saviour been besides this in the Temple and often had seen the same disorder he doth not think fit to be alwaies whipping It was enough thus twice to admonish and chastise them before their ruine That God who hates sin alwaies will not chide alwaies and strikes more seldome but he would have those few strokes perpetual monitors and if those prevail not he smites but once It is his uniform course first the Whip and if that speed not then the Sword There is a reverence due to God's House for the Owners sake for the services sake Secular and profane actions are not for that Sacred roof much less uncivil and beastly What but Holiness can become that place which is the beauty of Holiness The fairest pretences cannot bear out a sin with God Never could there be more plausible colours cast upon any act the convenience the necessity of provisions for the Sacrifice yet through all these do the fiery eyes of our Saviour see the foul Covetousness of the Priests the Fraud of the Money-changers the intolerable abuse of the Temple Common eyes may be cheated with easie pretexts but he that looks through the heart at the face justly answers our Apologies with scourges None but the hand of publick authority must reform the abuses of the Temple If all be out of course there no man is barred from sorrow the grief may reach to all the power of reformation onely to those whom it concerneth It was but a just question though ill propounded to Moses Who made thee a Judge or a Ruler We must all imitate the zeal of our Saviour we may not imitate his correction If we strike uncalled we are justly stricken for our arrogation for our presumption A tumultuary remedy may prove a medicine worse then the disease But what shall I say of so sharp and imperious an act from so meek an Agent Why did not the Priests and Levites whose this gain partly was abett these money-changers and make head against Christ
deadly condition As ye love your Souls give no sleep to your eyes nor peace to your hearts till ye find the sensible effects of the Death and Passion of Christ your Saviour within you mortifying all your corrupt affections and sinful actions that ye may truly say with S. Paul I am crucified with Christ Six several times do we find that Christ shed blood in his Circumcision in his Agonie in his Crowning in his Scourging in his Affixion in his Transfixion The instrument of the first was the Knife of the second vehemence of Passion of the third the Thorns of the fourth the Whips of the fifth the Nails of the last the Spear In all these we are we must be Partners with our Saviour In his Circumcision when we draw blood of our selves by cutting off the foreskin of our filthy if pleasing Corruptions Col. 2. 11. In his Agony when we are deeply affected with the sense of God's displeasure for sin and terrified with the frowns of an angry Father In his Crowning with thorns when we smart and bleed with reproches for the name of Christ when that which the world counts Honour is a pain to us for his sake when our guilty thoughts punish us and wound our restless heads with the sad remembrance of our sins In his Scourging when we tame our wanton and rebellious flesh with wise rigor and holy severity In his Affixion when all the powers of our Souls and parts of our body are strictly hampered and unremovably fastened upon the Royal Commandements of our Maker and Redeemer In his Transfixion when our hearts are wounded with Divine love with the Spouse in the Canticles or our Consciences with deep sorrow In all these we bleed with Christ and all these save the first onely belong to his Crucifying Surely as it was in the Old Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without bloodshed there was no remission Heb. 9. 22. so it is still and ever in the New If Christ had not thus bled for us no remission if we do not thus bleed with Christ no remission There is no benefit where is no partnership If Christ therefore bled with his Agony with his Thorns with his Whips with his Nails with his Spear in so many thousand passages as Tradition is bold to define and we never bleed either with the Agony of our sorrow for sin or the Thorns of holy cares for displeasure or the Scourges of severe Christian rigour or the Nails of holy constraint or the Spear of deep remorse how do we how can we for shame say we are crucified with Christ Divine S. Austin in his Epistle or Book rather to Honoratus gives us all the dimensions of the Cross of Christ The Latitude he makes in the transverse this saith he pertains to good Works because on this his hands were stretched The Length was from the ground to the transverse this is attributed to his longanimity and persistance for on that his Body was stayed and fixed The Height was in the head of the Cross above the transverse signifying the exspectation of supernal things The Depth of it was in that part which was pitcht below within the earth importing the profoundness of his free Grace which is the ground of all his beneficence In all these must we have our part with Christ In the Transverse of his Cross by the ready extension of our hands to all good Works of Piety Justice Charity in the Arrectary or beam of his Cross by continuance and uninterrupted perseverance in good in the Head of his Cross by an high elevated hope and looking for of Glory in the Foot of his Cross by a lively and firm Faith fastening our Souls upon the affiance of his free Grace and Mercy And thus shall we be crucified with Christ upon his own Cross Yet lastly we must goe further then this from his Cross to his Person So did S. Paul and every Believer die with Christ that he died in Christ For as in the first Adam we all lived and sinned so in the second all Believers died that they might live The first Adam brought in death to all mankind but at last actually died for none but himself the second Adam died for mankind and brought life to all Believers Seest thou thy Saviour therefore hanging upon the Cross all mankind hangs there with him as a Knight or Burgess of Parliament voices his whole Burrough or Country What speak I of this The arms and legs take the same lot with the head Every Believer is a lim of that body how can he therefore but die with him and in him That real union then which is betwixt Christ and us makes the Cross and Passion of Christ ours so as the thorns pierced our heads the scourages blooded our backs the nails wounded our hands and feet and the spear gored our sides and hearts by virtue whereof we receive justification from our sins and true mortification of our corruptions Every Believer therefore is dead already for his sins in his Saviour he needs not fear that he shall die again God is too just to punish twice for one fault to recover the summe both of the surety principal All the score of our arrerages is fully struck off by the infinite satisfaction of our Blessed Redeemer Comfort thy self therefore thou penitent and faithful Soul in the confidence of thy safety thou shalt not die but live since thou art already crucified with thy Saviour he died for thee thou diedst in him Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifies Who shall condemn It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again and lives gloriously at the right hand of God making intercession for us To thee O Blessed Jesu together with thy Coeternal Father and Holy Spirit three Persons in one infinite and incomprehensible Deity be all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen ONE OF THE SERMONS Preached to the LORDS OF THE High Court of Parliament In their solemn Fast held on Ashwednesday Feb. 18. And by their Appointment published by the B. of EXCESTER Acts 2. 37 38 40. 37. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe 38. Then said Peter unto them Repent and be baptized c. 40. And with many other words did he testifie and exhort them saying Save your selves from this untoward generation WHO knows not that Simon Peter was a Fisher That was his trade both by Sea and Land if we may not rather say that as Simon he was a Fisher-man but as Peter he was a Fisher of men he that call'd him so made him so And surely his first draught of Fishes which as Simon he made at our Saviours Command might well be a trade Type of the first draught of men which as Peter he made in this place for as then the nets were ready to
crack and the ship to sink with store so here when he threw forth his first drag-net of Heavenly Doctrine and reproof three thousand Souls were drawn up at once This Text was as the sacred Cord that drew the Net together and pull'd up this wondrous shoal of Converts to God It is the summe of Saint Peter's Sermon if not at a Fast yet at a general Humiliation which is more and better for wherefore fast we but to be humbled and if we could be duely humbled without fasting it would please God a thousand times better then to fast formally without true Humiliation Indeed for the time this was a Feast the Feast of Pentecost but for the estate of these Jews it was dies cinerum a day of contrition a day of deep hunger and thirst after righteousness Men and Brethren what shall we doe Neither doubt I to say that the Festivity of the season added not a little to their Humiliation like as we are never so apt to take cold as upon a sweat and that winde is ever the keenest which blows cold out of a warm coast No day could be more afflictive then an Ashwednesday that should light upon a solemn Pentecost so it was here every thing answered well The Spirit came down upon them in a mighty wind and behold it hath ratled their hearts together the house shoo◠in the descent and behold here the foundations of the Soul were moved Fiery tongues appeared and here their breasts were inflamed Cloven tongues and here their hearts were cut in sunder The words were miraculous because in a supernatural and sudden variety of language the matter Divine laying before them both the truth of the Messiah and their bloody measure offered to that Lord of Life and now Compuncti cordibus they were pricked in their hearts Wise Solomon says The words of the wise are like goads and nails here they were so Goads for they were compuncti pricked yea but the goad could not goe so deep that passeth but the skin they were Nails driven into the very heart of the Auditors up to the head the great Master of the Assembly the divine Apostle had set them home they were pricked in their hearts Never were words better bestowed It is an happy blood-letting that saves the life this did so here We look to the figne commonly in Phlebotomy it is a signe of our idle and ignorant Superstition S. Peter here saw the signe to be in the Heart and he strikes happily Compuncti cordibus they were pricked in their hearts and said Men and brethren what shall we doe Oh what sweet Musick was this to the Apostles ear I dare say none but Heaven could afford better What a pleasing spectacle was this anguish of their wounded Souls To see men come in their zealous Devotions and lay down their moneys the price of their alienated possessions at those Apostolick feet was nothing to this that they came in a bleeding contrition and prostrated their penitent and humbled Souls at the beautiful feet of the Messengers of Peace with Men and Brethren what shall we doe Oh when when shall our eyes be blessed with so happy a prospect How long shall we thunder out God's fearful judgements against wilful sinners How long shall we threaten the flames of Hell to those impious wretches who crucifie again to themselves the Lord of life ere we can wring a sigh or a tear from the rocks of their hearts or eyes Woe is me that we may say too truely as this Peter did of his other fishing Master we have travailed all the night and have caught nothing Surely it may well goe for night with us whiles we labour and prevail not Nothing not a Soul caught Lord what is become of the success of thy Gospel Who hath believed our report or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed O God thou art ever thy self thy Truth is eternal Hell is where it was if we be less worthy then thy first Messengers yet what excuse is this to the besotted world that through obduredness and infidelity it will needs perish No man will so much as say with the Jews What have I done or with Saint Peter's Auditors What shall I doe Oh foolish sinners shall ye live here always care ye not for your Souls is there not an Hell that gapes for your stubborn impenitence Goe on if there be no remedy goe on and die for ever we are guiltless God is righteous your Damnation is just But if your life be fickle death unavoidable if an everlasting vengeance be the necessary reward of your momentany wickedness Oh turn turn from your evil waies and in an holy distraction of your remorsed Souls say with these Jews Men and Brethren what shall we doe This from the general view of the occasion we descend to a little more particularity Luke the beloved Physician describes Saint Peter's proceeding here much after his own trade as of a true spiritual Physician who finding his Country men the Jews in a desperate and deadly condition gasping for life struggling with death enters into a speedy and zealous course of their cure And first he begins with the Chirurgical part and finding them ranck of blood and that foul and putrified he lets it out compuncti cordibus Where we might shew you the incision the vein the lancet the orifice the anguish of the stroke The Incision compuncti they were pricked The Vein in their hearts Smile not now ye Physicians if any hear me this day as if I had passed a solecisme in telling you these men were pricked in the vein of the heart talk you of your Cephalica and the rest and tell us of another cistern from whence these tubuli sanguinis are derived I tell you again with an addition of more incongruities still that God and his Divine Physician do still let blood in the median vein of the heart The Lancet is the keen and cutting reproof of their late barbarous Crucifixion of their Holy and most innocent and benigne Saviour The Orifice is the ear when they heard this Whatever the local distance be of these parts spiritually the ear is the very surface of the heart and whosoever would give a medicinal stroke to the heart must pass it through the ear the sense of discipline and correction The Anguish bewrays it self in their passionate exclamation Men and brethren what shall we doe There is none of these which my speech might not well take up if not as an house to dwell in yet as an Inne to rest and lodge in But I will not so much as bait here onely we make this a through-fare to those other sacred prescriptions of saving remedies which are three in number The first is Evacuation of sins by a speedy repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The second the soveraign Bath or Laver of Regeneration Baptisme The third dietetical and prophylactical receipts of wholesome Caution which I mean with a determinate preterition of
our time whom it troubles that they may not be all man But if Sexes be known by cloaths what is become of Degrees Every base Terrivague wears Artaxerxes his coat soft raiments are not for Courts Peasants degenerate into Gallants and every Midianitish Camel must shine with gold Judg. 8. 26. But oh the mad disguises of the world especially in that weaker Sex which in too much variety is constant still to a prodigious deformity of attire to the scorn of other Nations to the dishonour of their Husbands to the shame of the Gospel to the forfeit of their modesty to the misshaping of their bodies to the prostitution of their Souls to the just damnation of both It is not for me to urge this here in a masculine assembly wherein I fear there cannot be want of faults enough in this kind Away with this absurd and apish vanity of the world They that glister in scarlet shall once embrace danghils Lam. 4. 5. Yea it were well if no worse Let us that are Christians affect that true bravery which may become the blessed Spouse of Christ The Kings Daughter is all glorious within and say with the Prophet My soul shall be joyfull in my God for he hath cloathed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousnesse Esay 61. 10. Thus fashion not your Back to the disguise of the world We had like to have forgotten the Neck and Shoulders of the world which have an ill fashion of stiffnesse and inflexible obstinatenesse stubbornly refusing to stoop to the yoke of the Law of the Gospel This is every where the complaint of God They have hardened their necks Exod. 32. 9. Amongst all fashions of the world this is the worst and that which gives an height to all other wickednesses Let all the other parts be never so faulty yet if there be a readinesse to relent at the Judgements of God and a meek pliablenesse to his Corrections there is life in our hopes But if our iron sinews will not bowe at all bearing up themselves with an obdured resolution of sinning the case is desperate what can we think other then that such a soul is branded for Hell He that being often reproved hardneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy Prov. 29. 1. Fashion not your Neck therefore to the stiffnesse of the world But the Cyclopean furnace of all wicked fashions the Heart calls my speech to it which I could not have forborn thus long were it not that besides the importunity of these other parts I have heretofore at large out of this place displaied to you and the world the wicked fashions thereof Shortly yet for we may not utterly balk them all the corrupt desires and affections of the Soul are so many ill fashions of the Heart to be avoided These affections are well known inordinate Love uncharitable Hate immoderate Grief intemperate Joy unjust Fears unsound Hopes and whatsoever either distemper or misplacing of these Passions If we love the world more then God if we hate any enemy more then Sin if we grieve at any losse more then of the favour of God if we joy in any thing more then the writing of our names in Heaven if we fear any thing more then offence if we hope for any thing more then Salvation and much more if we change Objects loving what we should hate joying in what we should grieve at hoping for what we should feare and the contrary in one word if our desires and affections be earthly groveling sensuall not spirituall sublimed heavenly we fall into the damnable fashion of the world Away therefore with all evil concupiscence all ambitious affectations all spightfull emulations all worldly sorrows all cowardly fears all carnall heats of false joy Let the World dote upon vanity and follow after lyes let our Affections and conversation be above where Christ Jesus sitteth at the right hand of God Let the base earthworms of this world be taken up with the best of this vain trash the desires of us Christians must soar aloft and fix themselves upon those Objects which may make us perfectly and unchangeably blessed Thus fashion not your Hearts to the carnall desires and affections of the world Affections easily break forth into Actions and Actions perfect our Desires Let us from the heart look to the Hands and Feet the instruments of motion and execution of the world Fashion not your selves lastly therefore to the practice and carriage of the world The World makes a God of it self and would be serving any God but the true one Hate ye this cursed Idolatry and say with Joshua I and my house will serve the Lord. The World would be framing Religion to Policy and serving God in his own forms Hate ye this Will-worship Superstition Temporizing and say with David I esteem all thy precepts to be right and all false waies I utterly abhorre Psal 119. 128. The World cares not how it rends and tears the Sacred Name of their Maker with Oaths and Curses and Blasphemies Oh hate ye this audacious Profanesse yea this profane Devilisme and tremble at the dreadfull Majesty of the name of the Lord our God The World cares not how it slights the Ordinances of God violates his Daies neglects his Assemblies Hate ye this common Impiety say with the Psalmist Oh how sweet is thy Law how amiable thy Tabernacles The Word is set to spurn at Authority to despise Gods Messengers to scorn the nakednesse of their spirituall Fathers Hate ye this lawlesse Insolency and say Quà m speciosi pedes How beautifull are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace Esa 52. 7. Rom. 10. 15. The World is set upon Cruelty Oppression Violence Rapine Revenge sieging sacking cutting of throats Hate ye this bloody Savagenesse Put on as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindnesse meeknesse long suffering Colos 3. 12. The World is a very brothel given over to the prosecutions of noisome and abominable lusts Hate ye this Impurity and possesse your vessels in hoinesse and honour The World is a cheater yea to speak plain a thief every where abounding with the tricks of legall fraud and cozenage yea with sly stealths yea with open exortions Hate ye this Injustice and with quietnesse work and eate your own bread 2 Thes 3. 12. Thus fashion not your selves to the actuall Wickednesses of the world All these are the unfruitfull works of darknesse they are not for our fellowship they are for our abomination and reproof And now I have laid before you some patterns if not models of the ill fashions of the World in the thoughts dispositions affections actions thereof Like them if ye can O ye Christian Hearers and follow them I am sure from our outward fashions of Attire we need no other disswasive then their uglinesse and misbecoming And what shall I need to tell you how loathsomely deformed these fashions of the world
known or considered that of old a souldier was a sacred thing and it is worth your notice what in former times was the manner of our Ancestors in consecrating a Souldier or a Knight to the wars Some six hundred years agoe and upward as I find in the history of Ingulphus the manner was this Anglorum erat consuetudo quod qui militiae legitimae consecrandus esset c. He that should be devoted to the trade of war the evening before his consecration came to the Bishop or Priest of the place and in much contrition and compunction of heart made a confession of all his sins and after his absolution spent that night in the Church in watching in prayers in afflictive devotions on the morrow being to hear Divine Service he was to offer up his Sword upon the Altar and after the Gospel the Priest was with a solemn benediction to put it about his neck and then after his communicating of those sacred mysteries he was to remain miles legitimus Thus he who tels us how that valiant and successful Knight Heward came thus to his uncle one Brandus the devout Abbot of Peterborough for his consecration and that this Custome continued here in England till the irreligious Normans by their scorns put it out of countenance accounting such a one non legitimum militem sed equitem socordem Quiritem degenerem This was their ancient and laudable manner some shadow whereof we retain whiles we hold some Orders of Knighthood Religious And can we wonder to hear of noble victories atchieved by them of Giants and Monsters slain by those hands that had so pious an initiation These men professed to come to their combats as David did to Goliah in the name of the Lord no marvel if they prospered Alas now Nulla fides pietásque c. ye know the rest the name of a souldier is misconstrued by our Gallants as a sufficient warrant of debauchedness as if a Buff-Jerkin were a lawful cover for a profane heart Wo is me for this sinful degeneration How can we hope that bloody hands of lawless Ruffians should be blessed with palms of triumph that adulterous eyes should be shaded with garlands of victory that profane and atheous instruments if any such be imployed in our wars should return home loaded with success and honour How should they prosper whose sins fight against them more then all the swords of enemies whose main adversary is in their own bosome and in Heaven If the God of Heaven be the Lord of hosts do we think him so lavish that he will grace impiety Can we think him so in love with our persons that he will overlook or digest our crimes Be innocent O ye warriours if ye would be speedful be devout if ye would be victorious Even upon the Bridles of the horses in Zachary must be written Holiness to the Lord how much more upon the fore-heads of his Priests the Leaders of his spiritual war With what face with what heart can he fight against beasts that is a beast himself It is not Holiness yet that can secure us from blows Job's Behemoth as he is construed durst set upon the holy Son of God himself To our Holiness therefore must be added Skill skill to guard and skill to hit skill in choice of weapons places times ways of assault or defence else we cannot but be wounded and tossed at pleasure Hence the Psalmist Thou teachest my hands to war and my fingers to fight The title that is given to David's Champions was not dispositi ad clypeum as Montanus hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but disponentes such as could handle the shield and the buckler 1 Chron. 12. 8. Alas what is to be look'd for of raw untaught untrained men if such should be called forth of their shops on the sudden that know not so much as their files or motions or postures but either slight or filling of ditches He that will be a Petus in Jovius his history or a Servilius in Plutarch to come off an untouch'd victor from frequent challenges had need to pass many a guard and Veny in the fence-school So skilful must the man of God be that he must know as S. Paul even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very plots and devices of that great challenger of hell We live in a knowing age and yet how many teachers are very novices in the practick part of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore are either born down or tossed up with the vices of the Time whose miscarriages would God it were as easie to remedy as to lament Lastly what is Skill in our weapon without an heart and hand to use it Rabshakeh could say Counsel and strength are for the warre 2 Kings 18. 20. Strength without Counsel is like a blind Giant and Counsel without Strength is like a quick-sighted Criple If heart and eyes and lims meet not there can be no fight but tu pulsas ego vapulo What are men in this case but lepores galeati or as Sword-fishes that have a weapon but no heart Hear the spirit of a right Champion of Heaven I am ready not to be bound onely but to die for the name of the Lord Jesus Here was a man fit to grapple with beasts It is the word of the sluggish Coward There is a Lion or a Bear in the way What if there be If thou wilt be a Sampson a David incounter them There is no great glory to be look'd for but with hazard and difficulty When the Souldier said The enemy is strong it was bravely answered of the Captain The victory shall be so much more glorious I have shew'd you the man Qualified I should stay to shew you him Armed armed with Authority without with Resolution within but I long to shew you the Fight A Fight it must be which I beseech you observe in the first place Neither doth he say I plai'd with beasts except you would have it in Joab's phrase as neither did the beasts play with him except as Erasmus speaks Ludus exiit in rabiem He saies not I humor'd their bestiality I struck up a league or a truce with the vices of men No S. Paul was far from this he was at a perpetual defiance with the wickedness of the times and as that valiant Commander said would die fighting The world wanted not of old plausible spirits that if an Ahab had a mind to go up against Ramoth would say Go up and prosper and would have horns of iron to push him forward S. Paul was none of them neither may we He hath indeed bidden us if it be possible to have peace with all men not with beasts If wickedness shall go about to glaver with us Is it peace Jehu we must return a short answer and speak blows Far far be it from us to fawn upon vicious Greatness to favour even Court-sins If here we meet with bloody Oaths with scornful Profaneness with Pride with
as out of the right apprehension of these differences my Reader shall evidently see the vanity of this cavill and finde cause to bless God fox the safety of his station in so pregnant and undeceivable a truth For me I shame not to profess that I have passed my most and best hours in quiet Meditations wherein I needed not bend mine edge against any Adversary but Satan and mine own corruptions These controversary points I have rather crost in my way then taken along with me Neither am I ignorant what incomparably-clear beams in this kind some of the worthy Lights of our Church have cast abroad into all eyes to the admiration of present and future times no corner of truth hath lyen unsearch'd no plea unargued the wit of man cannot make any essential additions either to our proofs or answers But as in the most perfect discovery where Lands and Rivers are specially described there may be some small obscure inlets reserved for the notice of following experience so is it in the business of these sacred quarrels that brain is very unhappy which meets not with some traverse of discourse more then it hath borrowed from anothers Pen. Besides which having faln upon a method and manner of Tractation which might be of use to plain understandings the familiarity whereof promised to contribute not a little to the information and setling of weaker Souls I might not hide it from you to whose common good I have gladly resolved to sacrifice my self Let it be taken with the same construction of love wherewith it is tendred And that you may improve this and all other my following labours to a sensible advantage give me leave to impart my self to you a little in this short and free Preamble It is a large body I know and full of ordinate variety to which I How direct my words Let me a while in these lines sever them whom I would never abide really disjoined Ye my dear fellow-labourers as my immediate Charge may well challenge the first place It is no small joy to me to expect so able hands upon whom I may comfortably unload the weight of this my spiritual care If Fame do not over-speak you there are not many soils that yield either so frequent Flocks or better fed Goe on happily in these high steps of true Blessedness and save your selves and others To which purpose let me commend to you according to the sweet experience of a greater Shepherd two main helps of our Sacred trade first the tender Pastures and secondly the still Waters By the one I mean an inuring of our people to the principles of wholesome Doctrine by the other an immunitie from all Faction and disturbance of the publick peace It was the observation of the learnedst King that ever sate hitherto on the English Throne that the cause of the miscarriage of our People into Popery and other Errours was their ungroundedness in the points of Catechism How should those Souls be but carried about with every winde of Doctrine that are not well ballasted with solid informations Whence it was that his said late Majestie of happy memory gave publick order for bestowing the latter part of Gods Day in familiar Catechising then which nothing could be devised more necessary and behoveful to the Souls of men It was the Ignorance and ill-disposedness of some cavillers that taxed this course as prejudicial to Preachings since in truth the most useful of all Preaching is Catechetical This layes the Grounds the other raiseth the Walls and Roof this informs the Judgment that stirs up the Affections What good use is there of those Affections that run before the Judgment or of those walls that want a Foundation For my part I have spent the greater half of my life in this station of our holy service I thank God not unpainfully not unprofitably But there is no one thing whereof I repent so much as not to have bestowed more hours in this publick Exercise of Catechism in regard whereof I could quarrel with my very Sermons and wish that a great part of them had been exchanged for this Preaching conference Those other Divine Discourses enrich the Brain and the Tongue this settles the Heart those other are but the descants to this plain-song Contemn it not my Brethren for the easie and noted homeliness the most excellent and beneficial things are most familiar What can be more obvious then Light Aire Fire Water Let him that can live without these despise their commonness Rather as we make so much more use of the Divine bounty in these ordinary benefits so let as the more gladly improve these ready and facile helps to the Salvation of many Souls the neglect whereof breeds instability of Judgment misprision of necessary Truths fashionableness of profession frothiness of discourse obnoxiousness to all Errour and Seduction And if any of our people loath this Manna because they may gather it from under their Feet let not their palates be humour'd in this wanton nauseation They are worthy to fast that are weary of the bread of Angels And if herein we be curious to satisfie their roving appetite our favour shall be no better then injurious So we have seen an undiscreet School-master whiles he affects the thanks of an over-weening Parent marre the progress of a forward child by raising him to an higher form and Authour ere he have well learned his first rules whence follows an empty ostentation and a late disappointment our fidelity and care of profit must teach us to drive at the most sure and universal good which shall undoubtedly be best attained by these safe and needful ground-works From these tender Pastures let me leade you and you others to the still Waters Zeal in the Soul is as natural heat in the body there is no life of Religion without it But as the kindliest heat if it be not tempered with a due equality of moisture wastes it self and the body so doth Zeal if it be not moderated with discretion and charitable care of the common good It is hard to be too vehement in contending for main and evident truths but litigious and immaterial verities may soon be over-striven for in the prosecution whereof I have oft lamented to see how heedless too many have been of the publick welfare whiles in seeking for one scruple of truth they have not cared to spend a whole pound-weight of precious Peace The Church of England in whose Motherhood we have all just cause to pride our selves hath in much Wisdom and Piety delivered her judgement concerning all necessary points of Religion in so compleat a body of Divinity as all hearts may rest in These we reade these we write under as professing not their truth onely but their sufficiency also The voice of God our Father in his Scriptures and out of these the voice of the Church our Mother in her Articles is that which must both guide and settle our resolutions Whatsoever is besides these
thou abasest thy self to behold the things both in Heaven and Earth It is our glory to look up even to the meanest piece of Heaven it is an abasement to thine incomprehensible Majesty to look down upon the best of Heaven Oh what a transcendent Glory must that needs be that is abased to behold the things of Heaven What an happinesse shall it be to me that mine eyes shall be exalted to see thee who art humbled to see the place and state of my blessednesse Yea those very Angels that see thy face are so resplendently glorious that we could not overlive the sight of one of their faces who are fain to hide their faces from the sight of thine How many millions attend thy Throne above and thy Footstool below in the ministration to thy Saints It is that thine invisible world the Communion wherewith can make me truely blessed O God if my body have fellowship here amongst Beasts of whose earthly substance it participates let my Soul be united to thee the God of Spirits and be raised up to enjoy the insensible society of thy blessed Angels Acquaint me before-hand with those Citizens and affairs of thine Heaven and make me no stranger to my future Glory LXXXVIII Upon the stinging of a Wasp HOW small things may annoy the greatest Even a Mouse troubles an Elephant a Gnat a Lion a very Flea may disquiet a Giant What weapon can be nearer to nothing then the sting of this Wasp Yet what a painfull wound hath it given me that scarce-visible point how it envenomes and ranckles and swells up the flesh The tenderness of the part addes much to the grief And if I be thus vexed with the touch of an angry File Lord how shall I be able to indure the sting of a tormenting Conscience As that part is both most active and most sensible so that wound which it receives from it self is most intolerably grievous there were more ease in a nest of Hornets then under this one Torture O God howsoever I speed abroad give me Peace at home and whatever my Flesh suffer keep my Soul free Thus pained wherein do I finde ease but in laying honey to the part infected That Medicine only abates the anguish How near hath Nature placed the remedy to the offence Whensoever my Heart is stung with the remorse for sin only thy sweet and precious Merits O blessed Saviour can mitigate and heal the wound they have virtue to cure me give me Grace to apply them that soveraign receipt shall make my pain happy I shall thus applaud my grief It is good for me that I was thus afflicted LXXXIX Upon the Arraignment of a Felon WIth what terrour doth this Malefactor stand at that Bar his Hand trembles whiles it is lift up for his triall his very Lips quake whiles he saith Not guilty his Countenance condemns him before the Judge and his fear is ready to execute him before his Hangman Yet this Judge is but a weak man that must soon after die himself that Sentence of Death which he can pronounce is already passed by Nature upon the most innocent that act of Death which the Law inflicteth by him is but momentany who knows whether himself shall not die more painfully O God with what horror shall the guilty Soul stand before thy dreadfull Tribunall in the day of the great Assizes of the World whiles there is the presence of an Infinite Majesty to daunt him a fierce and clamorous Conscience to give in evidence against him Legions of ugly and terrible Devils waiting to seize upon him a gulf of unquenchable Fire ready to receive him whiles the Glory of the Judge is no lesse confounding then the Cruelty of the Tormenters where the Sentence is unavoidable and the Execution everlasting Why do not these terrors of thee my God make me wise to hold a privy Sessions upon my Soul actions that being acquitted by my own heart I may not be condemned by thee and being judged by my self I may not be condemned with the World XC Upon the Crowing of a Cock. How harshly did this note sound in the eare of Peter yea pierced his very heart Many a time had he heard this Bird and was no whit moved with the noise now there was a Bird in his bosome that crowed lowder then this whose shrill accent conjoined with this astonished the guilty Disciple The wearie Labourer when he is awakened from his sweet sleep by this natural Clock of the Houshold is not so angry at this troublesome Bird nor so vexed at the hearing of that unseasonable sound as Peter was when this Fowl awakened his sleeping Conscience and called him to a timely repentance This Cock did but crow like others neither made or knew any difference of this tone and the rest there was a Divine hand that ordered this Mornings note to be a Summons of Penitence He that fore-told it had fore-appointed it that Bird could not but crow then and all the noise in the High Priests Hall could not keep that sound from Peter's eare But O Saviour couldst thou finde leisure when thou stoodst at the Bar of that unjust and cruell Judgment amidst all that bloody rabble of Enemies in the sense of all their fury and the exspectation of thine own Death to listen unto this Monitor of Peter's Repentance and upon the hearing of it to cast back thine eyes upon thy Denying Cursing Abjuring Disciple O Mercy without measure and beyond all the possibility of our admiration to neglect thy self for a Sinner to attend the Repentance of one when thou wert about to lay down thy life for all O God thou art still equally mercifull Every Elect Soul is no lesse dear unto thee Let the sound of thy faithfull Monitors smite my ears and let the beams of thy mercifull eyes wound my heart so as I may go forth and weep bitterly XCI Upon the variety of Thoughts WHen I bethink my self how Eternity depends upon this moment of life I wonder how I can think of any thing but Heaven but when I see the distractions of my Thoughts and the aberrations of my life I wonder how I can be so bewitched as whiles I believe an Heaven so to forget it All that I can doe is to be angry at mine own vanity My Thoughts would not be so many if they were all right there are ten thousand by-waies for one direct As there is but one Heaven so there is but one way to it that living way wherein I walk by Faith by Obedience All things the more perfect they are the more do they reduce themselves towards that Unity which is the Center of all Perfection O thou who art one and infinite draw in my heart from all these stragling and unprofitable Cogitations and confine it to thine Heaven and to thy self who art the Heaven of that Heaven Let me have no life but in thee no care but to injoy thee no ambition but thy Glory Oh make