for thanks who would be a debter With the God of Mercy this cheap payment is current If he then will honour us so far as to be blessed of us Oh let us honour him so far as to blesse him Quare verbis parcam gratuita sunt Why do we spare thanks that cost us nothing as that wise heathen O give unto the Lord ye mighty give unto the Lord the praises due to his name offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving and still let the foot of our song be Blessed be the Lord. This for the Descant of gratulation the Ground follows His own sake hath reason to be first God will be blessed both as Jah and Adonai the one the style of his Essence the other of his Soveraignty Even the most accursed Deist would confesse that as a pure simple infinite absolute being God is to be blessed for if Being be good and these two be convertible Nature must needs teach him that an absolute and infinite Being must needs be absolutely and infinitely good But what do I blur the Glory of this Day with mention of those Monsters whose Idol is Nature whose Religion is secondary Atheism whose true region is the lowest Hell Those damned Ethnicks cannot will not conceive of God as he is because they impiously sever his Essence from his inward Relations We Christians can never be so heavenly affected to God as we ought till we can rise to this pitch of Piety to blesse God for what he is in himself without the external beneficial relations to the creature Else our respects reflect too much homeward and we do but look through God at our selves Neither is it for us only to blesse him as an absolute God but as a Soveraign Lord too whose Power hath no more limit then his Essence the great Moderator of Heaven and earth giving laws to his creature overruling all things marshalling all events crushing his enemies maintaining his Church adored by Angels trembled at by Devils Behold here a Lord worthy to be blessed We honour as we ought your conspicuous Greatness O ye eminent Potentates of the earth but alas what is this to the great Lord of Heaven when we look up thither we must crave leave to pity the breath of your nostrils the rust of your Coronets the dust of your graves the sting of your felicities and if ye take not good heed the blots of your memories As ye hold all in â—ee from this great Lord so let it be no disparagement to you to doe your lowliest homage to his footstool homage I mean in Action give me the reall benediction I am sure that is the best They blesse God that praise him they blesse him more and praise him best that obey him There are that crouch to you Great ones who yet hate you Oh let us take heed of offering these hollow observances to the searcher of hearts if we love not our own confusion They that proclaimed Christ at Jerusalem had not only Hosanna in their mouths but palms in their hands too so must we have Let me say then If the Hand bless not the Lord the Tongue is an Hypocrite Away with the wast complements of our vain Formalities Let our loud actions drown the language of our words in blessing the name of the Lord. Neither must we bless God as a Soveraign Lord only but which is yet a more feeling relation as a munificent Benefactor Who loadeth us daily with benefits Such is man's self-love that no inward worth can so attract his praises as outward beneficence Whiles thou makest much of thy self every one shall speak well of thee how much more whiles thou makest much of them Here God hath met with us also Not to perplex you with scanning the variety of senses wherewith I have observed this Psalm above all other of David's to abound see here I beseech you a four-fold gradation of Divine Bounty First here are Benefits The word is not expressed in the Original but necessarily implied in the sense for there are but three loads whereof man is capable from God Favours Precepts Punishments the other two are out of the road of Gratulation When we might therefore have exspected Judgments behold hold Benefits And those secondly not sparingly handfulled out to us but dealt to us by the whole load loadeth with benefits Whom thirdly doth he load but us Not worthy and well-deserving subjects but us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebels And lastly this he doth not at one doal and no more as even churls rare Feasts use to be plentifull but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 successively unweariedly perpetually One favour were too much here are Benefits a sprinkling were too much here is a load once were too oft here is daily largition Cast your eyes therefore a little upon this threefold exaggeration of Beneficence the measure a load of benefits the subject unworthy us the time daily Who daily loadeth us with benefits Where shall we begin to survey this vast load of Mercies Were it no more but that he hath given us a world to live in a life to injoy aire to breath in earth to tread on fire to warm us water to cool and cleanse us cloaths to cover us food to nourish us sleep to refresh us houses to shelter us variety of creatures to serve and delight us here were a just load But now if we yet adde to these civility of breeding dearnesse of friends competency of Estate degrees of Honour honesty or dignity of vocation favour of Princes successe in imployments domestick comforts outward peace good reputation preservation from dangers rescue from evils the load is well mended If yet ye shall come closer and adde due proportion of Body integrity of parts perfection of senses strength of nature mediocrity of health sufficiency of appetite vigour of digestion wholsome temper of seasons freedome from cares this course must needs heighten it yet more If still ye shall adde to these the order and power and exercise of our inward Faculties inriched with Wisdome Art Learning Experience expressed by a not-unhandsome Elocution and shall now lay all these together that concern Estate Body Minde how can the axel-tree of the Soul but crack under the load of these Favours But if from what God hath done for us as men we look to what he hath done for us as Christians that he hath imbraced us with an everlasting Love that he hath molded us anew enlivened us by his Spirit fed us by his Word Sacraments clothed us with his Merits bought us with his Blood becoming vile to make us glorious a Curse to invest us with Blessedness in a word that he hath given himself to us his Son for us Oh the height and depth and breadth of the rich mercies of our God! Oh the boundlesse toplesse bottomlesse load of Divine benefits whose immensity reaches from the center of this earth to the unlimited extent of the very Empyreal Heavens Oh that men would praise the
Church then is a Dove Not an envious Partridge not a carelesse Ostridge not a stridulous Jay not a petulant Sparrow not a deluding Lapwing not an unclean-sed Duck not a noisome Crow not an unthankfull Swallow not a death-boding Schrich-owl but an harmlesse Dove that fowl in which alone envy it self can finde nothing to tax Hear this then ye violent spirits that think there can be no Piety that is not cruell the Church is a Dove not a Glead not a Vultur not a Falcon not an Eagle not any bird of prey or rapine Who ever saw the rough foot of the Dove armed with griping talons who ever saw the beak of the Dove bloody who ever saw that innocent bird pluming of her spoil and tiring upon bones Indeed we have seen the Church crimson-suited like her celestial Husband of whom the Prophet Who is this that cometh from Edom with died garments from Bozrah and straight Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel and thy garment like him that treadeth in the wine-press Esay 63. 1 2. but it hath been with her own blood shed by others not with others blood shed by her hand She hath learned to suffer what she hateth to inflict Do ye see any Faction with knives in their hands stained with massacres with firebrands in their hands ready to kindle the unjust stakes yea woods of Martyrdome with pistols and poniards in their hands ambitiously affecting a canonization by the death of God's Anointed with matches in their hands ready to give fire unto that powder which shall blow up King Prince State Church with thunderbolts of censures ready to strike down into Hell whosoever refuses to receive novell opinions into the Articles of Faith If ye finde these dispositions and actions Dove-like applaud them as beseeming the true Spouse of Christ who is ever like her self Columba perfecta yea perfecta columba a true Dove for her quiet Innocence For us let our Dove-ship approve it self in meekness of Suffering not in actions of Cruelty We may we must delight in blood but the blood shed for us not shed by us Thus let us be Columba in foraminibus petrae Cant. 2. 14. a Dove in the clifts of the rock that is in vulneribus Christi as the Glosse in the gashes of him that is the true Rock of the Church This is the way to be innocent to be beautifull a Dove and undefiled The Propriety follows My Dove The Kite or the Crow or the Sparrow and such like are challenged by no owner but the Dove still hath a Master The World runs wilde it is ferae naturae but the Church is Christs domestically intirely his My Dove not the worlds not her own Not the worlds for If ye were of the world saith our Saviour the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you Joh. 15. 19. Not her own so S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price Justly then may he say My Dove Mine for I made her there is the right of Creation Mine for I made her again there is the right of Regeneration Mine for I bought her there is the right of Redemption Mine for I made her mine there is the right of spiritual and inseparable Union O God be we thine since we are thine we are thine by thy Merit let us be thine in our Affections in our Obedience It is our honour it is our happiness that we may be thine Have thou all thine own What should any piece of us be cast away upon the vain glory and trash of this transitory world Why should the powers of darkness run away with any of our services in the momentany pleasures of sin The great King of Heaven hath cast his love upon us and hath espoused us to himself in truth and righteousness oh then why will we cast roving and lustfull eyes upon adulterous rivals base drudges yea why will we run on madding after ugly Devils How justly shall he loath us if we be thus shamefully prostituted Away then with all our unchast glances of desires all unclean ribaldry of conversation let us say mutually with the blessed Spouse My beloved is mine and I am his Cant. 2. 16. My Dove mine as to love so to defend That inference is natural I am thine save me Interest challenges protection The Hand saies It is my Head therefore I will guard it the Head saies It is my Hand therefore I will devise to arm it to withdraw it from violence The Soul saies It is my Body therefore I will cast to cherish it the Body saies It is my Soul therefore I would not part with it The Husband saies Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he makes much of her Ephes 5. 29. And as she is desiderium oculorum the delight of his eyes to him Ezec. 24. 16. so is he operimentum oculorum the shelter of her eyes to her Gen. 20. 16. In all cases it is thus So as if God say of the Church Columba mea my Dove she cannot but say of him Adjutor meus my helper Neither can it be otherwise save where is lack either of love or power Here can be no lack of either not of Love he saith Whoso toucheth Israel toucheth the apple of mine eye not of power Our God doth whatsoever he will both in heaven and earth Band you your selves therefore ye bloody Tyrants of the world against the poor despised Church of God threaten to trample it to dust and when you have done to carry away that dust upon the soles of your shoes He that sits in Heaven laughs you to scorn the Lord hath you in derision O Virgin Daughter of Sion they have despised thee O daughter of Jerusalem they have shaken their heads at thee But whom have ye reproched and blasphemed and against whom have ye exalted your voice and lift up your eyes on high Even against the Holy one of Israel who hath said Columba mea my Dove Yea let all the spiritual wickednesses in heavenly places all the legions of Hell troup together they shall as soon be able to pluck God out of his throne of Heaven as to pull one feather from the wing of this Dove This Propriety secures her She is Columba mea my Dove From the Propriety turn your eyes to the best of her Properties Unity Let me leave Arithmeticians disputing whether Unity be a number I am sure it is both the beginning of all numbring numbers and the beginning and end of all numbers numbred All Perfection rises hence and runs hither and every thing the nearer it comes to perfection gathers up it self the more towards Unity as all the virtue of the Loadstone is recollected into one point Jehovah our God is one from him there is but one World one Heaven in that world one Sun
at liberty in this Deep the Nets of wholsome Doctrine draw up some to the shore of Grace and Glory How much skill and toile and patience is requisite in this Art Who is sufficient for these things This Sea these Nets the Fishers the Fish the Vessels are all thine O God doe what thou wilt in us and by us Give us ability and grace to take give men will and grace to be taken and take thou glory by that which thou hast given The Marriage in Cana. WAS this then thy first Miracle O Saviour that thou wroughtest in Cana of Galilee And could there be a greater Miracle then this that having been thirty years upon earth thou didst no miracle till now that thy Divinity did hide it self thus long in flesh that so long thou wouldst lie obscure in a corner of Galilee unknown to that world thou camest to redeem that so long thou wouldst strain the patient expectation of those who ever since thy Star waited upon the revelation of a Messias We silly wretches if we have but a dram of vertue are ready to set it out to the best shew thou who receivedst not the Spirit by measure wouldst content thy self with a willing obscurity and concealedst that power that made the world in the roof of an humane breast in a cottage of Nazareth O Saviour none of thy miracles is more worthy of astonishment then thy not doing of miracles What thou didst in private thy wisdome thought fit for secrecy but if thy Blessed Mother had not been acquainted with some domestical wonders she had not now expected a miracle abroad The Stars are not seen by day the Sun it self is not seen by night As it is no small art to hide Art so is it no small glory to conceal glory Thy first publick Miracle graceth a Marriage It is an ancient and laudable institution that the rites of Matrimony should not want a solemn celebration When are Feasts in season if not at the recovery of our lost rib if not at this main change of our estate wherein the joy of obtaining meets with the hope of further comforts The Son of the Virgin and the Mother of that Son are both at a wedding It was in all likelihood some of their kindred to whose nuptial feast they were invited so far yet was it more the honour of the Act then of the Person that Christ intended He that made the first Marriage in Paradise bestows his first Miracle upon a Galilean marriage He that was the Author of Matrimony and sanctified it doth by his holy presence honour the resemblance of his eternal union with his Church How boldly may we spit in the faces of all the impure Adversaries of wedlock when the Son of God pleases to honour it The glorious Bridegroom of the Church knew well how ready men would be to place shame even in the most lawful conjunctions and therefore his first work shall be to countenance his own Ordinance Happy is that Wedding where Christ is a guest O Saviour those that marry in thee cannot marry without thee There is no holy Marriage whereat thou art not however invisible yet truly present by thy Spirit by thy gracious benediction Thou makest marriages in Heaven thou blessest them from Heaven O thou that hast betrothed us to thy self in Truth Righteousness do thou consummate that happy Marriage of ours in the highest Heavens It was no rich or sumptuous Bridal to which Christ with his Mother Disciples vouchsafed to come from the further parts of Galilee I find him not at the magnificent Feasts or triumphs of the Great The proud pomp of the World did not agree with the state of a servant This poor needy Bridegroom wants drink for his guests The Blessed Virgin though a stranger to the house out of a charitable compassion and a friendly desire to maintain the decencie of an hospital entertainment inquires into the wants of her Host pities them bemoans them where there was power of redresse When the wine failed the mother of Jesus said unto him They have no wine How well doth it beseem the eyes of piety and Christian love to look into the necessities of others She that conceived the God of mercies both in her heart and in her womb doth not fix her eyes upon her own teacher but searcheth into the penurie of a poor Israelite and feels those wants whereof he complains not They are made for themselves whose thoughts are only taken up with their own store or indigence There was wine enough for a meal though not for a Feast and if there were not wine enough there was enough water yet the Holy Virgin complains of the want of wine and is troubled with the very lack of superfluitie The bounty of our God reaches not to our life only but to our contentment neither hath he thought good to allow us only the bread of sufficiency but sometimes of pleasure One while that is but necessary which some other time were superfluous It is a scrupulous injustice to scant ourselves where God hath been liberal To whom should we complain of any want but to the Maker and Giver of all things The Blessed Virgin knew to whom she sued She had good reason to know the Divine nature and power of her Son Perhaps the Bridegroom was not so needy but if not by his purse yet by his credit he might have supplied that want or it were hard if some of the neighbour-guests had they been duely solicited might not have furnished him with so much wine as might suffice for the last service of a dinner But Blessed Mary knew a nearer way she did not think best to lade at the shallow Channel but runs rather to the Well-head where she may dip and fill the Firkins at once with ease It may be she saw that the train of Christ which unbidden followed unto that Feast and unexspectedly added to the number of the guests might help forward that defect and therefore she justly solicits her Son JESUS for a supply Whether we want Bread or Water or Wine necessaries or comforts whither should we run O Saviour but to that infinite munificence of thine which neither denieth nor upbraideth any thing We cannot want we cannot abound but from thee Give us what thou wilt so thou give us contentment with what thou givest But what is this I hear A sharp answer to the suit of a Mother Oh woman what have I to doe with thee He whose sweet mildness and mercy never sent away any suppliant discontented doth he only frown upon her that bare him He that commands us to honour Father and Mother doth he disdain her whose flesh he took God forbid Love and Duty doth not exempt Parents from due admonition She sollicited Christ as a Mother he answers her as a Woman If she were the Mother of his flesh his Deity was eternal She might not so remember her self to be a Mother that she should forget she was
are in the hand of a cunning workman that of the knottiest and crookedst timber can make rafters and seeling for his own house that can square the marble or flint as well as the freest stone Who can now plead the disadvantage of his place when he sees a Publican come to Christ No Calling can prejudice God's gracious election To excell in evil must needs be worse If to be a Publican be ill surely to be an Arch-publican is more What talk we of the chief of Publicans when he that professed himself the chief of Sinners is now among the chief of Saints Who can despair of mercy when he sees one Jericho send both an Harlot and a Publican to Heaven The trade of Zacheus was not a greater rub in his way then his wealth He that sent word to John for great news that the poor receive the Gospel said also How hard is it for a rich man to enter into Heaven This bunch of the Camel keeps him from passing the needles eye although not by any malignity that is in the creature it self Riches are the gift of God but by reason of those three pernicious hang-byes Cares Pleasures Pride which too commonly attend upon Wealth Separate these Riches are a blessing If we can so possess them that they possess not us there can be no danger much benefit in abundance All the good or ill of wealth or poverty is in the minde in the use He that hath a free and lowly heart in riches is poor he that hath a proud heart under rags is rich If the rich man doe good and distribute and the poor man steal the rich hath put off his woe to the poor Zacheus had never been so famous a Convert if he had been poor nor so liberal a Convert if he had not been rich If more difficulty yet more glory was in the conversion of rich Zacheus It is well that wealthy Zacheus was desirous to see Christ Little do too many rich men care to see that sight the face of Caesar in their coin is more pleasing This man leaves his bags to blesse his eyes with this prospect Yet can I not praise him for this too much it was not I fear out of Faith but Curiosity He that had heard great same of the man of his Miracles would gladly see his face Even an Herod longed for this and was never the better Onely this I finde that this Curiosity of the eye through the mercy of God gave occasion to the Belief of the heart He that desires to see Jesus is in the way to enjoy him there is not so much as a remote possibility in the man that cares not to behold him The eye were ill bestowed if it were onely to betray our Souls there are no lesse beneficial glances of it We are not worthy of this usefull casement of the heart if we do not thence send forth beams of holy desires and thereby re-conveigh profitable and saving Objects I cannot marvel if Zacheus were desirous to see Jesus All the world was not worth this sight Old Simeon thought it best to have his eyes closed up with this spectacle as if he held it pity and disparagement to see ought after it The Father of the faithfull rejoiced to see him though at nineteen hundred years distance and the great Doctor of the Gentiles stands upon this as his highest stair Have I not seen the Lord Jesus And yet O Saviour many a one saw thee here that shall never see thy face above yea that shall call to the hills to hide them from thy sight And if we had once known thee according to the flesh henceforth know we thee so no more What an happiness shall it be so to see thee glorious that in seeing thee we shall partake of thy glory Oh blessed vision to which all others are but penal and despicable Let me goe into the mint-house and see heaps of gold I am never the richer let me goe to the picturers I see goodly faces and am never the fairer let me goe to the Court I see state and magnificence and am never the greater but O Saviour I cannot see thee and not be blessed I can see thee here though in a glasse If the eye of my Faith be dim yet it is sure Oh let me be unquiet till I do now see thee through the vaile of Heaven ere I shall see thee as I am seen Fain would Zacheus see Jesus but he could not It were strange if a man should not finde some lett in good desires somewhat will be still in the way betwixt us and Christ Here are two hinderances met the one internal the other external the stature of the man the prease of the multitude the greatness of the prease the smalness of the stature There was great thronging in the streets of Jâ—richo to see Jesus the doors the windows the bulks were all full Here are many beholders few Disciples If gazing if profession were Godliness Christ could not want clients now amongst all these wonderers there is but one Zacheus In vain should we boast of our forwardness to see and hear Christ in our streets if we receive him not into our hearts This croud hides Christ from Zacheus Alas how common a thing it is by the interposition of the throng of the world to be kept from the sight of our Jesus Here a carnal Fashionist sayes Away with this austere scrupulousness let me doe as the most The throng keeps this man from Christ There a superstitious misbeliever sayes What tell you me of an handful of reformed the whole world is ours This man is kept from Christ by the throng The covetous Mammonist sayes Let them that have leasure be devout my imployments are many my affairs great This man cannot see Christ for the throng There is no perfect view of Christ but in an holy secession The Spouse found not her Beloved till she was past the company then she found him whom her Soul loved Whoso never seeks Christ but in the croud shall never finde comfort in finding him The benefit of our publick view must be enjoyed in retiredness If in a prease we see a mans face that is all when we have him alone every limme may be viewed O Saviour I would be loath not to see thee in thine Assemblies but I would be more loath not to see thee in my Closet Yet had Zacheus been but of the common pitch he might perhaps have seen Christs face over his fellows shoulders now his stature adds to the disadvantage his Body did not answer to his Minde his desires were high whiles his body was low The best is however smalness of stature was disadvantageous in a level yet it is not so at height A little man if his eye be clear may look as high though not as farre as the tallest The least Pygmee may from the lowest valley see the Sun or Stars as fully as a Giant upon the highest mountain O Saviour
miserabilior affectata miserior Forced bondage is more worthy of pity affected bondage is more miserable And if God's hand touch him never so little can his Gold bribe a disease can his bags keep his head from aking or the Gout from his joynts or doth his loathing stomack make a difference betwixt an earthen and silver dish O vain desires and impotent contentments of men who place happiness in that which doth not onely not save them from evils but help to make them miserable Behold their wealth feeds them with famine recreates them with toil chears them with cares blesses them with torments and yet they say Bonum est esse hîc How are their sleeps broken with cares how are their hearts broken with losses Either Riches have wings which in the clipping or pulling flye away and take them to Heaven or else their Souls have wings Stulte hac nocte Thou fool this night and fly from their riches to Hell Non Dominus sed colonus saith Seneca Not the Lord but the farmer So that here are both perishing riches and a perishing Soul Uncertainty of riches as S. Paul to his Timothy and certainty of misery And yet these vain men say Bonum est esse hîc The man of Honour that I may use Bernard's phrase that hath Assuerus his proclamation made before him which knows he is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain great man as Simon affected but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man which Demosthenes was proud of that sees all heads bare and all knees bent to him that findes himself out of the reach of envy on the pitch of admiration saies Bonum est esse hîc Alas how little thinks he of that which that good man said to his Eugenius Non est quòd blandiatur celsitudo ubi solicitudo major what care we for the fawning of that greatness which is attended with more care King Henry the seventh's Embleme in all his buildings in the windows was still a Crown in a bush of Thorns I know not with what historical allusion but sure I think to imply that great places are not free from great cares Saul knew what he did when he hid himself among the stuff No man knoweth the weight of a Scepter but he that swaieth it As for subordinate greatness it hath so much less worth as it hath more dependance How many sleepless nights and restless days and busie shifts doth their ambition cost them that affect eminence Certainly no men are so worthy of pity as they whose height thinks all other worthy of contempt High places are slippery and as it is easie to fall so the ruine is deep and the recovery difficult Altiorem locum sortitus es non tutiorem sublimiorem sed non sccuriorem saith Bernard Thou hast got an higher place but not a safer a loftier but not more secure Aulae culmen lubricum The slippery ridge of the Court was the old title of Honour David's curse was fiat via eorum tenebrae lubricum Let their way be made dark and slippery What difference is there betwixt his curse and the happiness of the Ambitious but this That the way of the one is dark and slippery the way of the other lightsome and slippery that dark that they may fall this light that they may see and be seen to fall Please your selves then ye great ones and let others please you in the admiration of your height But if your goodness do not answer your greatness Sera querela est quoniam elevans allisisti me It is a late complaint Thou hast lift me up to cast me down Your ambition hath but set you up a scaffold that your misery might be more notorious And yet these clients of Honour say Bonum est esse hîc The pampered Glutton when he seeth his table spread with full bowls with costly dishes and curious sawces the dainties of all three elements says Bonum est esse hîc And yet eating hath a satiety and satiety a weariness his heart is never more empty of contentment then when his stomack is fullest of Delicates When he is empty he is not well till he be filled when he is full he is not well till he have got a stomack Et momentanea blandimenta gulae stercoris fine condemnat saith Hierome And condemns all the momentany pleasures of his maw to the dunghill And when he sits at his feasts of marrow and fat things as the Prophet speaks his table according to the Psalmists imprecation is made his snare a true snare every way His Soul is caught in it with excess his estate with penury his Body with diseases Neither doth he more plainly tear his meat in pieces with his teeth then he doth himself and yet this vain man saies Bonum est esse hîc The petulant Wanton thinks it the onely happiness that he may have his full scope to filthy dalliance Little would he so doe if he could see his Strumpet as she is her eyes the eyes of a Cockatrice her hairs snakes her painted face the visor of a fury her heart snares her hands bands and her end wormwood consumption of the flesh destruction of the Soul and the flames of lust ending in the flames of Hell Since therefore neither Pleasures nor Honour not Wealth can yield any true contentment to their best favourites let us not be so unwise as to speak of this vale of misery as Peter did of the hill of Tabor Bonum est esse hîc And if the best of earth cannot doe it why will ye seek it in the worst How dare any of you great one seek to purchase contentment with Oppression Sacriledge Bribery out-facing innocence and truth with power damning your own Souls for but the humoring of a few miserable days Filii hominum usquequo gravi corde ad quid diligitis vanitatem quaeritis mendacium O ye sons of men how long c. But that which moved Peter's desire though with imperfection shews what will perfect our desire and felicity for if a glimpse of this Heavenly glory did so ravish this worthy Disciple that he thought it happiness enough to stand by and gaze upon it how shall we be affected with the contemplation yea fruition of the Divine Presence Here was but Tabor there is Heaven here were but two Saints there many millions of Saints and Angels here was Christ transfigured there he sits at the right hand of Majesty here was a representation there a gift and possession of Blessedness Oh that we could now forget the world and fixing our eyes upon this better Tabor say Bonum est esse hîc Alas this life of ours if it were not short yet it is miserable and if it were not miserable yet it is short Tell me ye that have the greatest command on earth whether this vile world have ever afforded you any sincere contentation The world is your servant if it were your Parasite yet could it make you heartily
Disciples stood compassed in that bright Cloud exspecting some miraculous event of so Heavenly a Vision when suddenly they might hear a voice sounding out of that Cloud saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him They need not be told whose that voice was the place the matter evinced it No Angel in Heaven could or durst have said so How gladly doth Peter afterwards recount it For he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son c. It was onely the eare that was here taught not the eye As of Horeb so of Sinai so of Tabor might God say Ye saw no shape nor image in that day that the Lord spake unto you He that knows our proneness to idolatry avoids those occasions which we might take to abuse our own fansies Twice hath God spoken these words to his own Son from Heaven once in his Baptisme and now again in his Transfiguration Here not without some oppositive comparison not Moses not Elias but This. Moses and Elias were Servants this a Son Moses and Elias were sons but of grace and choice this is that Son the Son by nature Other sons are beloved as of favour and free election this is The Beloved as in the unitie of his essence Others are so beloved that he is pleased with themselves this so beloved that in and for him he is pleased with mankinde As the relation betwixt the Father and the Son is infinite so is the Love We measure the intention of Love by the extention the love that rests in the person affected alone is but streight true Love descends like Aaron's Ointment from the head to the skirts to children friends allyes O incomprehensible large love of God the Father to the Son that for his sake he is pleased with the World O perfect and happy complacence Out of Christ there is nothing but enmity betwixt God and the Soul in him there can be nothing but peace When the beams are met in one center they do not only heat but burn Our weak love is diffused to many God hath some the world more and therein wives children friends but this infinite love of God hath all the beams of it united in one onely Object the Son of his Love Neither doth he love any thing but in the participation of his Love in the derivation from it O God let me be found in Christ and how canst thou but be pleased with me This one voice proclaimes Christ at once the Son of God the Reconciler of the world the Doctor and Law-giver of his Church As the Son of God he is essentially interessed in his Love as he is the Reconciler of the world in whom God is well pleased he doth most justly challenge our love and adherence as he is the Doctor and Law-giver he doth justly challenge our audience our obedience Even so Lord teach us to hear and obey thee as our Teacher to love thee and believe in thee as our Reconciler and as the eternal Son of thy Father to adore thee The light caused wonder in the Disciples but the voice astonishment They are all falne down upon their faces Who can blame a mortal man to be thus affected with the voice of his Maker Yet this word was but plausible and hortatory O God how shall flesh and blood be other then swallowed up with the horror of thy dreadful sentence of death The Lion shall roar who shall not be afraid How shall those that have slighted the sweet voice of thine invitations call to the rocks to hide them from the terror of thy Judgments The God of mercies pities our infirmities I do not hear our Saviour say Ye lay sleeping one while upon the earth now ye lye astonished Ye could neither wake to see nor stand to hear now lye still and tremble But he graciously touches and comforts them Arise fear not That voice which shall once raise them up out of the earth might well raise them up from it That hand which by the least touch restored sight lims life might well restore the spirits of the dismaied O Saviour let that soveraign hand of thine touch us when we lye in the trances of our griefs in the bed of our securities in the grave of our sins and we shall arise They looking up saw no man save Jesus alone and that doubtless in his wonted form All was now gone Moses Elias the Cloud the Voice the Glory Tabor it self cannot be long blessed with that Divine light and those shining guests Heaven will not allow to earth any long continuance of Glory Only above is constant happiness to be look'd for and injoyed where we shall ever see our Saviour in his unchangeable brightness where the light shall never be either clouded or varied Moses and Elias are gone only Christ is left The glory of the Law and the Prophets was but temporary yea momentany that onely Christ may remain to us intire and conspicuous They came but to give testimony to Christ when that is done they are vanished Neither could these raised Disciples finde any miss of Moses and Elias when they had Christ still with them Had Jesus been gone and left either Moses or Elias or both in the Mount with his Disciples that presence though glorious could not have comforted them Now that they are gone and he is left they cannot be capable of discomfort O Saviour it matters not who is away whiles thou art with us Thou art God all-sufficient what can we want when we want not thee Thy presence shall make Tabor it self an Heaven yea Hell it self cannot make us miserable with the fruition of thee The Woman taken in Adultery WHat a busie life was this of Christs He spent the night in the mount of Olives the day in the Temple whereas the night is for a retired repose the day for company His retiredness was for prayer his companiableness was for preaching All night he watches in the Mount all the morning he preaches in the Temple It was not for pleasure that he was here upon earth his whole time was penal and toilsome How do we resemble him if his life were all pain and labour ours all pastime He found no such fair success the day before The multitude was divided in their opinion of him messengers were sent and suborned to apprehend him yet he returns to the Temple It is for the sluggard or the coward to plead a Lion in the way upon the calling of God we must overlook and contemn all the spight and opposition of men Even after an ill harvest we must sow and after denials we must woe for God This Sun of Righteousness prevents that other and shines early with wholesome doctrines upon the Soules of his hearers The Auditory is both thronged and attentive Yet not all with the same intentions If the people came to learn the Scribes and
I am baptized O Saviour even thou who wert one with thy Father hast a Cup of thine own never Potion was so bitter as that which was mixed for thee Yea even thy draught is stinted it is not enough for thee to sip of this Cup thou must drink it up to the very dregs When the vinegar and gall were tendred to thee by men thou didst but kiss the cup but when thy Father gave into thine hands a potion infinitely more distastful thou for our health didst drink deep of it even to the bottome and saidst It is finished And can we repine at those unpleasing draughts of Affliction that are tempered for us sinful men when we see thee the Son of thy Fathers love thus dieted We pledge thee O Blessed Saviour we pledge thee according to our weakness who hast begun to us in thy powerful suffereings Onely do thou enable us after some four faces made in our reluctation yet at last willingly to pledge thee in our constant Sufferings for thee As thou must be drenched within so must thou be baptized without Thy Baptisme is not of water but of blood both these came from thee in thy Passion we cannot be thine if we partake not of both If thou hast not grudged thy precious blood to us well maiest thou challenge some worthless drops from us When they talk of thy Kingdome thou speakest of thy bitter Cup of thy bloody Baptisme Suffering is the way to reigning Through many tribulations must we enter into the Kingdome of Heaven There was never wedge of gold that did not first pass the fire there was never pure grain that did not undergoe the flail In vain shall we dream of our immediate passage from the pleasures and jollity of earth to the glory of Heaven Let who will hope to walk upon Roses and Violets to the throne of Heaven O Saviour let me trace thee by the track of thy Blood and by thy red steps follow thee to thine eternal rest and Happiness I know this is no easie task else thou hadst never said Are ye able Who should be able if not they that had been so long blessed with thy presence informed by thy doctrine and as it were beforehand possessed of their Heaven in thee Thou hadst never made them judges of their power if thou couldst not have convinced them of their weakness Alas how full of feebleness is our body and our minde of impatience If but a Bee sting our flesh it swels and if but a tooth ake the head and heart complain How small trifles make us weary of our selves What can we doe without thee without thee what can we suffer If thou be not O Lord strong in my weakness I cannot be so much as weak I cannot so much as be Oh do thou prepare me for my day and enable me to my trials I can doe all things through thee that strengthenest me The motion of the two Disciples was not more full of infirmity then their answer We are able Out of an eager desire of the Honour they are apt to undertake the condition The best men may be mistaken in their own powers Alas poor men when it came to the issue they ran away and I know not whether one without his coat It is one thing to suffer in speculation another in practice There cannot be a worse signe then for a man in a carnal presumption to vaunt of his own abilities How justly doth God suffer that man to be foiled purposely that he may be ashamed of his own vain self-confidence O God let me ever be humbly dejected in the sense of mine own insufficiency let me give all the Glory to thee and take nothing to my self but my infirmities Oh the wonderful mildness of the Son of God! He doth not rate the two Disciples either for their ambition in suing or presumption in undertaking but leaving the worst he takes the best of their answer and omitting their errors incourages their good intentions Ye shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with my baptisme but to sit on my right hand and my left is not mine to give but to them for whom it is prepared of my Father I know not whether there be more mercy in the concession or satisfaction in the denial Were it not an high Honour to drink of thy Cup O Saviour thou hadst not fore-promised it as a favour I am deceived if what thou grantest were much less then that which thou deniest To pledge thee in thine own Cup is not much less dignity and familiarity then to sit by thee If we suffer with thee we shall also reign together with thee What greater promotion can flesh and blood be capable of then a conformity to the Lord of Glory Enable thou me to drink of thy Cup and then set me where thou wilt But O Saviour whiles thou dignifiest them in thy grant dost thou disparage thy self in thy denial Not mine to give Whose is it if not thine If it be thy Fathers it is thine Thou who art Truth hast said I and my Father are one Yea because thou art one with the Father it is not thine to give to any save those for whom it is prepared of the Father The Father's preparation was thine his gift is thine the Decree of both is one That eternal counsel is not alterable upon our vain desires The Father gives these Heavenly honours to none but by thee thou givest them to none but according to the Decree of thy Father Many degrees there are of celestial Happiness Those supernal Mansions are not all of an height That Providence which hath varied our stations upon earth hath pre-ordered our seats above O God admit me within the wals of thy new Jerusalem and place me wheresoever thou pleasest The Tribute money pai'd ALL these other Histories report the Power of Christ this shews both his Power and Obedience his Power over the creature his Obedience to civil Powers Capernaum was one of his own Cities there he made his chief abode in Peter's house to that Host of his therefore do the Toll-gatherers repair for the Tribute When that great Disciple said We have left all he did not say We have abandoned all or sold or given away all but we have left in respect of managing not of possession not in respect of right but of use and present fruition so left that upon just occasion we may resume so left that it is our due though not our business Doubtless he was too wise to give away his own that he might borrow of a stranger His own roof gave him shelter for the time and his Master with him Of him as the Housholder is the Tribute required and by and for him is it also paid I inquire not either into the occasion or the summe What need we make this exaction sacrilegious as if that half-shekel which was appointed by God to be paid by every Israelite to the use of the Tabernacle and
see thee whiles the doors were barred without any noise of thine entrance to stand in the midst well might they think thou couldst not thus be there if thou wert not the God of Spirits There might seem more scruple of thy realty then of thy power and therefore after thy wonted greeting thou shewest them thy hands and thy feet stamped with the impressions of thy late sufferings Thy respiration shall argue the truth of thy life Thou breathest on them as a man thou givest them thy Spirit as a God and as God and man thou sendest them on the great errand of thy Gospel All the mists of their doubts are now dispelled the Sun breaks out clear They were glad when they had seen the Lord. Had they known thee for no other then a mere man this re-appearance could not but have affrighted them since till now by thine Almighty power this was never done that the long-since dead rose out of their graves and appeared unto many But when they recounted the miraculous works that thou hadst done and thought of Lazarus so lately raised thine approved Deity gave them confidence and thy presence joy We cannot but be losers by our absence from holy Assemblies Where wert thou O Thomas when the rest of that Sacred Family were met together Had thy fear put thee to so long a flight that as yet thou wert not returned to thy fellows or didst thou suffer other occasions to detain thee from this happiness Now for the time thou missedst that Divine breath which so comfortably inspired the rest now thou art suffered to fall into that weak distrust which thy presence had prevented They told thee We have seen the Lord was not this enough would no eyes serve thee but thine own were thy eares to no use for thy Faith Except I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe Suspicious man who is the worse for that Whose is the loss if thou believe not Is there no certainty but in thine own senses Why were not so many and so holy eyes and tongues as credible as thine own hands and eyes How little wert thou yet acquainted with the waies of Faith Faith comes by hearing These are the tongues that must win the whole world to an assent and dost thou the first man detrect to yield Why was that word so hard to pass Had not that thy Divine Master foretold thee with the rest that he must be crucified and the third day rise again Is any thing related to be done but that which was fore-promised any thing beyond the sphere of Divine Omnipotence Go then and please thy self in thine over-wise incredulity whiles thy fellows are happy in believing It is a whole week that Thomas rests in this sullen unbelief in all which time doubtless his eares were beaten with the many constant assertions of the holy Women the first witnesses of the Resurrection as also of the two Disciples walking to Emmaus whose hearts burning within them had set their tongues on fire in a zealous relation of those happy occurrences with the assured reports of the rising and re-appearance of many Saints in attendance of the Lord and giver of life yet still he struggles with his own distrust and stiffely suspends his belief to that truth whereof he cannot deny himself enough convinced As all bodies are not equally apt to be wrought upon by the same Medicine so are not all Souls by the same means of Faith one is refractory whiles others are pliable O Saviour how justly mightest thou have left this man to his own pertinacie whom could he have thank'd if he had perished in his unbelief But O thou good Shepherd of Israel that couldst be content to leave the ninety and nine to go fetch one stray in the wilderness how careful wert thou to reduce this stragler to his fellows Right so were thy Disciples re-assembled such was the season the place the same so were the doors shut up when that unbelieving Disciple being now present with the rest thou so camest in so stoodst in the midst so shewedst thy hands and feet and singling out thy incredulous client invitest his eyes to see and his fingers to handle thine hands and his hand to be thrust into thy side that he might not be faithless but faithful Blessed Jesu how thou pittiest the errors and infirmities of thy servants Even when we are froward in our misconceits and worthy of nothing but desertion how thou followest us and overtakest us with mercy and in thine abundant compassion wilt reclaim and save us when either we meant not or would not By how much more unworthy those eyes and hands were to see and touch that immortal and glorious body by so much more wonderful was thy Goodness in condescending to satisfie that curious Infidelity Neither do I hear thee so much as to chide that weak obstinacy It was not long since thou didst sharply take up the two Disciples that walk'd to Emmaus O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken but this was under the disguise of an unknown traveller upon the way when they were alone Now thou speakest with thine own tongue before all thy Disciples in stead of rebuking thou only exhortest Be not faithless but faithfull Behold thy Mercy no less then thy Power hath melted the congealed heart of thy unbelieving follower Then Thomas answered and said unto him My Lord and my God I do not hear that when it came to the issue Thomas imployed his hands in this tryal his eyes were now sufficient assurance the sense of his Masters Omniscience in this particular challenge of him spared perhaps the labour of a further disquisition And now how happily was that doubt bestowed which brought forth so faithful a confession My Lord my God I hear not such a word from those that believed It was well for us it was well for thee O Thomas that thou distrustedst else neither had the world received so perfect an evidence of that Resurrection whereon all our Salvation dependeth neither hadst thou yielded so pregnant and divine an astipulation to thy Blessed Saviour Now thou dost not only profess his Resurrection but his Godhead too and thy happy interest in both And now if they be blessed that have not seen and yet believed blessed art thou also that having seen hast thus believed and blessed be thou O God who knowest how to make advantage of the infirmities of thy chosen for the promoting of their Salvation the confirmation of thy Church the glory of thine own Name Amen The Ascension IT stood not with thy purpose O Saviour to ascend immediately from thy grave into Heaven thou meantest to take the earth in thy way not for a suddain passage but for a leisurely conversation Upon thine Easter-day thou spakest of thine Ascension but thou wouldst have forty daies
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
of darknesse Heaven is high and hard to reach Hell is steep and slipperie our Flesh is earthy and impotent Satan strong rancorous Sin subtle the World alluring all these yet God is the God of our Salvation Let those infernal Lions roar and ramp upon us let the gates of Hell doe their worst let the World be a cheater our Flesh a traitor the Devil a tyrant Faithfull is he that hath promised who will also doe it God is the God of our Salvation How much more then in these outward temporal occasions when we have to doe with an arm of flesh Do the enemies of the Church rage and snuffe and breath nothing but threats and death Make sure of our God he shall be sure to make them lick our dust Great Benhadad of the Syrians shall come with his hempen collar to the King of Israel The very windes and waves shall undertake those Mahumetan or Marian powers that shall rise up against the inheritance of the God of Salvation Salvation is rateable according to the danger from which we are delivered Since Death therefore is the utmost of all terribles needs must it be the highest improvement of Salvation that to our God belong the issues from death Death hath here a double latitude of kinde of extent The kinde is either temporal or eternal the extent reaches not only to the last compleat act of dissolution but to all the passages that lead towards it Thus the issues from death belong to our God whether by way of preservation or by way of rescue How gladly do I meet in my Text with the dear and sweet name of our Jesus who conquered Death by dying and triumphed over Hell by suffering and carries the keyes both of death and hell Revel 1. 18 He is the God the Author and Finisher of our Salvation to whom belong the issues from death Look first at the temporary he keeps it from us he fetches us from it It is true there is a Statutum est upon it die we must Death knocks equally at the hatch of a Cottage and gate of a Palace but our times are in God's hand the Lord of life hath set us our period whose Omnipotence so contrives all events that neither enemy nor casualty nor disease can prevent his hour Were death suffered to run loose and wild what boot were it to live now it is tether'd up short by that Almighty hand what can we fear If envy repine and villany plot against Sacred Soveraignty God hath well proved upon all the Poisons and Pistols and Poniards and Gun-powders of the two late memorable successions that to him alone belong the issues from death Goe on then blessed Soveraign goe on couragiously in the waies of your God the invisible guard of Heaven shall secure your Royal head the God of our Salvation shall make you a third glorious instance to all posterities that unto him belong the issues from death Thus God keeps death from us it is more comfort yet that he fetches us from it Even the best head must at last lie down in the dust and sleep in death Oh vain cracks of valour thou bragst thy self able to kill a man a worm hath done it a flie hath done it Every thing can finde the way down unto death none but the Omnipotent can finde the way up out of it He findes he makes these issues for all his As it was with our Head so it is with the Members Death might seize it cannot hold Gustavit non deglutivit It may nibble at us it shall not devour us Behold the only Soveraign Antidote against the sorrows the frights of death Who can fear to lay himself down and take a nap in the bed of death when his heart is assured that he shall awake glorious in the morning of his resurrection Certainly it is only our infidelity that makes death fearfull Rejoice not over me O my last enemy though I fall I shall rise again O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory Cast ye one glance of your eyes upon the second and eternal death the issues wherefrom belong to our God not by way of rescue as in the former but of preservation Ex inferno nulla redemptio is as true as if it were Canonical Father Abraham tells the damned Glutton in the Parable there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great gulf that bars all return Those black gates of Hell are barred without by the irreversible Decree of the Almighty Those bold Fabulists therefore whose impious Legends have devised Trajan fetcht thence by the prayers of Gregory and Falconella by Tecla's suspending the finall sentence upon a secundum praesentem injustitiam take a course to cast themselves into that pit whence they have presumptuously feigned the deliverance of others The rescue is not more hopelesse then the prevention is comfortable There is none of us but is naturally walking down to these chambers of death every sin is a pace thitherwards only the gracious hand of our God staies us In our selves in our sins we are already no better then brands of that Hell Blessed be the God of our Salvation that hath found happy issues from this death What issues Even those bloody issues that were made in the hands and feet and side of our Blessed Saviour that invaluably-precious blood of the Son of God is that whereby we are redeemed whereby we are justified whereby we are saved Oh that our Souls might have had leisure to dwell a while upon the meditation of those dreadfull torments we are freed from of that infinite goodnesse that hath freed us of that happy exchange of a glorious condition to which we are freed But the publick occasion of this day calls off my speech and invites me to the celebration of the sensible mercy of God in our late Temporal deliverance Wherein let me first blesse the God of our Salvation that hath put it into the heart of his chosen Servant to set up an Altar in this sacred threshing-floor and to offer up this daies Sacrifice to his name for the stay of our late mortal contagion How well it becomes our Gideon to be personally exemplary as in the beating of this Earthen pitcher in the first publick act of Humiliation so in the lighting of this Torch of publick joy and sounding the Trumpet of a thankfull jubilation and how well will it become us to follow so pious so gracious an example Come therefore all ye that fear the Lord and let us recount what he hath done for our Souls Come let us blesse the Lord the God of our Salvation that loadeth us daily with benefits the God to whom belong the issues of death Let us blesse him in his infinite Essence and Power blesse him in his unbounded and just Soveraignty blesse him in his marvellous Beneficence large continual undeserved blesse him in his Preservations blesse him in his Deliverances We may but touch at the two last How is
God In vain shall the vassals of appetite challenge to be the servants of God Were it that the Kingdome of God did consist in eating and drinking in pampering and surfeits in chambering and wantonnesse in pranking and vanity in talk and ostentation O God how rich shouldst thou be of subjects of Saints But if it require abstinence humiliation contrition of heart subjugation of our flesh renunciation of our wills serious impositions of laboursome devotions O Lord what is become of true Christianity where shall we seek for a crucified man Look to our Tables there ye shall finde excesse and riot look to our Backs there ye shall finde proud disguises look to our Conversations there ye shall finde scurril and obscene jollity This liberty yea this licentiousnesse is that which opens the mouths of our adversaries to the censure of our reall impiety That slander which Julian could cast upon Constantine that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 led him to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delicacie to intemperance the very same do they cast upon us They tell us of their strict Lents frequent Fastings Canonical hours sharp Penances their bashfull shrists their painfull scourgings their solitary Cells their woolward and barefoot walks their hard and tedious pilgrimages whiles we they say deny nothing to back or belly fare full lie soft sit warm and make a wanton of the flesh whiles we professe to tend the spirit Brethren hear a little the words of exhortation The brags of their penal will-worship shall no whit move us All this is blown away with a Baal's Priests did more then they yet were never the holier But for our selves in the fear of God see that we do not justifie their crimination Whiles they are in one extreme placing all Religion in the out-side in Touch not taste not handle not let us not be in the other not regarding the external acts of due Humiliation It is true that it is more ease to afflict the body then to humble the Soul a dram of remorse is more then an ounce of pain O God if whippings and hair-cloaths and watchings would satisfie thy displeasure who would not sacrifice the blood of this vassall his Body to expiate the sin of his Soul who would not scrub his skin to ease his Conscience who would not freez upon an hurdle that he might not frie in hell who would not hold his eyes open to avoid an eternall unrest and torment But such sacrifices and oblations O God thou desirest not The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Yet it is as true that it is more easie to counterfeit mortification of spirit then humiliation of body there is pain in the one none in the other He that cares not therefore to pull down his body will much lesse care to humble his Soul and he that spares not to act meet and due penalties upon the Flesh gives more colour of the Souls humiliation Dear Christians it is not for us to stand upon niggardly terms with our Maker he will have both he that made both will have us crucified in both The old man doth not lie in a lim or faculty but is diffused through the whole extent of Body and Soul and must be crucified in all that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the chosen vessel I beat down my body my body as well as my spirit Give me leave ye Courtiers and Citizens Lent is wont to be a penitential time If ye have soundly and effectually thriven your selves to your God let me enjoyn you an wholsome and saving Penance for the whole year for your whole life Ye must curb your appetites ye must fast ye must stint your selves to your painfull Devotions ye must give peremptory denials to your own wills ye must put your knife to your throat in Solomon's sense Think not that ye can climb up to Heaven with full panches reaking ever of Indian smoak and the surfeits of your gluttonous crammings and quaffings Oh easie and pleasant way to Glory from our bed to our glasse from our glasse to our boord from our dinner to our pipe from our pipe to a visit from a visit to a supper from a supper to a play from a play to a banquet from a banquet to our bed Oh remember the quarrel against damned Dives He fared sumptuously every day he made neither Lents nor Embers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he said every day was gaudie and festival in rich sutes in dainty morsels and full draughts Intus mulso foris oleo Wine within oyle without as he said now all the world for a drop and it is too little Vae saturis woc to the full saith our Saviour but even Nature it self could abominate bis de die saturum one that is full twice a day One of the sins of our Sodom is fulnesse of bread What is the remedy It is an old word that Hunger cures the diseases of Gluttony Oh that my words could prevail so far with you Honourable and beloved Christians as to bring austere abstinence and sober moderation into fashion The Court and City have led the way to excesse your example shall prescribe yea administer the remedy The Heathen man could say He is not worthy of the name of a man that would be a whole day in pleasure what and we alwaies In fasting often saith S. Paul what and we never I fast twice a week saith the Pharisee and we Christians when I speak not of Popish mock-fasts in change not in forbearance in change of courser cates of the land for the curious dainties of the water of the flesh of beasts for the flesh of fish of untoothsome morsels for sorbitiunculoe delicatoe as Hierome calls them Let me never feast if this be fasting I speak of a true and serious maceration of our bodies by an absolute and totall refraining from sustenance which howsoever in it self it be not an act pleasing unto God for well may I invert Saint Paul neither if we eat not are we the better neither if we eat are we the worse 1 Cor. 8. 8. yet in the effect it is singulare Sanctitatis aratrum as that Father terms it The plow bears no Corn but it makes way for it it opens the soil it tears up the briers and turns up the furrows Thus doth holy Abstinence it chastises the flesh it lightens the spirit it disheartens our vitious dispositions it quickens our Devotion Away with all factious Combinations Every man is master of his own maw Fast at home and spare not leave publick exercises of this kinde to the command of Soveraign powers Blow the trumpet in Zion sanctifie a Fast saith Joel 2. 15. Surely this trumpet is for none but Royal breath And now that what I meant for a suit may be turned to a just gratulation how do we blesse the God of Heaven that hath put it into the heart of his Anointed to set this
against the Lord. It was a true and well-grounded resolution of Constantius That they cannot be faithful to their King who are perfidious to their God Let the great Caesars of the world then know that the more subject they are to Christ the more sure they are of the Loyalty of their Subjects to them Neither is there in all the world any so firm and streight bond to tye the hearts of their people to them as true Religion to God To conclude therefore Christ is not Caesar's rival but Caesar's Lord and Patron Caesar rules by his Laws Christ by Religion If Execution be the Life of Laws I am sure Religion is the life of Execution In short Religion is the strongest pillar of Policy the base of the Palace the feet and armes of the Chair of State the frame of the Councel-bord As ye love your Peace ye Great ones make much of it plant it where it is not enlarge it where it is maintain it at home incourage it abroad And if distressed Religion shall come with her face blubber'd and her garments rent wringing her hands and tearing her hair and shall prostrate her self at the feet of earthly Greatness for lawful succour with veni opitulari come and help as Macedonia in the Acts wo be to the power that fails it and blessed thrice blessed from Heaven be that hand that shall raise her on her feet and wipe off her teares and stretch out it self mightily for her safe-guard Let me never prosper if that hand make not that head immortally glorious For us blessed be God we live here in the warm Zone where the hot beams of the Sun of Righteousness beat right down upon our heads But what need I tell your Sacred Majesty that in the North-west part of your Dominions there are some that live in the frozen and dark Climate of Ignorance and Superstition whose eyes have seldome if ever been blest with so much as an oblique irradiation of the Gospel I know the bowels of your Princely compassion cannot but be stirred with the misery of these poor Cimmerian souls that have not so much light as to wish more Oh may it please your Gracious Majesty to shine into those darksome corners by improving your Soveraign Authority to the commanding of a Learned and Powerful Ministry amongst them Let true Religion be letled in them and true Religion shall settle their hearts to your Majesty more then all conquests lawes violences oaths indearments whatsoever And for these happy Regions which are comfortably illuminated with the saving Doctrine of Jesus Christ may it please you to forbid their impuration by the noisome fogs and mists of those mis-opinions whose very Principles are professedly rebellious as being well assured that the more your Majesty shall advance the Spiritual Kingdome of Christ the more he shall advance the strength and glory of your Temporal the more perfectly he is your Christ the more unmoveably shall you be his Caesar And may he still and ever be yours and you his till earth and time be no more till he shall have delivered up his mediatory Kingdome into the hands of his Father To whom c. THE DEFEAT OF CRUELTY PRAIED FOR And laid forth in a Sermon preach'd at a Solemn Fast at White-hall By JOS. HALL Dean of Worcester c. Psal 68. 30. Rebuke the company of Spear men the multitude of the Bulls with the Calves of the people till every one submit himself with pieces of silver Scatter thou the people that delight in warre THE same Psalme that lately yielded us a Song of Thanksgiving now affords us a Prayer for Victory Such variety of spiritual Flowers grows in every bed of this Divine Garden Our occasions cannot change so oft as God can fit us with change of notes The last verse before my Text was a prediction of Kings bringing Presents to God this is a Prayer for dissipation of enemies It is not for nothing that the Psalmist interrupts his Prophecy with a Petition Hostility blocks up the way to Devotion Even the Laws of God are silent in the clashing of Armes That Kings may bring presents to God God must give an happy cessation of armes to them It is not long since we saw the Lords Anointed approach to this altar of God with presents of Thanksgiving for our late deliverance from the raging Pestilence Now we come to sue and expect that God would crown his Royal head with garlands of Victory and rebuke the company of spear-men the multitude of Bulls with the calves of the people and scatter the people that delight in war May it please you first to see the Enemies then the Defeat The Enemy is described by a threefold title 1. Fera arundinis the company of the spear-men or beasts of the reeds 2. The multitude of Bulls with the calves of the people 3. The people that delight in warre The Defeat is double Increpa and Dissipa Rebuke and Scatter Rebuke is for the two first yet not absolutely but with limitation Till they submit themselves with pieces of silver Dissipation is for the last Scatter the people that delight in warre Those that will be unjustly warring are worthy of rebuke but those that delight in warre are fit for nothing but confusion To begin with the first Why doth the same Hebrew word signifie a Beast and a Company Is it because the Multitude is bellua multorum capitum a beast of many heads Or is it because of the sociable nature even of brute creatures which still affect to herd and flock together For lest any man stumble at the word that which is here translated fera is by the same hand turned pecus ver 11. Both the senses doe well a Beast or a Company The one implyes the qualities of the Churches Enemies that they are of a fierce and bestial disposition the other their number and combination For the former Who can express the savage Cruelty of the enemies of the Gospell Look into the ancient story of the infancy of Christianity ye shall see how men set their wits on the rack to devise torments To shew you that in a painted table which poor Christians felt would be a spectacle of too much horror What should I lay before you their Gibbets Wheels Stakes Caldrons Furnaces and all their fearful pomps of death What should I tell you of men dressed every way that meats were for the palate Here was slaying frying boiling broiling roasting baking haching and all possible kinds of hideous forms of Murder To forget all old immanities what should I shew you the flames of our late Marian times what should I bring you into the holy inquisition and shew you there all the bloody engines of torture an Hell upon earth what should I present you with the whips halters and knives of Eighty eight or raise up your hair with the report of those Spanish Cruelties which were exercised upon our men in the Indies during the late warre Death
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
our Earth ready to sink under the load of his Mercies What Nation under Heaven hath not envied and wondred at our Blessings I do not carry back your eyes to the ancient favours of our God to the memorable frustrations of â—â—â—ein Invasions to the miraculous discoveries of Treasons to the successfull maintenance of oppressed neighbourhood That one mercy I may not forget that in the shutting up of blessed Queen Elizabeth the Pope and the then-King of Spain were casting Lots for the Crown and palpably plotting for their severally-designed Successors as appears in the publick posthume Letters of Cardinal D' Ossat a witnesse beyond exception Three several Briefs were addressed hither by that inclement shaveling of Rome for the defeating of the Title and Succession of our late Soveraign of dear and blessed memory and his Royal Issue Yet in spight of Rome and Hell God brought him in and set him peaceably upon this just Throne of his Fore-fathers and may he perpetuate it to the fruit of those loyns till world and time shall be no more Amen If I must follow the times let me rather balk that hellish Sulphur-mine then not search it and yet who can look at that any otherwise then the Jews do at the Rain-bow with horror and astonishment What do I tell you of our long Peace our full Plenty our wholsome Laws our easefull Government with a world of these common favours It is for poor men to reckon Those two late Blessings if no more were worthy of immortal memory the Prince out of Spain Religion out of the dust For the one what a winter was there in all good hearts when our Sun was gone so far Southward how chearfull a Spring in his return For the other who saw not how Religion began during those purposely-protracted Treaties to droop and languish her friends to sigh her enemies to insult daring to brave us with challenges to threaten our ruine The Lord looked down from Heaven and visited this poor Vine of his and hath shaken off these Caterpillars from her then-wasting leaves now we live and it flourisheth These would have been great favours of God even to the best Nation but more to us who have answered Mercies with Rebellions O God if proud disguises if gluttonous pamperings if drunken healths if wanton dalliances if bloody oaths if mercilesse oppressions may earn Blessings from thee too many of us have supererogated Woe is me these are the measures thou hast had from too many hands That thou shouldst therefore inlarge thy bounty to an unworthy unkinde disobedient generation it is more then we can wonder at and we could almost be ready to say with Peter Lord depart from us for we are sinfull men Yet the wise Justice of the Almighty meant not to cocker us up with mere dainties with a loose indulgence but hath thought fit to temper our sweets with tartnesse and to strike our backs whiles he strokes our heads Ecce in pace amaritudo amarissima the comfort of our Peace was allayed with the bitternesse of death He saw that in this common Plethorie it was fit for us to bleed he saw us Eeles that would not be caught but when the waters were troubled He therefore sent his destroying Angel abroad who laid about him on all sides What slaughter what lamentation what horror was there in the streets of our mother City More then twenty thousand Families run from their houses as if those had been on fire over their heads and seek shelter in Zoar and the mountains Some of them are overtaken by the pursuer and drop down in the way and lie there as wofull spectacles of mortality till necessity and not Charity could finde them a grave Others passe on and for friends finde strangers Danger made men wisely and unwillingly unhospital The Cozen the Brother forgets his own blood and the Father looks shily upon his own childe and welcomes him with frowns if not with repulses There were that repai'd their grudged harbour with infection And those that sped best what with care for their abandoned houses and estate what with grief for the misery of their forsaken neighbours what with the rage of those Epidemical diseases which they found abroad as it is well observed by one that in a contagious time all sicknesses have some tincture of Pestilence wore out their daies in the deepest sorrow and heavinesse There leave we them and return to the miserable Metropolis of this Kingdome which they left Who can expresse the dolefull condition of that time and place The arms of London are the Red Cross and the Sword what house almost wanted these Here was the Red Cross upon the door the Sword of God's Judgment within doors and the Motto was Lord have mercy upon us What could we hear but alarms of death what could we see but Trophees of death Here was nothing but groaning and crying and dying and burying Carts were the Biers wide pits were the Graves mens cloaths were their Coffins and the very Exequies of friends were murderous The carkasses of the dead might say with the sons of the Prophets Behold the place where we lie is too streight for us New Dormitories are bought for the dead and furnished neither might the corpses be allowed to lie single in their earthen beds but are piled up like fagots in a stack for the society of their future Resurrection No man survived but he might say with the Psalmist that thousands fell at his side and ten thousands at his right hand And if we take all together the mother and the daughters surely the number was not much short of David's though his time were shorter It is not without reason that from the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the Plague is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Desart Certainly the Plague turns the most populous City into a Desart Oh the wofull desolation of this place It was almost come to Herba tegit Trojam And if some infrequent passenger crossed our streets it was not without his medicated Posie at his nose and his Zedoary or Angelica in his mouth Every room seemed a Pest-house every sent mortal Here should he meet one pale ghost muffled up under the throat another dragging his legs after him for the tumor of his groin another bespotted with the Tokens of instant death here might he hear one shreeking out in a frantick distraction there another breathing out his Soul in his last groans What should I say more This glorious chamber of the Kingdome seemed no other then a dreadfull dungeon to her own a very Golgotha to all beholders and this proud Queen of our British Cities sate in the dust of her compassion howling in the rags of her sackcloth not mourning more then mourned for pitied no lesse then forsaken when the God of our Salvation looked down upon her deep afflictions and miraculously proved unto us that unto him belong the issues from death It was