it Right Honourable and beloued that God hath reserued vs to these better dayes of his Gospell wherein the helpes of saluation are more cleare obuious effectuall wherein as the glory of the latter House exceeded the former so the meanes of that incomprehensible glory of the house not made with hands eternall in the Heauens lie more open vnto vs What should we doe but both vti and frui gladly vse and sweetly enioy this vnspeakable blessing which God hath kept in store for vs and walke worthy of so incomparable a mercy The old Iewes liued in the dawning of the day wherein they had but a glimmering of that Sunne which would rise We liue after the high noone of that happy day If we walke not answerable to so great a light what can we looke for but vtter darknesse Ye shall now giue me leaue Right Honourable to carry these words in a meet analogie to the present occasion The Temples vnder the Law were both a figure and a patterne of the Churches vnder the Gospell Within this roofe vnder which we now stand here was both the former and the latter house and euen in these wals doth God make his Word good That the glory of this latter House shall be greater than of the former The first foundation of it was no doubt both pious and rich I shall not need to fetch the Pedegrees of it from Saint Iohn Baptist in Ierusalem Consecrated by Heraclius Patriarch of Ierusalem nor to discourse of either the deuotion or wealth of that religiously-military Order for whom these stones were first laid Imagine the Altar neuer so gay the Imagery neuer so curious the Vestments neuer so rich the Pillars Wals Windowes Pauement neuer so exquisite yet I dare boldly say this present glory of this House in this comely whitenesse and well-contriued coarctation is greater than the former What care I Nay What doth God care for the worke of a Lapidary or Painter or Mason One zealous Prayer one Orthodox Sermon is a more glorious furniture than all the precious rarities of Mechanique excellencies I doe most willingly as what good heart doth not honour the vertuous actions and godly intentions of our worthie forefathers which no doubt it hath pleased God in mercy to accept and crowne but withall it must be yeelded that they liued vnder the tyrannous iniurie and vsurpation of those Pharises who kept the keyes of knowledge at their owne girdles and would neither draw for them nor suffer them to draw for themselues Blessed be God for better conditions the Well of life lies open to vs neither are we only allowed but inuited to those heauenly liquors Inebriamini O Charissimi Drinke yea drinke abundantly O beloued Cant. 5.1 This happy libertie of the sauing Gospell of Iesus Christ daily and sincerely preached to vs Noble and beloued Christians is worthy to be more worth vnto vs than all the treasures ornaments priuileges of this transitory World and this since through the inestimable goodnesse of God ye doe and may finde in this latter House Well hath God verified this word in your eies and eares The glory of the latter House shall be greater than of the former Hitherto the comparatiue praise of the latter House the positiue followes in the promise of a gracious effect In this place will I giue peace wherein I know not whether the blessing doth more grace the place or the place the blessing both grace each other and both blesse Gods people In this place will I giue peace If ye looke at the blessing it selfe it is incomparable Peace that whereby the Hebrewes had wont to expresse all welfare in their salutations and wel-wishes the Apostolicall benediction dichotomizes all good things into Grace and Peace wherein at the narrowest by Grace all spirituall fauours were signified temporall by Peace The sweet Singer of Israel could not wish better to Gods Church than Peace be within her walls and behold this is it which God will giue I will giue peace Dabo pacem yea our eies should stoope too low if they should fix here The sweet Quiristers of Heauen when they sung that diuine Caroll to the honour of the first Christmas Glory to God in the highest heauens in earth peace c. next to Gloria in excelsis Deo said In terris pax Yet higher the great Sauiour of the World when he would leaue the most precious Legacie to his deare ones on earth that they were capable of he saies My peace I giue you And what he there giues he here promises Dabo pacem I will giue it But where Whence In this place Not any where not euery where but in his owne house in his latter house his Euangelicall House as if this blessing were confined to his holy walls he saith In this place will I giue peace This flower is not for euery soyle it growes not wilde but is only to be found in the Garden of Sion It is very pregnant which the Psalmist hath Psal 128.5 and 134.3 The Lord that made Heauen and Earth blesse thee out of Sion He doth not say The Lord that made the Earth blesse thee out of Heauen nor The Lord that made Heauen blesse thee out of heauen but blesse thee out of Sion As if he would teach vs that all blessings come as immediatly and primarily from heauen so mediatly secondarily from Sion where this Temple stood Some Philosophers haue held the Moone to be the receptacle of all the influences of the heauenly bodies and the conueyances of them to this inferiour World so as all the vertue of the vpper Orbes and Starres are deriued by her to this elementary Spheare Such doth both Dauid and Haggai repute the house of God whither as to Iosephs Store-house doth God conuey the blessings of peace that they may be thence transmitted to the sonnes of men How and why then doth God giue peace in this his House Because here as Bernard well Deus audit auditur God heares and is heard here audit orantes erudit audientes he heares his suppliants and teacheth his hearers As this place hath two vses it is both Oratorium and Auditorium so in respect of both doth it blesse vs with peace our mouth procures it in the one our eare in the other God workes in our hearts by both In the first God sayes as our Sauiour cites it Domus mea domus orationis My House shall be called the House of prayer And what blessing is it euen the best of Peace that our prayers cannot infeoffe vs in Salomon when he would consecrate the Church he had built solemnly sues to God that hee would inuest it with this priuilege of an vniuersally gracious audience and numbring the occasions of distressed Suppliants makes it euer the foot of his request Then hearken to the prayer that thy seruant shall make towards this place Heare thou in heauen thy dwelling place and when thou hearest haue mercy If euer therefore
is the Head canst thou drowne when thy Head is aboue was it not for thee that hee triumpht ouer death Is there any feare in a foyled aduersarie Oh my Redeemer I haue already ouercome in thee how can I miscarrie in my selfe O my soule thou hast marched valiantly Behold the Damosels of that heauenly Ierusalem come forth with Timbrels and Harps to meet thee and to applaud thy successe And now there remaines nothing for thee but a Crowne of righteousnesse which that righteous Iudge shall giue thee at that Day Oh Death where is thy sting Oh graue where is thy victorie The Thanksgiuing Returne now vnto thy rest O my soule for the Lord hath beene beneficiall vnto thee O Lord God the strength of my saluation thou hast couered my head in the day of battell O my God and King I will extoll thee and will blesse thy name for euer and euer I will blesse thee daily and praise thy Name for euer and euer Great is the Lord and most worthy to be praised and his greatnesse is incomprehensible I will meditate of the beautie of thy glorious Maiestie and thy wonderfull workes Hosanna thou that dwellest in the highest heauens Amen FINIS HOLY OBSERVATIONS LIB I. By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE EDWARD LORD DENNY BARON OF WALTHAM MY most bountifull Patron Grace and Peace RIGHT HONOVRABLE THis aduantage a Scholar hath aboue others that hee cannot be idle and that he can worke without instruments For the minde inured to contemplation will set it selfe on worke when other occasions faile and hath no more power not to studie than the eye which is open hath not to see some thing in which businesse it carries about his owne Librarie neither can complaine to want Bookes while it enioyeth it selfe J could not then neglect the commoditie of this plentifull leasure in my so easie attendance here but though besides my course and without the helpe of others writings must needs busie my selfe in such thoughts as J haue euer giuen account of to your Lordship such as J hope shall not be vnprofitable nor vnwelcome to their Patron to their Readers J send them forth from hence vnder your Honourable name to shew you that no absence no imployment can make mee forget my due respect to your Lordship to whom next vnder my gracious Master J haue deseruedly bequeathed my selfe and my endeuours Your goodnesse hath not wont to magnifie it selfe more in giuing than in receiuing such like holy presents the knowledge whereof hath intitled you to more labours of this nature if I haue numbred aright than any of your Peeres I misdoubt not either your acceptation or their vse That God who hath aboue all his other fauours giuen your Lordship euen in these carelesse times an heart truly religious giue you an happy increase of all his heauenly graces by my vnworthy seruice To his gracious care I daily commend your Lordship with my Honourable Lady wishing you both all that little ioy earth can affoord you and fulnesse of glory aboue Non-such Iuly 3. Your Lordships Most humbly deuoted for euer in all dutie and obseruance IOS HALL HOLY OBSERVATIONS 1 AS there is nothing sooner drie than a teare so there is nothing sooner out of season than worldly sorrow which if it bee fresh and still bleeding findes some to comfort and pittie it if stale and skinned ouer with time is rather entertained with smiles than commiseration But the sorrow of repentance comes neuer out of time All times are alike vnto that Eternitie whereto wee make our spirituall mones That which is past that which is future are both present with him It is neither weake nor vncomely for an old man to weepe for the sinnes of his youth Those teares can neuer be shed either too soone or too late 2 Some men liue to bee their owne executors for their good name which they fee not honestly buried before themselues die Some other of great place and ill desert part with their good name and breath at once There is scarce a vicious man whose name is not rotten before his carcasse Contrarily the good mans name is oft times heire to his life either borne after the death of the parent for that enuie would not suffer it to come forth before or perhaps so well growne vp in his life time that the hope thereof is the staffe of his age and ioy of his death A wicked mans name may be feared a while soone after it is either forgotten or cursed The good man either sleepeth with his body in peace or waketh as his soule in glory 3 Oft times those which shew much valour while there is equall possibilitie of life when they see a present necessitie of death are found most shamefully timorous Their courage was before grounded vpon hope that cut off leaues them at once desperate and cowardly whereas men of feebler spirits meet more cheerefully with death because though their courage be lesse yet their expectation was more 4 I haue seldome seene the sonne of an excellent and famous man excellent But that an ill bird hath an ill egge is not rare children possessing as the bodily diseases so the vices of their Parents Vertue is not propagated Vice is euen in them which haue it not reigning in themselues The graine is sowne pure but comes vp with chaffe and huske Hast thou a good sonne He is Gods not thine Is he euill Nothing but his sinne is thine Helpe by thy praiers and endeuours to take away that which thou hast giuen him and to obtaine from God that which thou hast and canst not giue Else thou maiest name him a possession but thou shalt finde him a losse 5 These things be comely and pleasant to see and worthy of honour from the beholder A young Saint an old Martyr a religious Souldier a conscionable Statesman a great man courteous a learned man humble a silent woman a childe vnderstanding the eie of his Parent a merry companion without vanitie a friend not changed with honour a sicke man cheerefull a soule departing with comfort and assurance 6 I haue oft obserued in merry meetings solemnly made that somewhat hath falne out crosse either in the time or immediatly vpon it to season as I thinke our immoderation in desiring or enioying our friends and againe euents suspected haue proued euer best God herein blessing our awfull submission with good successe In all these humane things indifferencie is safe Let thy doubts be euer equall to thy desires so thy disappointment shall not bee grieuous because thy expectation was not peremptorie 7 You shall rarely finde a man eminent in sundry faculties of minde or sundry manuarie trades If his memorie be excellent his fantasie is but dull if his fancie bee busie and quicke his iudgement is but shallow If his iudgement bee deepe his vtterance is
call for the blood of the Gibeonites though drudges of Israel and a remnant of Amorites Why this There was a periury attending vpon this slaughter It was an ancient Oath wherein the Princes of the congregation had bound themselues vpon Ioshua's league to the Gibeonites that they would suffer them to liue an oath extorted by fraud but solemne by no lesse â—â—me then the Lord God of Israel Saul will now thus late either not acknowledge it or not keepe it out of his zeale therefore to the children of Israel and Iudah he roots â—ut some of the Gibeonites whether in a zeale of reuenge of their first imposture or in a zeale of inlarging the possessions of Israel or in a zeale of executing Gods charge vpon the brood of Canaanites he that spared Agag whom he should haue smitten smites the Gibeonites whom he should haue spared Zeale and good intention is no excuse much lesse a warrant for euill God holds it an high indignitie that his name should be sworne by and violated Length of time cannot dispense with our oathes with our vowes The vowes and oathes of others may binde vs how much more our owne There was a famine in Israel a naturall man would haue ascribed it vnto the drought and that drought perhaps to some constellations Dauid knowes to looke higher and sees a diuine hand scourging Israel for some great offence and ouer-ruling those second causes to his most iust executions Euen the most quick-sighted worldling is pore-blind to 〈◊〉 all obiects and the weakest eyes of the regenerate pierce the heauens and espy God in all earthly occurrences So well was Dauid acquainted with Gods proceedings that he knew the remouall of the iudgement must begin at the satisfaction of the wronged At once therefore doth he pray vnto God and treat with the Gibeonites What shall I doe for you and wherewith shall I make the atonement that I may blesse the inheritance of the Lord In vaine should Dauid though a Prophet blesse Israel at the Gibeonites did not 〈…〉 lesse them Iniuries done vs on earth giue vs power in heauen The oppressor is in no mans mercy but his whom he hath trampled vpon Little did the Gibeonites thinke that God had so taken to heart their wrongs that for their sakes all Israel should suffer Euen when we thinke not of it is the righteous Iudge auenging our vnrighteous vexations Our hard measures cannot bee hid from him his returnes are hid from vs It is sufficient for vs that God can bee no more neglectiue then ignorant of our sufferings It is now in the power of these despised Hiuites to make their owne termes with Israel Neither Siluer nor Gold will sauour with them towards their satisfaction Nothing can expiate the blood of their fathers but the blood of seuen sonnes of their deceased persecutor Here was no other then a iust retaliation Saul had punished in them the offence of their predecessors they will now reuenge Sauls sinne in his children The measure we mete vnto others is with much equity re-measured vnto our selues Euery death would not content them of Sauls sonnes but a cursed and ignominious hanging on the Tree Neither would that death content them vnlesse their owne hands might bee the executioners Neither would any place serue for the execution but Gibeah the Court of Saul neither would they doe any of this for the wreaking of their own fury but for the appeasing of Gods wrath We will hang them vp vnto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul Dauid might not refuse the condition Hee must deliuer they must execute Hee chooses out seuen of the sonnes and grand-children of Saul That house had raised long an vniust persecution against Dauid now God payes it vpon anothers score Dauids loue and oath to Ionathan preserues lame Mephibosheth How much more shall the Father of all mercies doe good vnto the children of the faithfull for the couenant made with their Parents The fiue sonnes of Adriel the Meholathite Dauids ancient riuall in his first loue which were borne to him by Merab Sauls Daughter and brought vp by her barren sister Michol the wife of Dauid are yeelded vp to death Merab was after a promise of mariage to Dauid vniustly giuen away by Saul to Adriel Michol seemes to abet the match in breeding the children now in one act nor of Dauids seeking the wrong is thus late auenged vpon Saul Adriel Merab Michol the children It is a dangerous matter to offer iniury to any of Gods faithfull ones If their meeknesse haue easily remitted it their God will not passe it ouer without a seuere retribution These fiue together with two sonnes of Rizpah Sauls Concubine are hanged vp at once before the Lord yea and before the eyes of the World No place but an Hill wil serue for this execution The acts of iustice as they are intended for example so they should be done in that eminent fashion that may make them both most instructiue and most terrifying Vnwarrantable courses of priuate reuenge seeke to hide their heads in secresie The beautifull face of iustice both affects the light and becomes it It was the generall charge of Gods Law that no corps should remaine all night vpon the gibbet The Almighty hath power to dispense with his owne command so doubtlesse he did in this extraordinary case these carkasses did not defile but expiate Sorrowfull Rizpah spreads her a Tent of Sackcloth vpon the Rocke for a sad attendance vpon those sonnes of her wombe Death might bereaue her of them not them of her loue This spectacle was not more grieuous to her then pleasing to God and happy to Israel Now the clouds drop â—â—messe and the earth runs forth into plenty The Gibeonites are satisfied God reconciled Israel relieued How blessed a thing it is for any Nation that iustice is vnpartially executed euen vpon the mighty A few drops of blood haue procured large showres from Heauen A few carkasses are a rich compost to the earth The drought and dearth remoue away with the breath of those pledges of the offender Iudgements cannot tyrannize where iustice raignes as contrarily there can be no peace where blood cryes vnheard vnregarded The numbring of the people ISrael was growne wanton and mutinous God puls them downe first by the sword then by famine now by pestilence Oh the wondrous yet iust wayes of the Almightie Because Israel hath sinned therefore Dauid shall sinne that Israel may be punished Because God is angry with Israel therefore Dauid shall anger him more and strike himselfe in Israel and Israel through himselfe The spirit of God elsewhere ascribes this motion to Satan which here it attributes to God Both had their hand in the worke God by permission Satan by suggestion God as a Iudge Satan as an enemy God as in a iust punishment for sinne Satan as in an act of sinne God in a wise ordination of it to good Satan in a malicious intent of confusion Thus at once
THE WORKS OF JOSEPH HALL Doctor in Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER With a Table newly added to the whole Worke. LONDON Printed for Nath. Butter dwelling neere Saint Austins Gate 1625. TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY MONARCH OVR DEARE AND DREAD SOVERAIGNE LORD IAMES BY THE good prouidence of God King of Great BRITAINE FRANCE and IRELAND the most worthy and most able Defender of the Faith and most gracious Patron of the Church All Peace and Happinesse Most gracious Soueraigne I Cannot so ouer-loue this issue of my owne braine as to hold it worthy of your Maiesties iudicious eyes much lesse of the highest Patronage vnder Heauen Yet now my very duty hath bidden mee looke so high tels me it would be no lesse then iniurious if I should not lay down my work where I owe my seruice and that I should offend if I presumed not Besides whither should the riuers runne but into the Sea Jt is to your Maiesty vnder the Highest that wee owe both these sweete opportunities of good and all the good fruites of these happy opportunities Jf we should not therefore freely offer to your Maiestie some praemetiall handfulls of that croppe whereof you may challenge the whole haruest how could wee bee but shamelesly vnthankfull J cannot praise my Present otherwise then by the truth of that heart from which it proceedeth Onely this J may say that seldome any man hath offered to your Royall hands a greater bundle of his owne thoughts Some whereof as it must needs fall out amongst so many haue beene confessed profitable nor perhaps more varietie of discourse for here shall your Maiestie finde Moralitie like a good handmaid waiting on Diuinity and Diuinity like some great Lady euery day in seâ—â—â—â—dresses Speculation interchanged with experience Positiue Theologie with Polemicall Textuall with discursorie Popular with Scholasticall J cannot dissemble my ioy to haue done this little good And if it be the comfort and honour of your vnworthy seruant that the God of Heauen hath vouchsafed to vse his hand in the least seruice of his Church How can it bee but your Crowne and reioycing that the same God hath set apart your Maiesty as a glorious instrument of such an vniuersall good to the whole Christian World It was a madde conceit of that old Heresiarch which might iustly take his name from madnes That an huge Giant beares vp the earth with his shoulder which he changes euery thirtieth yeere for ease and with the remouall causes an Earthquake If by the deuice hee had meant onely an Embleme of Kings as our ancient Mythologists vnder their Saint George and Christopher haue described the Christian Souldier and good Pastor he had not done amisse for surely the burthen of the whole world lies on the shoulders of Soueraigne authoritie and it is no maruell if the Earth quake in the change As Kings are to the World so are good Kings to the Church None can be so blinde or enuious as not to grant that the whole Church of God vpon earth rests her selfe principally next to her stay aboue vpon your Maiesties Royall supportation You may truly say with Dauid Ego sustineo columnas eius What wonder is it then if our tongues and pens blesse you if we be ambitious of all occasions that may testifie our cheerefull gratulations of this happinesse to your Highnesse ours in you Which our humble prayers vnto him by whom Kings reigne shall labour to continue till both the Earth and Heauens be truly changed The vnworthiest of your Maiesties seruants IOS HALL THE SEVERALL TREATISES contained in this BOOKE MEditations and Vowes 3. Centuries Page 1 Heauen vpon earth One Booke 73 Art of Diuine Meditation One Booke 105 Holy Obseruations One Booke 135 Some few of Dauids Psalmes metaphrazed 155 Characters of Vertues and Vices Two Bookes 173 Salomons diuine Arts. Ethicks In foure Bookes 207 Politicks One Booke 229 Oeconomicks One Booke 239 The Song of Songs paraphrased 249 Epistles in six Decads Three Volumes 1. 275 2. 315 3. 361 Sermons 1. Pharisaisme and Christianity 407 2. The Passion Sermon 423 3. 4. The Imprese of God In two Sermons 441 451 5. A Farewell Sermon to the Family of Prince Henry 461 6. An holy Panegyrick 473 7. The deceit of Appearance 489 8. The great Impostor 501 9. The best Bargaine 515 10. A Sermon at S. Iohns 525 11. The true Peace-Maker 537 12. Noah's Doue A common Apology against the Brownists One Booke 549 A serious Disswasiue from Popery 613 No Peace with Rome One Booke 633 Quo vadis Or a Censure of Trauell 669 The Righteous Mammon 693 The honour of the Married Clergie In three Bookes 1. 719 2. 753 3. 771 A short Catechisme 799 Contemplations vpon the principall passages of the holy Story Eight Bookes In two Volumes 1. 809 2. 883 Contemplations the third Volume In three Bookes 1. 967 2. 993 3. 1017 Contemplations the fourth Volume In foure Bookes 1. 1043 2. 1073 3. 1099 4. 1027 Contemplations vpon the History of the new Testament the fifth Volume In two Bookes 1. 1159 2. 1185 Contemplations the sixt Volume In three Bookes 1. 1231 2. 1255 3. 1281 Contemplations the seuenth Volume In two Bookes 1. 1311 2. 1351 MEDITATIONS AND VOWES DIVINE AND MORALL SERVING FOR DIRECTION IN CHRISTIAN AND CIVILL PRACTICE III. Centuries By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL SIR ROBERT DRVRY KNIGHT ALL INCREASE OF TRVE HONOVR AND VERTVE SIR that I haue made these my homely Aphorismes publike needs no other reason but that though the world is furnished with other writings euen to satiety and surfet yet of those which reduce Christianitie to practice there is at least scarce enough wherein yet I must needs confesse I had some eye to my selfe For hauing after a sort vowed this austere course of iudgement practice to my selfe J thought it best to acquaint the world with it that it may either witnesse my answerable proceeding or checke me in my straying there-from By which meanes so many men as J liue amongst so many monitors I shall haue which shall poynt mee to my owne rules and vpbraid mee with my aberrations Why I haue dedicated them to your name cannot be strange to any that knowes you my Patron and mee your Pastor The regard of which bond easily drew mee on to consider that whereas my body which was euer weake began of late to languish more it would not be inexpedient at the worst to leaue behinde mee this little monument of that great respect which J deseruedly beare you And if it shall please God to reprieue me vntill a longer day yet it shall not repent me to haue sent this vnworthy scrowle to wait vpon you in your necessary absence neither shall it be I hope bootlesse for you to adioyne these my meane speculations vnto those grounds of vertue you haue so happily
in the Spring to the end that my age may bee profitable and laden with ripe fruit I will endeuour that my youth may be studious and flowred with the blossomes of learning and obseruation 55 Reuenge commonly hurts both the offerer and sufferer as we see in the foolish Bee though in all other things commendable yet herein the patterne of fond spightfulnesse which in her anger inuenometh the flesh and loseth her sting and so liues a Drone euer after I account it the onely valour To remit a wrong and will applaud it to my selfe as right Noble and Christian that I Might hurt and Will not 56 He that liues well cannot chuse but die well For if he die suddenly yet he dies not vnpreparedly if by leisure the conscience of his well-lead life makes his death more comfortable But it is seldome seene that he which liueth ill dieth well For the conscience of his former euills his present paine and the expectation and feare of greater so take vp his heart that he cannot seeke God And now it is iust with God not to be sought or not to be found because he sought to him in his life time and was repulsed Whereas therefore there are vsually two maine cares of good men to Liue well and Die well I will haue but this one to Liue well 57 With God there is no free man but his Seruant though in the Gallies no slaue but the sinner though in a Palace none noble but the vertuous if neuer so basely descended none rich but he that possesseth God euen in rags none wise but hee that is a foole to himselfe and the world none happy but he whom the world pities Let mee be free noble rich wise happy to God I passe not what I am to the world 58 When the mouth praieth man heareth when the heart God heareth Euery good praier knocketh at heauen for a blessing but an importunate praier pierceth it though as hard as brasse and makes way for it selfe into the eares of the Almightie And as it ascends lightly vp carried with the wings of faith so it comes euer laden downe againe vpon our heads In my praiers my thoughts shall not be guided by my words but my words shall follow my thoughts 59 If that seruant were condemned of euill that gaue God no more than his owne which he had receiued what shall become of them that rob God of his owne If God gaine a little glorie by me I shall gaine more by him I will labour so to husband the stocke that God hath left in my hands that I may returne my soule better than I receiued it and that he may take it better than I returne it 60 Heauen is compared to an hill and therefore is figured by Olympus among the Heathen by mount Sion in Gods Booke Hell contrariwise to a pit The ascent to the one is hard therefore and the descent to the other easie and headlong and so as if we once beginne to fall the recouerie is most difficult and not one of many staies till hee comes to the bottome I will bee content to pant and blow and sweat in climbing vp to heauen as contrarily I will bee warie of setting the first step downward towards the pit For as there is a Iacobs Ladder into heauen so there are blinde staires that goe winding downe into death whereof each makes way for other From the obiect is raised an ill suggestion suggestion drawes on delight delight consent consent endeuour endeuour practice practice custome custome excuse excuse defence defence obstinacie obstinacie boasting of sinne boasting a reprobate sense I will watch ouer my waies and doe thou Lord watch ouer me that I may auoid the first degrees of sinne And if those ouertake my frailtie yet keepe me that presumptuous sinnes preuaile not ouer me Beginnings are with more ease and safetie declined when we are free than proceedings when we haue begunne 61 It is fitter for youth to learne than teach and for age to teach than learne and yet fitter for an old man to learne than to be ignorant I know I shall neuer know so much that I cannot learne more and I hope I shall neuer liue so long as till I be too old to learne 62 I neuer loued those Salamanders that are neuer well but when they are in the fire of contention I will rather suffer a thousand wrongs than offer one I will suffer an hundred rather than returne one I will suffer many ere I will complaine of one and endeuour to right it by contending I haue euer found that to striue with my superiour is furious with my equall doubtfull with my inferiour sordid and base with any full of vnquietnesse 63 The praise of a good speech standeth in words and matter Matter which is as a faire and well-featur'd body Elegance of words which is as a neat and well-fashioned garment Good matter slubbered vp in rude and carelesse words is made lothsome to the hearer as a good body mis-shapen with vnhandsome clothes Elegancie without soundnes is no better than a nice vanitie Although therefore the most hearers are like Bees that goe all to the flowers neuer regarding the good herbs that are of as wholesome vse as the other of faire shew yet let my speech striue to bee profitable plausible as it happens better the coat be mis-sâ—apen than the body 64 I see that as blacke and white colours to the eies so is the Vice and Vertue of others to the iudgement of men Vice gathers the beames of the sight in one that the eie may see it and bee intent vpon it Vertue scatters them abroad and therefore hardly admits of a perfect apprehension Whence it comes to passe that as iudgement is according to sense wee doe so soone espie and so earnestly censure a man for one vice letting passe many laudable qualities vndiscerned or at least vnacknowledged Yea whereas euery man is once a foole and doth that perhaps in one fit of his folly which hee shall at leisure repent of as Noah in one houres drunkennesse vncouered those secrets which were hid six hundred yeeres before the world is hereupon ready to call in question all his former integritie and to exclude him from the hope of any future amendment Since God hath giuen mee two eies the one shall bee busied about the present fault that I see with a detesting commiseration the other about the commendable qualities of the offender not without an vnpartiall approbation of them So shall I doe God no wrong in robbing him of the glorie of his gifts mixed with infirmities nor yet in the meane time encourage Vice while I doe distinctly reserue for it a due proportion of hatred 65 God is aboue man the brute creatures vnder him hee set in the midst Lest he should be proud that he hath infinite creatures vnder him that One is infinite degrees aboue him I doe therefore owe awe vnto God mercie to the inferiour creatures knowing
remit somewhat and both meet in the midst Thus I haue endeauored to doe with sincere intent of their good rather then my own applause For it had beene easie to haue reached to an higher straine but I durst not whether for the graue Maiesty of the subiect or benefit of the simplest reader You shal still note that I haue laboured to keepe Dauids entire sense with numbers neither lofty nor slubbered which mean is so much more difficult to find as the businesse is more sacred and the liberty lesse Many great wits haue vndertaken this task which yet haue either not effected it or haue smothered it in their priuate deskes and denied it the common light Amongst the rest were those two rare spirits of the Sidnyes to whom Poesie was as naturall as it is affected of others and our worthy friend M. Syluester hath shewed me how happily he hath sometimes turned from his Bartas to the sweet singer of Israel It could not be that in such abundant plenty of Poesie this work should haue past vnattempted would God I might liue to see it perfected either by my own hand or a better In the meane time let me expect your impartiall sentence both concerning the forme and sense Lay aside your loue for a while which too oft blindes iudgement And as it vses to be done in most equall proceedings of iustice shut me out of doores while my verse is discussed yea let me receiue not your censure onely but others by you this once as you loue mee play both the Informer and the Iudge Whether you allow it you shall encourage me or correct you shall amend me Either your starres or your spits Asteriscus Veru that I may vse Origens notes shall bee welcome to my margent It shall be happy for vs if God shall make our poore labours any way seruiceable to his Name and Church To M. Samuel Sotheby EP. VI. A Preface to his Relation of the Russian affaires TRauell perfiteth wisedome and obseruation giues perfection to trauell without which a man may please his eyes not feed his braine and after much earth measured shall returne with a weary body and an empty minde Home is more safe more pleasant but lesse fruitfull of experience But to a mind not working and discursiue all heauens all earths are alike And as the end of trauell is obseruation so the end of obseruation is the enforming of others for what is our knowledge if smothered in our selues so as it is not knowne to more Such secret delight can content none but an enuious nature You haue breathed many and cold ayres gone farre seene much heard more obserued all These two yeares you haue spent in imitation of Nabuchadnezzars seuen conuersing with such creatures as Paul fought with at Ephesus Alas what a face yea what a backe of a Church haue you seene what manners what people Amongst whom ignorant superstition striues with close Atheisme treachery with cruelty one Deuill with another while Truth and Vertue doe not so much as giue any chalenge of resistance Returning once to our England after this experience I imagine you doubted whether you were on earth or in heauen Now then if you will heare me whom you were wont as you haue obserued what you haue seene and written what you haue obserued so publish what you haue written It shall bee a gratefull labour to vs to posterity I am deceiued if the ficklenesse of the Russian state haue not yeelded more memorable matter of history then any other in our age or perhaps many centuries of our predecessors How shall I think but that God sent you thither before these broiles to be the witnesse the register of so famous mutations He loues to haue those iust euils which hee doth in one part of the world knowne to the whole and those euils which men doe in the night of their secrecy brought forth into the Theater of the World that the euill of mens sinne being compared with the euill of his punishment may iustifie his proceedings and condemne theirs Your worke shall thus honor him besides your second seruice in the benefit of the Church For whiles you discourse of the open tyranny of that Russian Nero Iohn Basilius the more secret no lesse bloody plots of Boris the ill successe of a stolne Crowne tho set vpon the head of an harmelesse Sonne the bold attempts and miserable end of a false yet aspiring chalenge the perfidiousnesse of a seruile people vnworthy of better gouernors the miscariage of wicked gouernors vnworthy of better subiects the vniust vsurpations of men iust tho late reuenges of God cruelty rewarded with blood wrong claimes with ouerthrow treachery with bondage the Reader with some secret horror shall draw-in delight and with delight instruction Neither know I any Relation whence hee shall take out a more easie lesson of iustice of loyalty of thankfulnesse But aboue all let the world see and commiserate the hard estate of that worthy and noble Secretary Buchinski Poore gentleman his distresse recals euer to my thoughts Aesops Storke taken amongst the Cranes He now nourishes his haire vnder the displeasure of a forraine Prince At once in durance and banishment He serued an ill master but with an honest heart with cleane hands The masters iniustice doth no more infect a good seruant then the truth of the seruant can iustifie his ill master A bad worke-man may vse a good instrument and oft-times a cleane napkin wipeth a foule mouth It ioyes me yet to thinke that his piety as it euer beld friendship in heauen so now it wins him friends in this our other world Lo euen from our Iland vnexpected deliuerance takes a long flight and blesseth him beyond hope yea rather from heauen by vs. That God whom he serues will bee knowne to those rude and scarce humane Christians for a protector of innocence a fauourer of truth a rewarder of piety The mercy of our gracious King the compassion of an honourable Councellor the loue of a true friend and which wrought all and set all on worke the grace of our good God shall now loose those bonds and giue a glad welcome to his liberty and a willing farewell to his distresse He shall I hope liue to acknowledge this in the meane time I doe for him Those Russian affaires are not more worthy of your records then your loue to this friend is worthy of mine For neither could this large sea drowne or quench it nor time and absence which are wont to breed a lingring consumption of friendship abate the heat of that affection which his kindnesse bred religion nourished Both rarenesse and worth shall commend this true-loue which to say true hath been now long out of fashion Neuer times yeelded more loue but not more subtle For euery man loues himselfe in another loues the estate in the person Hope of aduantage is the loadstone that drawes the iron hearts of men not vertue not desert No age afforded more
his Saints see him but some more clearly as the same Sunne is seene of all eyes not with equall strength Such as the eye of our faith was to see him that is inuisible such is the eye of our present apprehension to see as we are seene Who sees not that our rewards are according to our workes not for them as on merit woe be to that soule which hath but what it earneth but after them as their rule of proportion and these how sensibly vnequall One giues but a cup of cold water to a disciple another giues his blood for the master Different workes haue different wages not of desert but of mercy Fiue talents well imployed carry away more recompence then two yet both approued both rewarded with their Masters ioy Who can sticke at this that knowes those heauenly spirits to whom we shall be like are marshalled by their Maker into seuerall rankes He that was rapt into their element and saw their blessed orders as from his owne knowledge hath stiled them Thrones Principalities Powers Dominions If in one part of this Celestiall Family the great Housholder hath thus ordered it why not in the other yea euen in this he hath instanced You shall sit on twelue Thrones and iudge the twelue Tribes of Israel If he meane not some preheminence to his Apostles how doth he answer how doth he satisfie them Yet more Lazarus is in Abrahams bosome therefore Abraham is more honoured then Lazarus I shall need no moe proofes if from heauen you shall looke down into the great Gulfe and there see diuersity of torments according to the value of sinnes Equality of offences you acknowledge an idle Paradoxe of the Stoicks to hold vnequall sinnes equally punished were more absurd and more iniurious to Gods iustice There is but one fire which yet otherwise burnes the straw otherwise wood and iron He that made and commands this dungeon these tortures tells vs that the wilfully disobedient shall smart with moe stripes the ignorant with fewer Yet so conceiue of these heauenly degrees that the least is glorious So do these vessels differ that all are full there is no want in any no enuy Let vs striue for a place not striue for the order how can we wish to be more then happy Your other question is of our mutuall knowledge aboue the hope whereof you thinke would giue much contentment to the necessity of our parture for both wee are loth not to know those whom we loue and wee are glad to thinke wee shall know them happy whereof if it may comfort you I am no lesse confident If I may not goe so far as with the best of the Fathers to say we shall know one anothers thoughts I dare say our persons we shall our knowledge our memory are not there lost but perfected yea I feare not to say we shall know both our miseries past and the present sufferings of the damned It makes our happinesse not a little the sweeter to know that we were miserable to know that others are and must bee miserable wee shall know them not feele them Take heed that you clearly distinguish betwixt speculation and experience We are then farre out of the reach of euils We may see them to comfort vs not to affect vs. Who doubts that these eyes shall see and know the glorious manhood of our blessed Sauiour aduanced aboue all the powers of heauen And if one body why not more And if our elder brother why no more of our spirituall fraternity Yea if the twelue thrones of those Iudges of Israel shall be conspicuous how shall wee not acknowledge them And if these who shall restraine vs from more You will easily grant that our loue can neuer faile Faith and hope giue place to sight to present fruition for these are of things not seene but loue is perpetuall not of God only but his Saints For nothing ceases but our earthly parts nothing but what sauors of corruption Christian loue is a grace and may well chalenge a place in heauen and what loue is there of what we know not More plainly If the three Disciples in Tabor knew Moses and Elias how much more shall we know them in Gods Sion Lastly for it is a letter not a volume that I intended in this not necessary but likely discourse that famous parable can tell you that those which are in hell may know singular and seuerall persons though distant in place The rich Glutton knowes Lazarus and Abraham I heare what you say It is but a parable neither will I presse you with the contrary authority of Ambrose Tertullian Gregory Hierome or any Father nor with that vniuersall rule of Chrysostome that those onely are parables where examples are expressed and names concealed I yeeld it yet all holy parables haue their truths at least their probabilities Deny this and you disable their vse wrong their Author Our Sauiour neuer said ought was done that cannot be and shall then the damned retaine ought which the glorified lose No man euer held that the soule was aduantaged by torment Comfort you therefore in this you shall know and be knowne But farre be from hence all carnall and earthly thoughts as if your affections should be as below doubled to your wife or child Nature hath no place in glory here is no respect of blood none of mariage This grosser aquaintance and pleasure is for the Paradise of Turkes not the Heauen of Christians Here is as no mariage saue betwixt the Lambe and his Spouse the Church so no matrimoniall affections You shall reioyce in your glorified child not as your child but as glorified In briefe let vs so enquire of our company that aboue all things we striue to be there our selues where we are sure if we haue not what we imagined we shall haue more then we could imagine To Mr T.L. EP. VII Concerning the matter of diuorce in case of apparant adultery aduising the innocent party of the fittest course in that behalfe ALL intermedling is attended with danger and euer so much more as the band of the parties contending is nearer and straiter how can it then want perill to iudge betwixt those which are or should bee one flesh yet great necessities require hazard My profession would iustly checke me if I preferred not your conscience to my owne loue I pity and lament that your owne bosome is false to you that your selfe with shame and with sin are pulled from your selfe giuen to whom you would not An iniury that cannot be parallelled vpon earth and such as may without our wonder distract you sleight crosses are digested with study and resolution greater with time the greatest not without study time counsell There is no extreame euill whose euasions are not perplexed I see here mischiefe on either hand I see you beset not with griefes onely but dangers No man euer more truly held a wolfe by the eare which he can neither stay nor let goe with safety
the other of Tecla What partiality is this to deny that to the children of Christians which they grant to knowne Infidels The promise is made to vs and our seed not to those that are without the pale of the Church Those Innocents which were massacred for Christ are by them canonized for Saints and make one day in their Kalendar each yeare both holy and dismall whereof yet scarce any liued to know water none to know baptisme Yea all Martyrs are here priuiledged who are Christened in their owne blood in stead of water but where hath God said All that die without baptisme shall die for euer except Martyrs why not except beleeuers It is faith that giues life to Martyrs which if they should vvant their first death could not auoid the second Ambrose doubted not to say his Valentinian was baptised because he desired it not because he had it he knew the mind of God who accounts vs to haue what we vnfainedly wish Children cannot liue to desire baptisme if their Parents desire it for them why may not the desire of others be theirs as well as according to Austins opinion the faith of others beleeuing and the mouth of others confessing In these cases therefore of any soules but our owne it is safe to suspend and dangerous to passe iudgement Secret things to God He that made all soules knowes vvhat to doe vvith them neither will make vs of counsell But if wee define either way the errors of charitie are inoffensiue We must honour good means and vse them and in their necessarie want depend vpon him who can vvorke beyond vvithout against meanes Thus haue I endeuoured your Ladiships satisfaction in what you heard not without some scruple If any man shall blame my choice in troubling you with a thornie and scholasticall discourse let him know that I haue learned this fashion of Saint Hierome the Oracle of Antiquitie vvho was vvont to entertaine his Paula and Eustochium Marcella Principia Hedibia and other deuout Ladies with learned canuases of the deepe points of Diuinitie This is not so perplexed that it need to offend nor so vnnecessary that it may be vnknowne To Sir RICHARD LEA since deceased EP. V. Discoursing of the comfortable remedies of all afflictions WISE men seeke remedies before their disease sensible patients when they begin to complaine fooles too late Afflictions are the common maladies of Christians These you feele and vpon the first groanes seeke for ease Wherefore serues the tongue of the learned but to speake words in season I am a Scholler of those that can comfort you If you shall vvith me take out my lessons neither of vs shal repent it You smart and complaine take heed lest too much There is no affliction not grieuous the bone that vvas disioynted cannot bee set right without paine No potion can cure vs if it worke not it vvorkes not except it make vs sicke we are contented with that sicknesse which is the vvay to health There is a vexation without hurt such is this We are afflicted not ouer-pressed needie not desperate persecuted not forsaken cast downe but perish not How should we vvhen all the euill in a Citie comes from the prouidence of a good God which can neither be impotent nor vnmercifull It is the Lord let him doe vvhat hee will Woe were vs if euils could come by chance or were let loose to alight where they list now they are ouer-ruled wee are safe The destinie of our sorrowes is written in heauen by a vvise and eternall decree Behold he that hath ordained moderates them A faithfull God that giues an issue vvith the tentation An issue both of their end and their successe He chides not alwayes much lesse striketh Our light afflictions are but for a moment not so long in respect of our vacancy and rest If wee weepe sometimes our teares are precious As they shall neuer be dry in his bottle so they shall soone be dry vpon our cheekes He that wrings them from vs shall vvipe them off how sweetly doth hee interchange our sorrowes and ioyes that we may neither be vaine nor miserable It is true To be strooke once in anger is fearfull his displeasure is more then his blow In both our God is a consuming fire Feare not these stripes are the tokens of his loue he is no Sonne that is not beaten yea till he smart and cry if not till he bleed no Parent corrects anothers childe and he is no good Parent that corrects not his owne Oh rod worthy to be kissed that assures vs of his loue of our adoption What speake I of no hurt short praises doe but discommend I say more these euils are good looke to their effects What is good if not patience affliction is the mother of it tribulation bringeth forth patience What can earth or heauen yeeld better then the assurance of Gods Spirit Afflictions argue yea seale this to vs. Wherein stands perfect happinesse if not in our neere resemblance of Christ Why was man created happy but because in Gods image The glory of Paradise the beauty of his body the duty of the creatures could not giue him felicitie without the likenesse to his Creator Behold what wee lost in our height wee recouer in our miserie a conformitie to the image of the Sonne of God he that is not like his elder brother shall neuer be coheire with him Loe his side temples hands feet all bleeding his face blubbred ghaftly and spitted on his skin all pearled with a bloody sweat his head drouping his soule heauy to the death see you the vvorldling mercy soft delicate perfumed neuer wrinkled with sorrow neuer humbled with afflictions What resemblance is here yea what contrarietie Ease flayeth the foole it hath made him resty and leaues him miserable Be not deceiued No man can follow Christ without his Crosse much lesse reach him and if none shall raigne with Christ but those that suffer vvith him what shall become of these iolly ones Goe now thou dainty worldling and please thy selfe in thy happinesse laugh alwayes and be euer applauded It is a wofull felicitie that thou shalt finde in opposition to thy Redeemer He hath said Woe to them that laugh Beleeuest thou and dost not weepe at thy laughter and with Salomon condemne it of madnesse And againe with the same breath Blessed are yee that weepe who can beleeue this and not reioyce in his owne teares and not pitie the faint smiles of the godlesse Why blessed For ye shall laugh Behold wee that weepe on earth shall laugh in heauen we that now weepe vvith men shall laugh vvith Angels while the fleering worldling shall be gnashing and howling with Diuels we that weepe for a time shall laugh for euer who would not be content to deferre his ioy a little that it may be perpetuall and infinite What mad man would purchase this crackling of thornes such is the vvorldlings ioy with eternall shrieking and torment hee that is
the doore and the way hath taught vs that through many afflictions wee must enter into heauen There is but one passage and that a strait one If with much pressure vvee can get through and leaue but our superfluous ragges as torne from vs in the crowd we are happy He that made heauen hath on purpose thus framed it wide when wee are entred and glorious narrow and hard in the entrance that after our paine our glory might be sweeter And if before-hand you can climbe vp thither in your thoughts looke about you you shall see no more Palmes then crosses you shall see none crowned but those that haue wrestled with crosses and sorrowes to sweat yea to blood and haue ouercome All runnes here to the ouer comer and ouercomming implyes both fighting and successe Gird vp your loynes therefore and strengthen your weake knees resolue to fight for heauen to suffer fighting to persist in suffering so persisting you shall ouercome and ouercomming you shall be crowned Oh reward truely great aboue desert yea aboue conceit A crowne for a few groanes An eternal crowne of life and glory for a short and momentany suffering How iust is Saint Pauls account that the afflictions of this present life are not worthy of the glory which shal be shewed vnto vs O Lord let me smart that I may reigne vphold thou mee in smarting that thou mayest hold me worthy of reigning It is no matter how vile I be so I may be glorious What say you would you not be afflicted Whether had you rather mourne for a vvhile or for euer One must be chosen the election is easie Whether had you rather reioyce for one fit or alwayes You would doe both Pardon me it is a fond couetousnesse and idle singularitie to affect it What That you alone may fare better then all Gods Saints That God should strew Carpets for your nice feet onely to walke into your heauen and make that way smooth for you which all Patriarkes Prophets Euangelists Confessors Christ himselfe haue found rugged and bloodie Away with this selfe-loue and come downe you ambitious sonnes of Zebedee and ere you thinke of sitting neere the Throne be content to be called vnto the Cup. Now is your tryall Let your Sauiour see how much of his bitter potion you can pledge then shall you see how much of his glory he can afford you Be content to drinke of his vineger and gall and you shall drinke new wine with him in his Kingdome To Mr PETER MOVLIN Preacher of the Church at PARIS EP. VI. Discoursing of the late French occurrents and what vse God expects to bee made of them SInce your trauels here with vs we haue not forgotten you but since that your vvittie and learned trauels in the common affaires of Religion haue made your memorie both fresh and blessed Behold whiles your hand vvas happily busie in the defence of our King the heads and hands of traitors vvere busie in the massacring of your owne God doth no memorable and publike act which hee would not haue talked of read construed of all the world How much more of neighbors whom scarce a sea seuereth from each other how much yet more of brethren whom neither land nor sea can seuer Your dangers and feares and griefes haue beene ours All the salt water that runnes betwixt vs cannot vvash off our interest in all your common causes The deadly blow of that miscreant vvhose name is iustly sentenced to forgetfulnesse pierced euen our sides Who hath not bled within himselfe to thinke that he which had so victoriously out liued the swords of enemies should fall by the knife of a villaine and that hee should die in the peaceable streets vvhom no fields could kill that all those honorable and happy triumphs should end in so base a violence But oh our idlenesse and impietie if we see not a diuine hand from aboue striking vvith this hand of disloyaltie Sparrowes fall not to the ground vvithout him much lesse Kings One dyes by a tyle-sheard another by the splinters of a Launce one by Lice another by a Fly one by poison another by a knife What are all these but the executioners of that great God vvhich hath said Ye are Gods but ye shal die like men Perhaps God saw that we may guesse modestly at the reasons of his acts you reposed too much in this arme of flesh or perhaps he saw this scourge would haue beene too early to those enemies whose sinne though great yet was not full or perhaps hee saw that if that great spirit had beene deliberately yeelded in his bed you should not haue slept in yours Or perhaps the ancient conniuence at those streames of blood from your too common Duels was now called to reckoning or it may be that weake reuolt from the truth He whos 's the rod vvas knowes why he strooke yet may it not passe without a note that he fell by that religion to vvhich he fell How many Ages might that great Monarch haue liued vvhatsoeuer the ripe head of your more then mellow Cotton could imagine ere his least finger should haue bled by the hand of an Huguenot All religions may haue some monsters but blessed bee the God of heauen ours shall neuer yeeld that good Iesuite either a Mariana to teach treason or a Rauillac to act it But vvhat is that we heare It is no maruell That holy societie is a fit Gardian for the hearts of Kings I dare say none more loues to see them none takes more care to purchase them How happy were that Chappell thinke they if it vvere full of such shrines I hope all Christian Princes haue long and vvell learned so great is the courtesie of these good Fathers that they shall neuer by their vvils need bee troubled with the charge of their owne hearts An heart of a King in a Iesuites hand is as proper as a wafer in a Priests Iustly was it vvritten of old vnder the picture of Ignatius Loyola Cauete vobis Principes Be vvise O ye Princes and learn to be the keepers of your owne hearts Yea rather O thou keeper of Israel that neither slumbrest nor sleepest keepe thou the hearts of all Christian Kings vvhether aliue or dead from the keeping of this traiterous generation whose very religion is holy rebellion and whose merits bloody Doubtlesse that murderer hoped to haue stabbed thousands vvith that blow and to haue let out the life of religion at the side of her collapsed Patron God did at once laugh and frowne at his proiect and suffered him to liue to see himselfe no lesse a foole then a villaine O the infinite goodnesse of the wise and holy gouernour of the world Who could haue looked for such a calme in the middest of a tempest who would haue thought that violence could beget peace Who durst haue conceiued that King Henry should die alone and that Religion should lose nothing but his person This is the Lords doing and it
censure of that resolute Hierome Ego è contrario loquar c. I say saith he and in spight of all the world dare maintaine that now the Iewish ceremonies are pernitious and deadly and whosoeuer shall obserue them whether hee be Iew or Gentile in barathrum Diaboli deuolutum Shall frie in Hell for it Still Altars still Priest sacrifices still still washings still vnctions sprinkling shauing purifying still all and more than all Let them heare but Augustines censure Quisquis nunc c. Whosoeuer shall now vse them as it were raking them vp out of their dust hee shall not bee Pius deductor corporis sed impius sepulturae violator an impious and sacrilegious wretch that ransacks the quiet tombes of the dead I say not that all Ceremonies are dead but the Law of Ceremonies and of Iewish It is a sound distinction of them that profound Peter Martyr hath in his Epistle to that worthy Martyr Father Bishop Hooper Some are typicall fore-signifying Christ to come some of order and decencie those are abrogated not these the Iewes had a fashion of prophesying in the Churches so the Christians from them as Ambrose the Iewes had an eminent pulpit of wood so wee they gaue names at their Circumcision so wee at Baptisme they sung Psalmes melodiously in Churches so doe we they paid and receiued tithes so doe wee they wrapt their dead in linnen with odors so wee the Iewes had sureties at their admission into the Church so wee these instances might be infinite the Spouse of Christ cannot bee without her laces and chaines and borders Christ came not to dissolue order But thou O Lord how long how long shall thy poore Church finde her ornaments her sorrowes and see the deare sonnes of her wombe bleeding about these apples of strife let mee so name them not for their value euen small things when they are commanded looke for no small respect but for their euent the enemie is at the gates of our Syracuse how long will wee suffer our selues taken vp with angles and circles in the dust yee Men Brethren and Fathers helpe for Gods sake put to your hands to the quenching of this common flame the one side by humilitie and obedience the other by compassion both by prayers and teares who am I that I should reuiue to you the sweet spirit of that diuine Augustine who when hee heard and saw the bitter contentions betwixt two graue and famous Diuines Ierome and Ruffine Heu mihi saith he qui vos alicubi fiâ—al inuenire non possum Alas that I should neuer finde you two together how I would fall at your feet how I would embrace them and weepe vpon them and beseech you either of you for other and each for himselfe both of you for the Church of God but especially for the weake for whom Christ died who not without their owne great danger see you two fighting in this Theatre of the world Yet let me doe what he said he would doe begge for peace as for life by your filiall pietie to the Church of God whose ruines follow vpon our diuisions by your loue of Gods truth by the graces of that one blessed Spirit whereby we are all informed and quickned by the precious bloud of that Sonne of God which this day and this houre was shed for our redemption bee inclined to peace and loue and though our braines be different yet let our hearts be one It was as I heard the dying speech of our late reuerend worthy and gratious Diocesan Modo me moriente viuat ac floreat Ecclesia Oh yet if when I am dead the Church may liue and flourish What a spirit was here what a speech how worthy neuer to die how worthy of a soule so neere to his heauen how worthy of so happy a succession Yee whom God hath made inheritors of this blessed care who doe no lesse long for the prosperitie of Sion liue you to effect what hee did but liue to wish all peace with our selues and warre with none but Rome and Hell And if there bee any wayward Separatist whose soule professeth to hate peace I feare to tell him Pauls message yet I must Si tu pacem sugis ego te ab Ecclesia fugere mando Would to God those were cut off that trouble you How cut off As good Theodosius said to Demophilus a contentious Prelate Si tu pacem fugis c. If thou flie peace I will make thee flie the Church Alas they doe flie it that which should be therir punishment they make their contentment how are they worthy of pittie As Optatus of his Donatists they are Brethren might be companions and will not Oh wilfull men whither doe they runne from one Christ to another Is Christ diuided we haue him thankes be to our good God and we heare him daily and whither shall we goe from thee thou hast the words of eternall life Thus the Ceremonies are finished now heare the end of his sufferings with like patience and deuotion his death is here included it was so neere that he spake of it as done and when it was done all was done How easie is it to lose our selues in this discourse how hard not to be ouerwhelmed with matter of wonder and to finde either beginning or end his sufferings found an end our thoughts cannot Lo with this word he is happily waded out of those deeps of sorrowes whereof our conceits can finde no bottome yet let vs with Peter gird our coat and cast our selues a little into this sea All his life was but a perpetuall Passion In that he became man he suffered more than wee can doe either while we are men or when we cease to be men he humbled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea he emptied himselfe We when we cease to be here are cloathed vpon 2 Cor. 5. Wee both winne by our being and gaine by our losse he lost by taking our more or lesse to himselfe that is manhood For though euer as God I and my Father are one yet as man My Father is greater than I. That man should be turned into a beast into a worme into dust into nothing is not so great a disparagement as that God should become man and yet it is not finished it is but begun But what man If as the absolute Monarch of the world hee had commanded the vassalage of all Emperors and Princes and had trod on nothing but Crownes and Scepters and the necks of Kings and bidden all the Potentates of the earth to attend his traine this had carried some port with it sutable to the heroicall Maiestie of Gods Sonne No such matter here is neither Forme nor Beautie vnlesse perhaps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the forme of a seruant you haue made me to serue with your sinnes Behold hee is a man to God a seruant to man and be it spoken with holy reuerence a drudge to his seruants Hee is despised and reiected of men yea as
the one hand a poore conscionable Christian drouping vnder the remorse for his sinne austerely checking his wanton appetite and curbing his rebellious desires wearing out his daies in a rough penitentiall seuerity cooling his infrequent pleasures with sighs and sawcing them with teares on the other hand ruffling Gallants made all of pleasure and Iouiall delights bathing themselues in a sea of all sensuall satieties denying their pampered nature nothing vnder heauen not wine in bowles not strange flesh and beastly dalliance not vnnaturall titillations not violent filthinesse that feast without feare and drinke without measure and sweare without feeling and liue without God their bodies are vigorous their coffers full their state prosperous their hearts cheerefull O how thou blessest such men Lo these thou saist these are the dearlings of heauen and earth Sic ô ficiuvat vinere Whiles those other sullen mopish creatures are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 off-scouring and recrements of the world Thou foole giue me thy hand let mee lead thee with Dauid into the sanctuary of God Now what seest thou The end the end of these men is not peace Surely ô God thou hast set them in slippery places and castest them downe into desolation how suddenly are they perished and horribly consumed Woe is mee they doe but dance a Galliard ouer the mouth of hell that seemes now couered ouer with the greene sods of pleasure The higher they leape the more desperate is their lighting Oh wofull wofull condition of those godlesse men yea those Epicurean Pockets whose belly is their God whose heauen is their pleasure whose cursed iollity is but a feeding vp to an eternall slaughter the day is comming wherein euery minute of their sinfull vnsatisfying ioyes shall be answered with a thousand thousand millions of yeeres frying in that vnquenchable fire And when those damned Ghosts shall forth of their incessant flames see the glorious remuneration of the penitent and pensiue soules which they haue despised they shall then gnash and yell out that late recantation Wee fooles thought their life madnesse and their end without honour now they are counted among the children of God and the portion is among the Saints our amongst Deuils Iudge not therefore according to appearance Should we iudge according to appearance all would be Gold that glistereth all drosse that glistereth not Hypocrites haue neuer shewed more faire than some Saints foule Saul weepes Ahab walkes softly Tobias and Sanballat will bee building Gods walles Herod heares Iohn gladly Balaam prophesies Christ Iudas preaches him Satan confesses him When euen an Abraham dissembles a Dauid clokes adultery with murder a Salomon giues at least a toleration to idolatry a Peter forsweares his Master brieffly the prime disciple is a Satan Satan an Angell of light For you How gladly are we deceiued in thinking you all such as you seeme None but the Court of Heauen hath a fairer face Prayers Sermons Sacraments geniculation silence attention reuerence applause knees eyes eares mouthes full of God Oh that ye were thus alwaies Oh that this were your worst side But if wee follow you from the Church and finde cursing and bitternesse vnder your tongues licentious disorder in your liues bribery and oppression in your hands If God looke into the windowes of your hearts and finde there be intus vapina we cannot iudge you by the appearance or if we could What comfort were it to you to haue deceiued our charity with the appearance of Saints when the righteous Iudge shall giue you your portion with Hypocrites What euer wee doe he will be sure not to iudge according to the appearance If appearance should bee the rule false religion should be true true false Quaedam falsa probabiliora quibusdam veris is the old word Some falshoods are more likely than some truths Natiue beauty scornes Art Truth is as a matron Error a curtizan The matron cares onely to concile loue by a graue and gracefull modesty the curtizan with philtres and farding Wee haue no hierarchy mounted aboue Kings no pompous ostentation of magnificence no garish processions no gaudy altars no fine images clad with Taffates in summer with veluets in winter no flourishes of vniuersality no rumors of miracles no sumptuous canonizations wee haue nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sincerity of Scriptures simplicity of Sacraments decency of rare ceremonies Christ crucified We are gone if yee goe by appearance Gone alas who can but blush and weepe and bleed to see that Christian soules should after such beames of knowledge suffer themselues to bee thus palpably cozened with the gilded slips of error that after so many yeeres pious gouernment of such an incomparable succession of religious Princes authority should haue cause to complaine of our defection Deare Christians I must be sharpe are we children or fooles that wee should bee better pleased with the glittering tinsel of a painted baby from a Pedlers shop than with the secretly-rich and inualuable Iewell of diuine Truth Haue we thus learned Christ Is this the fruit of so cleere a Gospell of so blessed scepters For Gods sake bee wise and honest and yee cannot be Apostates Shortly for it were easie to bee endlesse If appearance might bee the rule good should bee euill euill good there is no vertue that cannot bee counterfetted no vice that cannot bee blanched wee should haue no such friend as our enemy a flatterer no such enemie as our friend that reproues vs. It were a wonder if yee great ones should not haue some such burs hanging vpon your sleeues As soone shall corne grow without chaffe as greatnesse shall bee free from adulation These seruile spirits shall sooth vp all your purposes and magnifie all your actions and applaud your words and adore your persons Sin what yee will they will not checke you Proiect what you will they will not thwart you say what ye will they will not faile to second you bee what yee will they will not faile to admire you Oh how these men are all for you all yours all you They loue you as the Rauens doe your eyes How deare was Sisera to Iael when she smoothed him vp and gaue him milke in a lordly dish Samson to Dalilah when she lulled him in her lap Christ to Iudas when he kissed him See how he loued him would some foole haue said that had iudged by appearance In the meane time an honest plaine dealing friend is like those sauces which a man praises with teares in his eyes like a chesnut which pricks the fingers but pleases our taste or like some wholsome medicinall potion than distastes and purges vs perhaps makes vs sicke that it may heale vs. Oh let the righteous smite mee for that is a benefit let him reproue mee and it shall bee a precious oyle that shall not breake my head Breake it no it shall heale it when it is mortally wounded by my owne sinne by others assentation Oh how happy were it if we could loue
à quo not ad quem mildely according to my knowne disposition but vpon better deliberation I found the insolency of my Refuter such that I could not fauour him and not bee cruell to my cause If therefore for many it is his own art and word railatiue Pages he receiue from my vnwilling and enforced Pen now and then though not a Relatiue to such an Antecedent yet perhaps some drop of sharper Vineger then my Inke vseth to be tempered withall he may forgiue mee and must thanke himselfe What needed this cause so furious an Inuectiue As if the Kingdom of Heauen and all Religion consisted in nothing but Maiden-head or Mariage Cardinal Bellarmine when he speakes of the Greeke Church wherein a maried Clergie is both allowed and required Si errerem alium non haberent â—â—cise pax conceleretur Bell de Cleric lib. 1. c. 21. shuts vp moderately That if this were all the difference betwixt them and the Romane Church they should soone be at peace If my Refuter had so thought this had not been his first Controuersie Both estates meet in Heauen John the Virgin rests in the bosome of maried Abraham This inordinate heate therefore of prosecution rises from faction not from holy Zeale Hence it was that my Aduersarie cunningly singled out this point from many others ranged in my poore Discourses as that wherein Bishop Jewels confession hee might promise to himselfe the likeliest aduantage of Antiquity and how gloriously doth he vaunt himselfe in the ostentation of Fathers Councels Which vaine flourish how little it auailes him the processe shal shew where it shall appeare vpon what grounds no small piece of Antiquitie was partiall to Virginitie and ouer-harsh to Mariage as Beatus Rhenanus B. Rhenan Arg. lib. de exhort Castit Tertull. a learned and ingenuous Papist confesseth But this we may boldly say that if those holy men had out-liued the bloody Times and seene the fearfull inconueniences which would after a setled peace insue vpon the ambition or constraint of a denyed Continencie they had doubtlesse changed their note and with the moderate and wisest spirits of the later times Eneas Syluius Panormitan Durandus Peresius Montuanuâ— Erasmus c. Che Coll introductione del matrimonio ac Preti si farelle che tutti volt assetto lâ— affetto amor lorâ— alle moglie a figli per consequenza aâ—â—â—casa alla patria onde cesâ—erebbe la dependenza fâ—retta châ—l Ordine Clericale ha conâ—â— sede Apostolica tanto sarelbe Conceder ill matrimonio a Prâ—ti quanto distrugâ—â— la Hietarchia Ecclesiastico ridur it Pont. che non foâ—se pâ—u the Vescâ—uo ci Roma Histor Concil Trid. pag. 662. Troppo fâ—ste troppo teste troppo tempeste Vid. Dallâ—ngt obseru vpon Guicciard Doctor Mart. against Pr. Marr. pleaded for that libertie which the Reformed Church now enioyeth The vniuersall concession whereof after the priuate Suffrages of worthy Authors came to a publike treaty in the Romane Church amidst the throng of their late Tridentine Councell and it is worth the while to obserue on what grounds it receiued a repulse If Priests should be allowed Mariage say those wily Jtalians it would follow that they would cast their affections on their Wiues and Children and consequently on their Families and Countries whereupon would cease that strait dependance which the Clergie hath vpon the See Apostolike In so much as to grant their Mariages were as much as to destroy the Hierarchie of the Church and to reduce the Pope within the meere bounds of the Romane Bishopricke This was the plea of the Clergie their thriftie Laitie together with them enemies to the blessing or as they construe it the curse of fruitfulnesse are wont to plead Troppo teste our Gregory Martin of old computes the preiudiciall increase that might arise from these Mariages to the Common-wealth It is not Religion but wit that now lyes in our way Fond men that dare offer thus to controll the wisdome of their Maker and will be tying the God of Heauen to their rules of state As it is no Church in the vvhole World except the Romane stands vpon this restraint vvhereof the consequences haue been so notoriously shamefull that wee might well hope experience vvould haue wrought if not redresse of their courses yet silence of ours And surely if this man had not presumed that by reason of the long discontinuance of Popery time had worne out of mens mindes the memory of their odious filthinesse he durst not thus boldly haue pleaded for their abominable Celibate The question vvhereof after all busie discussions and pretences of age must be resolued into no other then this How farre the Tradition of a particular Church is worthy to preuaile against Scripture yea and against other Churches A point which a very vveake iudgement will bee able to determine In this returne of my Defence I doe neither answer euery idle clause nor omit any essentiall this length of mine is no lesse forced then mine Aduersaries Continencie wherein yet my Reader shall not sigh vnder an irkesome loquacitie I presume to dedicate this vnworthy labour to your Grace whom this famous Church dayly blesseth as her wise faithfull and vigilant Ouerseer as a renowned Patterne of holy Virginitie and Patron of holy Mariage The God of Heauen whose watch you carefully keep preserue you long to his Church and make vs long happy in your Grace and you euer happy in his plentifull blessings Such shall euer be the Prayers of Your Graces most humbly deuoted IOS HALL THE ANSWER TO THE ADVERTISEMENT THE man begins with a threat I may not but tremble Hee frights me with an vniuersall Detection of my errors It is almost as easie to finde faults as to make them Perhaps the Time had been as well spent in tossing of his Beads How happie a man am I that shall see all my ouer-sights My comfort is that if my Tree were fruitlesse there would bee no stone throwne at it In the meane while how well doth the title of a Detector become him that hides himselfe If hee be not afraid or ashamed of his cause let his name bee knowne that his victories may be recorded It is an iniurious and base aduantage to strike and hide and after a pitcht Duell to gall a fixed Aduersarie out of loope-holes If his person be vpon some treasonable act obnoxious it is hard if some of his names be not free But if I must needs be matcht with the shadow of a Libeller I wil so take him as he deciphers himselfe C. E. Cauillator Egregius and vnder this true stile of his am ready to encounter him and doe here bid Defiance to an insolent and vniust aduersarie And first let me tell my Cauiller this order is preposterous If all my errors be at the mouth of the Presse how is it that two or three of them are thus suffered to out-runne their fellowes Was his malice so bigge
perceiuing more than Art or nature in this draught he falles downe at the knees of Iesus saying Lord goe from me for I am a sinfull man Himselfe is caught in this Net Hee doth not greedily fall vpon so vnexspected profitable a bootie but he turnes his eyes from the draught to himselfe from the act to the Author acknowledging vilenesse in the one in the other Maiestie Goe from me Lord for I am a sinfull man It had beene pitie the honest Fisher-man should haue beene taken at his Word Oh Simon thy Sauiour is come into thine owne ship to call thee to call others by thee vnto blessednesse and doest thou say Lord goe from me As if the patient should say to the Physician Depart from me for I am sicke It was the voice of astonishment not of dislike the voice of humilitie not of discontentment yea because thou art a sinfull man therefore hath thy Sauiour need to come to thee to stay with thee and because thou art humble in the acknowledgement of thy sinfulnesse therefore Christ delights to abide with thee and will call thee to abide with him No man euer fared the worse for abasing himselfe to his God Christ hath left many a soule for froward and vnkind vsage neuer any for the disparagement of it self and intreaties of humilitie Simon could not deuise how to hold Christ faster than by thus suing to him to be gone than by thus pleading his vnworthinesse O my soule be not weary of complaining of thine owne wretchednesse disgrace thy selfe to him that knowes thy vilenesse be astonished at those mercies which haue shamed thine ill deseruings Thy Sauiour hath no power to goe away from a prostrate heart Hee that resists the proud heartens the lowly Feare not for I will make thee hence-forth a Fisher of men Loe this Humilitie is rewarded with an Appstleship What had the Earth euer more glorious than a Legacy from Heauen Hee that bade Christ goe from him shall haue the honour to goe fastâ— this happy errand This was a Trade that Simon had no skill of it could not but be enough to him That Christ said I will make thee the miracle shewed him able to make good his word hee that hath power to command the Fishes to be taken can easily enable the hands to take them What is this diuine Trade of ours then but a spirituall Piscation The World is a Sea Soules like Fishes swim at liberty in this Deepe the Nets of wholsome Doctrine draw vp some to the shore of Grace and Glory How much skill and toyle 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 vs and by vs Giue vs ability and grace to take giue men will and grace to be taken and take thou glory by that which thou hast giuen The marriage in Cana. WAs this then thy first miracle O Sauiour that thou wroughts in Cana of Galile And could there bee a greater miracle than this that hauing beene thirtie yeares vpon earth thou didst no miracle till now That thy diuinitie did hide it selfe thus long in flesh that so long thou wouldest lye obscure in a corner of Galile vnknowne to that world thou camest to redeeme That so long thou wouldest straine the patient expectation of those who euer since thy Starre waited vpon the reuelation of a Messias We silly wretches if we haue but a dram of vertue are ready to set it out to the best shew thou who receiuedst not the Spirit by measure wouldst content thy selfe with a willing obscuritie and concealedst that power that made the world in the roofe of an humane brest in a cottage of Nazareth O Sauiour none of thy miracles is more worthy of astonishment than thy not doing of miracles What thou didst in priuate thy wisedome thought fit for secrecy but if thy blessed Mother had not beene acquainted with some domesticall wonders shee had not now expected a miracle abroad The Starres are not seene by day the Sunne it selfe is not seene by night As it is no small art to hide Art so is it no small glorie to conceale glorie Thy first publique miracle graceth a marriage It is an ancient and laudable institution that the Rights of matrimony should not want a solemne celebration When are feasts in season if not at the recouery of our lost ribbe If not at this mayne change of our estate wherein the ioy of obtayning meets with the hope of further comforts The Sonne of the Virgin and the Mother of that Sonne are both at a wedding It was in all likelihood some of their kindred to whose nuptiall feast they were inuited so farre yet was it more the honour of the act than of the person that Christ intended He that made the first marriage in Paradise bestowes his first miracle vpon a Galilean marriage Hee that was the Author of matrimonie and sanctified it doth by his holy presence honest the resemblance of his eternall vnion with his Church How boldly may we spit in the faces of all the impure aduersaries of wedlocke when the Sonne of God pleases to honour it The glorious Bride-groome of the Church knew well how ready men would be to place shame euen in the most lawfull coniunctions and therefore his first worke shall be to countenance his owne Ordinance Happy is that wedding where Christ is a guest O Sauiour those that marry in thee cannot marry without thee There is no holy Marriage whereat thou art not how euer inuisible yet truely present by thy Spirit by thy gracious benediction Thou makest marriages in heauen thou blessest them from heauen Oh thou that hast betrothed vs to thy selfe in Truth and Righteousnesse doe thou consummate that happy marriage of ours in the highest heauens It was no rich or sumptuous Bridall to which Christ with his mother and Disciples vouchsafed to come from the further parts of Galile I finde him not at the magnificent feasts or triumphs of the Great the proud pompe of the World did not agree with the state of a seruant This poore needy Bride-groome wants drinke for his guests The blessed Virgin though a stranger to the house out of a charitable compassion and a friendly desire to maintaine the decencie of an Hospitall entertaynment inquires into the wants of her Host pitties them bemones them where there was power of redresse When the wine failed the mother of Iesus said vnto him They haue no wine How well doth it beseeme the eyes of pietie and Christian loue to looke into the necessities of others Shee that conceiued the God of mercies both in her heart and in her wombe doth not fixe her eyes vpon her owne trencher but searcheth into the penurie of a poore Israelite and feeles those wants whereof he complaines not They are made for themselues whose thoughts are are onely taken vp with their owne store or indigence There
though grieuous yet might be remote therefore for a present hansell of vengeance she is dismissed with the sad tidings of the death of her sonne When thy feet enter into the Citie the child shall dye It is heauy newes for a mother that shee must leese her sonne but worse yet that shee may not see him In these cases of our finall departures our presence giues some mitigation to our griefe might shee but haue closed the eyes and haue receiued the last breath of her dying sonne the losse had bin more tolerable I know not how our personall farewell eases our heart euen whiles it increases our passion but now she shall no more see nor bee seene of her Abijah She shall no sooner be in the City then hee shall bee out of the world Yet more to perfect her sorrow shee heares that in him alone there is found some good the rest of her issue are gracelesse she must leese the good and hold the gracelesse he shall die to afflict her they shall liue to afflict her Yet what a mixture is here of seueritie and fauour in one act fauour to the sonne seueritie to the father Seueritie to the father that hee must leese such a sonne fauour to the sonne that he shall be taken from such a father Ieroboam is wicked and therefore he shall not enioy an Abijah Abijah hath some good things therefore hee shall be remoued from the danger of the deprauation of Ieroboam Sometimes God strikes in fauour but more often forbeares out of seueritie The best are fittest for heauen the earth is fittest for the worst this is the region of sinne and misery that of immortalitie It is no argument of dis-fauour to be taken early from a well-led life as not of approbation to age in sinne As the soule of Abijah is fauoured in the remouall so is his body with a buriall he shall haue alone both teares and tombe all the rest of his brethren shall haue no graue but dogs and fowles no sorrow but for their life Though the carkasse be insensible of any position yet honest Sepulture is a blessing It is fit the body should bee duely respected on earth whose soule is glorious in heauen ASA THe two houses of Iuda and Israel grow vp now together in an ambitious riuality this splitted plant branches out so seuerally as if it had forgotten that euer it was ioyned in the root The throne of Dauid oft changeth the possessors and more complaineth of their iniquity then their remoue Abijam inherits the sins of his father Rehoboam no lesse then his Crowne and so spends his three yeares as if had been no whit of kinne to his grandfathers vertues It is no newes that grace is not traduced whiles vice is Therefore is his reigne short because it was wicked It was a sad case when both the Kings of Iudah and Israel though enemies yet conspired in sinne Rehoboam like his father Salomon began graciously but fell to Idolatry as he followed his father so his sonne so his people followed him Oh what a face of a Church was here when Israel worshipped Ieroboams calues when Iudah built them high places and Images and groues on euery high Hill and vnder euery greene tree On both hands GOD is forsaken his Temple neglected his worship adulterate and this not for some short brunt but during the succession of two Kings For after the first three yeares Rehoboam changed his fathers Religion as his shields from gold to brasse the rest of his seuenteene yeares were ledde in impietie His sonne Abijam trod in the same mierie steps and Iudah with them both If there were any doubtlesse there were some faithfull hearts yet remaining in both Kingdomes during these heauy times what a corrosiue it must needs haue been to them to see so deplored and miserable a deprauation There was no visible Church vpon earth but here and this what a one Oh God how low doest thou sometimes suffer thine owne flocke to bee driuen What wofull wanes and eclipses hast thou ordained for this heauenly body Yet at last an Asa shall arise from the loynes from the graue of Abijam hee shall reâ—iue Dauid and reforme Iudah The gloomie times of corruption shall not last alwayes The light of truth and peace shall at length breake out and blesse the sad hearts of the righteous It is a wonder how Asa should bee good of the seed of Abijam of the soyle of Maachah both wicked both Idolatrous God would haue vs see that grace is from heauen neither needes the helps of these earthly conueyances Should not the children of good parents sometimes be euill and the children of euill parents good vertue would seeme naturall and the giuer would leese his thankes Thus we haue seene a faire flower spring out of dung and a well-fruited tree rise out of a fowre stocke Education hath no lesse power to corrupt then nature It is therefore the iust praise of Asa that being trained vp vnder an Idolatrous Maachah he maintained his piety As contrarily it is a shame for those that haue beene bred vp in the precepts and examples of vertue and godlinesse to fall off to lewnesse or superstition There are foure principall monuments of Asaes vertue as so many rich stones in his Diadem He tooke away Sodomie and Idols out of Iudah Who cannot wonder more that he found them there then that he remoued them What a strange incongruity is this Sodom in Ierusalem Idols in Iudah Surely debauched profession proues desperate Admit the Idols ye cannot doubt of the Sodomy If they haue changed the glory of the vncorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible man and to birds and foure-footed beasts and creeping things it is no maruell if God giue them vp to vncleannesse through the lusts of their owne hearts to dishonour their own bodies betweene themselues If they changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and serued the creature more then the Creator who is blessed for euer no maruell if God giue them to vile affections to change the naturall vse into that which is against nature burning in lust one towards another men with men working that which is vnseemely Contrarily admit the Sodomy yee cannot doubt of the Idols Vnnaturall beastlinesse in manners is punished iustly with a sottish dotage in religion bodily pollution with spirituall How should the soule care to bee chaste that keepes a stewes in the body Asa begins with the banishment of both scouring Iudah of this double vncleannesse In vaine should he haue hoped to restore God to his Kingdome whiles these abominations inhabited it It is iustly the maine care of worthy and religious Princes to cleare their Coasts of the foulest sinnes Oh the vnpartiall zeale of Asa There were Idols that challenged a prerogatiue of fauour the Idols that his father had made all these he defaces the name of a father cannot protect an Idoll The duty to his Parent cannot winne him
griefes It is no small point of wisdome to know where no plant our Lamentation otherwise in stead of comfort we may meet with scorne and insultation None can so feelingly compassionate the hard termes of a Prophet as an Elisha He finds that she is not querulously impatient expressing her sorrow without murmuring and discontentment making a louing and honorable mention of that husband who had left her distressed readily therefore doth he incline to her succour What shall I doe for thee Tell me what hast thou in thine house Elisha when he heares of her debt askes of her substance Had her house beene furnished with any valuable commoditie the Prophet implies the necessity of selling it for satisfaction Our owne abundance can ill stand with our ingagement to others It is great iniustice for vs to be full of others purses It is not our owne which wee owe to another What is it other then a plausible stealth to feede our riot with the want of the owner Hee that could multiply her substance could know it God and his Prophet loues to heare our necessities out of our owne mouthes Thine hand-maid hath not any thing in the house saue a pot of oyle It is neither newes nor shame for a Prophet to be poore Griefe and want perhaps hastned his end both of them are left for the dowry of his carefull widow Shee had not complained if there had beene any possibility of remedy at home bashfulnesse had stopt her mouth thus long and should haue done yet longer if the exigence of her childrens seruitude had not opened it No want is so worthy of releefe as that which is loathest to come forth Then he sayd Goe borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours euen emptie vessels borrow not a few and when thou art come in thou shalt shut the doore vpon thee and vpon thy sons and shalt powre out into all those vessels and thou shalt set aside that which is full She that owed much and had nothing yet must borrow more that shee may pay all Pouerty had not so discredited her with her neighbours that they should doubt to lend her those vessels empty which they had grudged full Her want was too well knowne it could not but seeme strange to the neighbours to see this poore widow so busily pestring her house with emptie tubs which they knew shee had nothing to fill they knew well enough shee had neither field nor vineyard nor orchard and therefore must needs maruell at such vnprofitable diligence If their curiosity would be inquiring after their intentions shee is commanded secrecy The doores must be shut vpon her selfe and her sonnes whiles the oyle is increasing No eie shall see the miracle in working enow shall see it once wrought This act was no lesse a proofe of her faith then an improuement of her estate it was an exercise of her deuotion as well as of her diligence it was fit her doores should be shut whiles her heart and lips were opened in an holy inuocation Out of one small Iarre was powred out so much oyle as by a miraculous multiplication filled all that empty caske Scarce had that pot any bottome At least the bottome that it had was to bee measured by the brims of all those vessels this was so deepe as they were high Could they haue held more this pot had not beene emptie Euen so the bounty of our God giues grace glory according to the capacitie of the receiuer when he ceaseth to infuse it is for want of roome in the heart that takes it in Could we hold more O God thou wouldst giue more If there be any defect it is in our vessels not in thy beneficence How did the heart of this poore widow runne ouer as with wonder so with ioy and thankfulnesse to see such a riuer of oyle rise out of so small a spring to see all her vessels swimming full with so beneficiall a liquor Iustly is shee affected with this sight shee is not transported from her dutie I doe not see her run forth into the street and proclaime her store nor calling in her neighbours whether to admire or bargaine I see her running to the Prop hets doore and gratefully acknowledging the fauour and humbly depending on his directions as not daring to dispose of that which was so wondrously giuen her without the aduice of him by whose powerfull meanes shee had receiued it Her owne reason might haue sufficiently suggested what to doe shee dares not trust it but consults with the Oracle of God If wee would walke surely wee must doe nothing without a word Euery action euery motion must haue a warrant We can no more erre with this guide then not erre without him The Prophet sets her in a right way Goe sell the oyle and pay thy debt and liue thou and thy children on the rest The first care is of her debts the next of her maintenance It should be grosse iniustice to raise meanes for her selfe and her charge ere she haue discharged the arerages of her husband None of the oyle was hers till her creditors were satisfied all was hers that remained It is but stealth to inioy a borrowed substance Whiles shee had nothing it was no sinne to owe but when once her vessells were full shee could not haue beene guiltlesse if shee had not paid before shee stored God and his Prophets were bountifull after the debts paid they prouide not onely against the thraldome of her charge but against the want It is the iust care of a religions heart to defend the widow and children of a Prophet from distresse and penurie Behold the true seruant and successour of Elijah What hee did to the Sareptan widow this did to the widow of a Prophet That increase of oyle was by degrees this at once both equally miraculous this so much more charitable as it lesse concerned himselfe Hee that giues kindnesses doth by turnes receiue them Elisha hath releeued a poore woman is releeued by a rich The Shunamite a religious and wealthy matron inuites him to her house and now after the first entertainment finding his occasions to call him to a frequent passage that way moues her husband to set vp and furnish a lodging for the man of God It was his holinesse that made her desirous of such a guest Well might shee hope that such an Inmate would pay a blessing for his house-rent Oh happy Shunamite that might make her selfe the Hostesse of Elisha As no lesse dutifull then godly shee imparts her desire to her husband whom her sure hath drawne to a partnership in this holy hospitality Blessed of God is that man whose bed yeeldes him an helpe to heauen The good Shunamite desires not to harbour Elisha in one of her wonted lodgings shee solicites her husband to build him a chamber on the wall apart shee knew the tumult of a large family vnfit for the queit meditations of a Prophet retirednesse is most meet for the