〈◊〉 may signifie the same in civill affaires that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth in warlike Fourthly Our Politicall and Civill Administration and managing of things Fifthly our Carriage deportment and behaviour as we are Citizens c. Yet I confine my selfe to the last which I see our learned Interpreters have expressed also whose judgement and authoritie I willingly follow not troubling my selfe or you with any further anxious disputes or curious Criticismes the stones were hewed and squared in the mountaines there was no noise of hammer in the building of Salomons Temple which yet was so compact they say as if it had bin but one stone without any joynting or ciment The Astronomers cut the heaven into many circles and plough up many barren furrowes by their suppositions as lightly as the Mathematicians draw lines in the dust but wee shall not neede many Hypotheses to salve the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or appearances of these heavens Observe also with mee in the whole Frame but one line which you see written in legible Characters as it were with a Sun-beame The conversation of a Christian is in Heaven In which notwithstanding it will be usefull to consider and distinguish three imaginary Points First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conversation the Axel-tree upon which the whole spheare is turned Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our the inferior Pole and Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Heaven the superior Pole These shall be my Ecliptique Line with in which my Discourse shall bound it selfe First I will explaine Quid sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it is and how a Christian hath his Conversation in Heaven Secondly I will examine Quale sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether the life of ordinary Christians be according to this Rule or not and Thirdly I will suggest Quantum sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How forcible motives may provoke us to this Heavenly conversation First Let no man say who shall give me Elias Chariot in which I may mount up to heaven here needs no change of place but a change of minde which may lift it selfe up to heaven while the body lies upon the earth as Abraham went into the Mount while the Servants and Asses staid below in the Valley Let no man say what must I be like the prophane Gyants which heaped mountaine upon mountaine to scale heaven although the violent take the kingdome of heaven by force as our Saviour speakes in another sense or like proud Lucifer who made his nest among the starres No blessed is he who hath a Low minde in an high Conversation God is high as Austin sweetly and yet the more we lift our selves up the further we are from Him the more we humble our selves the nearer the swelling leaven of pride can never doe it the true growth and stature of Grace and Vertue makes a Christian as high as heaven makes him in heaven many wayes First Affectu in affection A friend of Cyrus in Xenophon being asked where his treasure was which might enable him to bestow his daughter honourably according to his ranke and place made this answer Where Cyrus is my friend and a shame it is for a Christian if hee either know not or professe not that his treasure is there where the Lord is his friend Where the body is thither the Eagles where Christ is thither sharp-sigh ted and lofty soules will resort for according to our Saviour Where the Treasure is there is the heart also and according to the Philosopher Animus est ubiamat non ubi animat the minde is where it loves not where it lives No marvell then if in this respect we say The conversation of a Christian is in heaven though you see his person here upon earth so you see the starres sometime in the water you see them move which notwithstanding you know are fixed above in the Firmament so the Christian though he seeme to flote up and downe in the troublesome waves of the lower world yet there is he fastened with the Anchor of Hope and thither is he carried with the sailes and oares of desire for as the raies of the Sunne touch the earth yet still are there from whence they are darted so a lofty and pious heart is familiarly conversant withus but remaines fixed in his Originall as Seneca makes the comparison where being mounted like Saint Paul in Gregory Nyssen d He le ts fall a looke upon these lower things from a loft not without some scorne they seeme little or nothing in his eyes and no wonder for as heavenly things seeme small to an earthly man as the starres to him that beholds them from earth appeare but as a point a glistring point indeed a golden point and yet but a point so by a farre better reason to a godly man whose affections have raised him to heaven when hee beholds it from thence the whole earth is contracted to a Point or rather appeares like as they call a shadow nigrum nihil a little blacke and darke nothing So a Christian indeed during the time of his Pilgrimage useth these earthly things as necessaries though hee accounts them but as Accessaries like the haires upon our heads they are but an excrement yet they are an ornament and as Austin speakes of Maries with which she wiped the feete of our Saviour They were superfluous for her owne head yet they were necessary for the feet of Christ The Church in the Revelation hath a crowne of starres upon her head and the Moone is under her feete The Spirit in the Acts descended upon the Head they thinke of the Apostles the Disciples cast the money at their feete Heavenly blessings spirituall graces are the crowne of a Christian earthly things he tramples under his feete according to that of the Psalmist Blessings are upon the head of the righteous that is heavenly Thou hast put all things under his feete that is all earthly Heavenly blessings they are Bona throni the goods of the throne Earthly they are Bona scabelli the goods of the footestoole as Austin tearmes them in the account of a Christian who in this is like God himselfe of whom the Scripture speakes Heaven is his Throne and the earth is his Footestoole for so a Christian useth all earthly blessings but as helps as a footestoole to climbe into the throne of Heaven and this use is lawfull for as Tertullian saith a Christian may make a Nose-gay of flowers to smell to but hee may not make a crowne of flowers to set upon his head so God allowes the sweetnesse of outward blessings to his servants for a refreshing alwayes provided they set them not in the highest place in the highest price In a word Temporall blessings are for his use but eternall for his desire and affection as Gregory speakes Anaxagoras being asked whether he cared not for his countrey with the ruine whereof
steppes take hold of Hell saith Salomon of the Harlot to leave a Sermon to goe to a Play is to forsake the Church of God to betake ones selfe to the Synagogue of Satan to fall from Heaven to Hell And what are they who doe nothing else all their life but warre against heaven more properly than the barbarous Scythians who thought they did it valiantly when they shot their arrowes against heaven which fell upon their owne pates the true Antipodes of God and all goodnesse that by a new found Art of memory never remember the Name of God that made them but in their oathes and blasphemies and by a new found Art of forgetfulnesse seeme to have forgotten their owne name as they say Messala did that they are called Christians that rather than faile of sinning with mutuall emulation like unhappie boyes strive who shall goe furthest in the dirt they thinke it a foule shame to be ashamed of sinne and their ambition is who shall be most famous for infamy The Jewes observe that the same word diversly pronounced Bethsheba with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shibboleth signifies the well of Oath and Bethsaba with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sibboleth the well of plentie I am sure for Oathes the Land mournes of which there is such store as if men by an easie mistake of the point used to draw and drop oathes as it were out of the well of plentie But I shall shew you greater abominations then these it is the Apostles exhortation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow peace and holinesse without which no man shall see God the word indeede is ambiguous and signifies sometime to follow and sometime to persecute the Apostle delivers this with the right hand and would have us follow and pursue holinesse as it were withdrawing our selves from earth and retiring to heaven and that apace for feare we overtake them not but many take this with the left hand and running upon a wrong sent follow neither peace nor holinesse but breake the peace by proclayming open warre and persecuting holinesse without which no man shall see God the tongue is set on fire on hell and they set their mouths against heaven and blaspheme the Saints Good Lord that ever the reformed Church should verifie that which the Poet wrote once of Rome Omnia cùm licet non liceat esse pium When it is lawfull to bee all things but to be piously disposed and these times to be the prophesie of the morall Philosopher when Honour is attributed to vice Gideon received those for his Souldiers that bowed not the knee to drink but lapt like a Dog and Iephta made that the tryall of life or death if they could pronounce Shibboleth and is not now swearing a sufficient pasport for entertainement in the world and drunkennesse as good as letters of Commendation for preferment he that is so precise hee cannot kneele to Bacchus and carouse it so hee that lispes at an oath Sibboleth and cannot thunder them out thicke and threefold with a full mouth Shibboleth dismisse him for a coward he is an Ephramite and as he was wont to doe note him in your Calendar for a Priscillianist a Puritan but they that can do both and with a grace he is a brave lad a true trojan a Gileadite For those two for the most part are companions in evill Simeon and Levi as though wine sprung out of the earth from the blood of the Gyants that fought against the Gods as they in Plutarch imagined so it armes the Tongue against God all his Saints whose persons because they are out of reach they rend and teare their names Poore blind men that offer violence to the Saints as Sampson laid hand upon the Pillars to plucke the house upon their owne heads For this I feare will be the end of this sport and I would to God onely the Princes of the Philistims as indeede they doe sate and laught at this the Poets say Iupiter never throwes his thunderbolt but when the Furies wrest it out of his hand I feare these Furies will draw Gods judgements upon us I know not what vaine hopes like false guides which set a man out of the way beare us in hand that we may goe by sinne and hell to holinesse and shut our eyes against the light of the Gospell and yet at last come to heaven the way indeede to hell is easie for as Bias scoffed the dead goe thither blindfold with their eyes closed but let no man thinke any life will bring a man to heaven as though Christ sent blood out of his side to redeeme us and not water also to purge his redeemed and wash them from their sinnes As though those whom the divell drives headlong to hell as once hee did the Gadarens hogs into the deepe had any reason to conceive they were mounting to the pinacle of the Temple to some high place in heaven who if there were as many heavens as there be dayes in the yeare as the Basilidians foolishly dreamed are not like to come to the lowest point of the lowest without more then ordinary repentance Secondly wordlings whose conversation is in earth who degenerate so far from all noble thoughts that they had rather be Terrae filii sonnes of the earth then heires of heaven which deface the Image of the heavenly Father stamped in the soule not in their coines with continuall rubbing against the earth Wormes and no men that doe not walke upright to heaven but crawle upon the earth the seede of the Serpent inheriting his curse to creepe upon their belly and licke the dust and like that better then the choice delicates the foode of Angels like the Israelites of whom Tertullian whose pallats rellish Garlick or an Onion of the Aegyptian earth better than the Angelicall viands of heaven whom the earth hathwholly swallowed up as once it did Corah who lulled asleepe with the flattering blandishment and faire entertainement they meete with in the world are nayled to the earth as Sisera was by Iael and will not so much as lift their eyes to heaven unlesse it be as the moralist observes that Hogs doe who goe nodling downe and rooting in the earth all their life and never looke upward till being ready to be kild they are laid flat upon their backe and forced so those men are all their life scraping in the dunghill and never thinke upon God or heaven till wrastling with the pangs of death they are even overcome and laid flat upon their backe then they that were prone to earthly cares like Martha like the woman in the Gospel that had a spirit of infirmitie and was bowed downeward and carelesse and supine to all heavenly things are forced to thinke of heaven but perhaps can brook them little better then Cerberus did the light at which he startled and strugled so when Hercules had brought him so farre that he had well nigh twitcht him downe backe againe
to hell if the hand and the chaine that held him had not beene the stronger or as the noble King Richard the first of the name who when the rest of the Princes and Gallants travailing in the Holy Land where they then warred were come to the foote of an hill from whence they might view Jerusalem the holy Citie then possessed by Saracens without hope of recovery for the present and therefore put Spurs to their Horses every one in a youthfull contention who should be the first and have the maidenhead of that prospect Hee puld downe his Beaver over his eyes and would not gratifie them with the vaine pleasure of so sad a spectacle for God forbid said he that I should be hold that Citie though I could which though I would I know not how to rescue so is it but cold comfort to such to thinke of heaven whose life gives so weake evidence for their Title to it whose possibilities are so remote upon I know not what reversion after such and such and such a thing done which they finde then too late that they are not likely to have either space or grace or place to doe Foolish men that lay the greatest burthen upon the weakest horse and leave that one thing which is necessary to their bed when they are fit to doe nothing God called to them to hasten in their life to day if yee will heare my voyce harden not your hearts then they were loath to forsake their sweete sins as Lot to goe out of Sodome till the Angel pluckt him out then they answer coldly as Austin reports of himselfe Give Lord but not yet then they devise a thousand shifts to delay let Salomon bid them remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth they are ready to say to thinke at least as the Devills to our Saviour Art thou come to torment us before our time Whereas they are afraid if they should beginne too soone in Religion they might be Saints and happie before their time but when death comes they change their note their pulse then beates quicke and faint a dangerous symptome of Death O Lord make speede to heare us O Lord make haste to helpe us Then in haste the Minister the Sacrament their prayers then Lord have mercy upon me and so like Gallants that have lost their time in the Alehouse to make amends ride all upon the spurre suriously right Jehues march ready to overrunne the sober traveller so these runne upon the speede at last and thinke to be at heaven before those who have travelled soberly thitherward all their life but what if God should answer their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not yet time in their life with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at their death what if God should say to him as the Crabbe in the Fable to the Serpent when hee had given him his deaths wound for his crooked conditions and then saw him stretch himselfe out streight At oportuit sic vixisse It is too late now you should have lived so What if the sword of Gods Iustice seaze upon him that flies so to the Sanctuary of his Mercy as Joab was slaine even at the hornes of the Altar May not a man receive unworthily not discerning the Lords body by the eye of faith for according to the Father this is the food of Eagles not of Dawes and so eate damnation to himselfe for in this case it is not meate but a knife or sword saith Cyprian The Emperour was poysoned in the Hostie and at last a man may die notwithstanding the Sacrament as the Israelites in the Wildernesse died with Manna in their mouthes Basilides the Emperour of Russia refused a Coelestiall Globe of gold wherein the cunning Artificer as it were in emulation of God had curiously framed a modell of heaven nothing was wanting of the number of the spheares or of the life of the motion which was sent unto him as a rare present from the German Emperour for said he I doe not meane to busie my selfe in the contemplation of heaven and in the meane time did lose the possession of the earth as the German Emperours doe daily to these Turkes it may be wisely and a mâ—id laught at her master Thales the great Astronomer who gazing on the Starres on a sudden fell into a ditch 〈◊〉 thinke justly and the Iew is little pittled who let goe the helme of the ship which he steered at the first approach of the Sabbath and so suffered shipwracke for ought I know deservedly For our Conversation must he in Heaven indeede but it is not a Iacobs staffe but a Iacobs ladder will bring us thither we must behold the heaven but wee may hold the helme also and guide our course the better as Pilots doe we may looke to our estate and walke in the labours of our calling with diligence and if wee doe this with conscience every day is a Sabbath as Clemens speakes what then is to be done as Basil in a like case Let not all thy delight befor earth but minde also heaven so here we must not be all for the world nothing for heaven Suffer not the world to take up the best roomes in the heart while Christ by that meanes is shuffled into the stable but as the Aethiopian Indges in all their meetings reserve the highest seat empty for God so doe you seeke the kingdome of Heaven in the first place e That house is happy where wordly Martha complaines of heavenly-minded Mary saith the Father Happy is that soule which is so tempered that though it run betweene both yet the by as is alway drawing toward heaven that abounds so much in expressions of love that way that the world may have cause to be jealous and complaine of some neglect that feares not the feare of the worlding that if he should follow holinesse toofast he should not be able to live by the trade like the Athenians who in the Consulation whether they should admit Alexander the Great into their Calender and Canonize him for a God which he sued for at first were very zealous against his impious ambition but were soone cold upon the poliâ—icke suggestion of a crafty companion who put them in minde of the power of Alexander and wished them to consider lest while they stood so much for Heaven they were likely to lose earth so these had rather forgoe heavenly than undergoe any hazard af the losse of earthly thinga but the Christian not so but resolves Viderit utilitas let the world looke to that let the world goe as it will I will doe according to the command of my Saviour and build upon his Promise Seeke the Kingdome of God and all these things shall he cast upon you Hypocrites whose conversation is betweene heaven and earth like Erasmus as the Papists paint him like the flying Angel in the Revelation which in the Parable of the Sheepe seeke out
men in name but not in minde to use the words of Chrysostome for what is there even in our nature which doth not lift us up to God to Heaven the frame and fabricke of our bodies so upright that it compels us to tread to trample upon the earth to looke up to heaven and for this purpose Anatomists observe that beside foure muscles in the eyes common to us with bruite creatures there is a peculiar one in mans to lift it upward the head is therefore round a fit seat for the minde and withall that it may be put in minde to thinke upon heaven whence it is and whereof the figure is a resemblance the heart is both a triangle and a Pyramis a Triangle because the world cannot satisfie it no more than a round can fill a Triangle but there will be empty corners still onely the blessed Trinity can fill the capacitie of the heart whose Pallace and Chamber of Presence it should be according to the Initiall letters of the Latine word COR which makes Camera Omnipotentis Regis The Chamber of the Omnipotent Ruler as some have seriously observed and an inverted Pyramis narrow below almost sharpened to a point that it might touch the earth no more than needs must Tota in puncto in Ieroms phrase the whole stands in a narrow point and broad above to receive the influence of Heaven The Rabbins also have observed that there be just so many bones in a mans body as there be letters in the Decalogue and just so many joints and members as there be dayes in the yeare teaching us to offer up a double Holocaust of all our strength and all our time wholy to God in the obedience of his commandements And the whole man is Inversa planta a tree turned upside downe as the Philosopher hath noted long agoe whose rootes are towards heaven from whence it derives all the sappe and juice of Grace which makes the branches towards earth flourishing and be fruitfull in good workes My well-doing extends not unto thee saith the Psamist but unto the Saints that doe excell in vertue and therefore to conclude this in a word because I know these are but allusions and Theologicall comparisons are not Syllogisticall to enforce an argument to prove is a worke most proper and peculiar to the heavenly Ierusalem Plant even Christ himselfe who is God-man blessed for ever in heaven as Clemens speakes And though the fall of man hath defaced the Image of God in him yet the very reliques of his Nature doe testifie that hee was framed for him for heaven for as the statue of Olympian Iupiter was framed lying all along upon the ground out of that vastnesse of proportion and stature that any one might easily discerne that if it were set upright the roofe of the Temple could not conteine it so man the Image of God though his fall hath layd him groveling on the earth yet even so we cannot but perceive that if Grace should please to raise him there is a royall capacitie in him for which all the world is too little For if nature hath not conferd so much dignitie upon man that he cannot stoope to the earth without abasing himselfe I am sure Grace hath Christ hath redeemed him with his owne blood and made us Kings and Priests to God and therefore 't is not amisse before we be serviceable for the world to put Alexander question to his follower that perswaded him to runne at the Olympicke games Doe Kings use to run at the Olympicks and to follow the instruction of the Philosopher to a Prince for a direction how hee should carry himselfe at a banquet in saying no more but this Remember thou art a Kings sonne Fourthly brevitie of life wee reade in Salomons Ephemerides there is a time to be borne a time to dye the time to live is so short as some observe that hee skips it over and vouchsafeth not once to name it The Philosopher affirmes that man is therefore the wisest of all creatures because hee alone can number and they note this as an essentiall difference betweene them that Bruta non numerant brute creatures cannot number I am sure this is most true of that divine Arithmetick which the Psalmist prayes for Lord teach us so to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisedome then wee may not spend our precious time upon trifles the Italian proverbe is he that will lodge well at night must set out early and take up his Inne betimes Beloved we cannot beginne too soone to set onward upon our journey toward the new Ierusalem the Iewes tell of Ben Syra yet a child that he begged of his master to instruct him in the Law of God who defer'd it and put him off saying he was to young yet to be entered into divine mysteries then hee replyed but master said he I have beene in the Churchyard and perceive by the graves which I have laine downe by and measured and finde shorter then my selfe that many have dyed younger than I am and what shall I doe then and if I should die before I have learned the Law of God what would become of me then master The consideration of our short life should cause us to make haste to learne to know and serve God and to thinke wee cannot begin to study that lesson too soone that can never be learned too well And withall to use all speede and diligence lest so as Chrildren have usually torne their books we have ended our lives before wee have learned our lessons let us therefore translate our care and greedinesse from earth to heaven and as some doe cut off their horses tailes to make their backes stronger and fitter for burden 't is the Rabbins comparison which they apply to liberalitie so let us cut off all superfluous expences of time that wee may afford to bee more liberall towards necessary and noble uses lest if wee let much water goe beside the mill wee spend much time beside the maine businesse as it was observed of Demosthenes that his breast was too short for his periods so wee finde it true in a case of the greatest importance that the period of our dayes be ended before we come to the period of our desires the comfortable assurance of eternall happinesse At least let us not thinke much to doe as much for heaven as we doe for earth Percute quâ aratrum bestirre thy selfe as if thou wert at plough said a father to his sonne Glaucus when he saw him overcome by his Antagonist at the Olympick games where hee had forced him to contend in hope of gayning great glory because he had observed great experiments of strength in his ploughing So may I say with the same diligence that men use in plowing the earrh if they would imploy it that way men might purchase heaven why then are we so foolish to refuse a motion so equall a bargaine so advantageous why doe wee sticke