waues tottered scaâ—tered them on the waters like chaffe on the face of the earth before the wind and tempest of his indignation All their intentions their contentions their presumption of conquest were disappointed dissolued discomfited These things though they haue not seene let our childrens children to the last generation that shall inhabite this land neuer forget that we and they may praise God who hath made fast the barres of our gates and hath setled peace in our borders 2. Famine is a sore outward sickenesse an affliction sent by the immediate hand of God For it is he that withholdeth the influence of heauen and the kindly heate of the Sunne and the nourishing sappe of the earth I haue giuen you cleannesse of teeth in all your cities and want of bread in all your places saith the Lord. As it is his blessing that our valleies are couered ouer with corne so it is his plague that we haue sowen much and bring in little that the mower filleth not his hand nor he that bindeth sheaues his bosome When he is pleased he will heare the heauens and they shall heare the earth and the earth shall heare the corne and wine and oyle and they shall heare vs. England hath felt the smart of this sickenes and she that out of her abundance hath been able to lend others hath also been glad to borrow of her neighbours The satte kinâ— of Bashan rich gormondizers haue not been acquainted indeed with this miserie and therefore haue not sorrowed for the affliction of Ioseph But the poore the poore haue greeued groned vnder this burden whiles cleannesse of teeth and swarthinesse of looke were perceiued in the common face Whiles these arrowes of famine wounded our sides and our staffe of bread whereon our very life leanes was broken we could then cry hic digitus dei here is the finger of God In our plenty saturity satietie of these earthly blessings we acknowledge not manum expansam his whole hand of bountie opened to vs though then we confessed digitum extensum his finger striking vs and bewailed the smart Famine is terrible ynough of it selfe more dire and tetricall in regard of the company she bringes along with her For Saua farmes semper magnorum prima malorum Est comes Raging famine is the prime companion of many fellowmischiefes Ex vno grano oritur aceruus of one graine of this staruing misery ariseth a whole heape of lamentable woes The attendants of famine are murthers robberies rapes killing of children that the same vessels become the wombes and toombs of little ones and innumerable stretchings of conscience to the reuoking of former and prouoking of future iudgements No maruell if hunger disregard the mounds and fences of Gods laws and mans when it breakes through stone walls The Poet somwhat morally describes Famine Quâ—esit am que famem lapidoso vidit in antro c. Behold hunger in her stony denne tearing vp the grasse with her long nayles and sharpe teeth her neglected haires growne rough and tangled her eyes hollow her cheekes pale her skinne rugged and swarthy left onely as a thinne scarse to hide her lanke entrals nothing cleane about her but her teeth her dry bones starting vp her breasts hangiâ—g ouer in the aire her ioynts swolne bigge and huge her sinewes shrunke as vnwilling to hold her limbes together This is that monster that turnes men into Canibals vnnaturally to deuoure one anothers flesh I haue read that at Turwyn in France the famine was so deadly that mans flesh was solde for food This sicknesse is worse then death Happy are we that Gods mercy hath banished this plague from our land Oh let not our iniquities reuoke it 3 The Pestilence wee better know as one that hath but a little while bin kept out of our dores and watcheth when our iniquities shall againe let him in Hee sculkes about and will not be rid away till repentance hath made our coast cleare This is Gods Purseuant that hath rode circuit in our land and to whomesoeuer God hath sent him he neuer returned with a non est muentus but alwaies brought Si non corpus taemen animam sum causa if not the body yet the soule with the cause before his iudgement seate This is he that rides on the pale horse Reu. 6. and catcheth men as with a snare perhaps when they haue most hasted from him How hath this plague left the verie streetes of our Cities emptie when they seemed to haue beene sowed with the seed of man how astonied the liuing frighted the dying disioyned the mutuall societie and succour of friend to friend and that in a time when comfort would haue been most seasonably welcome trembling hands pulling dead bodies into the graues with hookes or rolling them into pits Turne backe your eyes that now liue in the Appeniue height of peace and health and thinke you see the lamentable state of your Country as few years past discouered it Imagine you behold the hand-wringing widdowes beating their bosomes ouer their departing husbands the distracted mothers falling into swounes whiles they kisse the insensible colde lippes of their breathlesse Infants poore desolate Orphanes that now mourne the vntimely losse of their parentes as being made by yeares more sensible of their want then when deathes pestilentiall hand tooke them away the loude grones and strugling pangs of soules departing seruants crying out for Masters Wiues for Husbands parents for children children for mothers griefe in euery house striking vp alarums belles heauily tolling in one place ringing out in another Numbers of people that not many howres before had their seuerall Chambers delicatelie highted now confusedly thrust together into one close roome a little noysome hole not twelue foote square They haue marble bosomes that will not be shaken with these terrors and haue sucked Tygresses in the wildernesse that cannot compassionate these calamities How did they grieue a Church to feele them when they affect afflict and make vs Sicke to heare them I know you haue long looked for an end I neuer delighted in prolixity of speech What remaines but the more terrible wee conceiue these sicknesses of a Church the more wee blesse GOD for the present health of ours Let not our sinnes call backe these plagues let vs not prouoke our GOD least earth ayre heauen renew their strokes vpon vs. Warres and famines from the earth plagues from the ayre iudgementes from the Cloudes they are all restrayned at our repentance let loose at at our rebellions Oh serue wee the Lord our God with feare and obedidience that hee may delight to doe vs good and wee to prayse his name That wee our selues and our Children after vs and the generations yet vnborne may see the Peace of Ierusalem all their dayes That the golden Belles of Aaron may bee freely rung and the Trophees of Victory ouer all Antichristian enemies may still bee seene amongst vs. Euen till
made themselues by Apostacie the children of Beliall The third is blessed and neuer to bee forfeited This is a happy aduancement that the daughter of Sion is made the daughter of God whom his equall and eternal sonne hath vouchsafed to marry It was no smal preferment in Dauids oÌ„pinion by wedding Saules daughter to bee made sonne in Law to a King how farre higher doth the Churches honour transcend that by marrying the sonne of God is made daughter in Law to the King of Kinges Specially when this bond is indissoluble by the hand of death vncancellable by the sentence of man vndiuorceable by any defect or default in the Spouse for hee that chose her to himselfe will preserue her from all cause why hee may not take pleasure in her beauty And as Christ now in heauen dwels with his Church on earth by grace so shee though partly now on earth dwels with him in heauen all her members being Burgesses of that celestiall Corporation Since animus est vbâ—amat non vbâ—animat Our conuersation is in heauen whence also wee looke for the Sauiour the Lord Iesus Christ. Thus Augustine Et ille adhuc deorsum est noâ— iam sâ—â—sum His mercies are still descending to vs our affections ascending to him The desires of the faithfull Spouse are with her Beloued Such is the insolubility of that misticall vnion which no eloquence of man can expresse no violence of diuels shal suppresse Therefore ascendamus interim corde vt sequamur corpore let vs send vp our affections before that our persons may follow after As Christ hath sent thee downe his spirit as a pawne and pledge of this assurance so doe thou send him vp thy heart for a token of thy acceptance yea of thy hopefull expectation and desire to bee with him Minus anima promisit se Christo quae non praemisit se Christo that soule hath nothing lesse then vowed it selfe to Christ that houers and hankers about the world and is loath to come at him This is ineffable inestimable happines Hence the daughter of Israel vnderstand me not topically but typically not Israel in the flesh but the Israel of God children of that Ierusalem which is aboue or at least from aboue doth apportion all the riches of her Husband If it be vox amici Tuus sum totus the voyce of a friend I am wholy thine it is more liuingly more louingly vox mariti the speech of a husband The Bride among the heathen on the first day of her marriage challenged of the Bridegroome vbi tu Caius ego Câ—â—â— where you are Master I must be mistresse Mariage is a strong bond by Gods ordinance and knowes no other methode but composition God that increation made two of one by marriage made one of two Hence the Daughter of Israell is made one with the sonne of God by an vnion which the heart may feele but no art describe Those gracious and glorious riches which the master of all the world is proprietarie of are in some sort communicate toys His righteousnes holinesse obedience satisfaction expiation inheritance is made ours as our sinne sorrow suffrings death and damnation were made his not by transfusion but by imputation His sorrow paine passion for vs was so heauy so grieuous so pearcing such a Sic that all the world could not match it with a Sicâ—t Our ioy by him is so gracious shall be so glorious that pro qualitate pro aequalitate nihil in comparationem admâ—titur for quality for quantity it refuseth all comparison Oh blessed mutation blessed mutuation â— what wee had ill and what had wee but ill wee changed it away for his good what he hath good and what other nature can come from goodnesse it selfe we happily enioy vel in esse vel in posse either in possession or assurance Our Sauiour died our death that we might liue his life He suffered our hell to bring vs to his heauen It is somewhat not vnworthy the noting that Filia dicitur non filiae Israel is called by the name of daughter not of daughters Sion hath but one daughter The whole people is vnica quia vnita As she is one shee must be at one not â—arring not repugnant to her selfe Confusion belongs to Babel Let peace dwell in the Pallaces of Ierusalem They are refractary spirits vnworthy to dwell in the Daughter of Sions house that are euer in preparation for separation from her The Church consists of a Communion of Saints an vnited Flocke vnder one sheepheard not a company of stragling sheepe getting schisme forgetting their chrisme the vnity of the spirit that makes men bee of one mind in one house But as the spirits in man cease to quicken any member sundred from the body and the scattered bones in Ezechiels vision receiued no life till they were incorporate into a body So the spirit of God which is anima corporis the soule of his mysticall body forbeares the derivation of grace and comfort to those that cut off themselues from it Shee is one vna vnica that is mother of vs all Though there bee threescore Queenes and fourescore Concubines and virgines without number yet my doue my vndefiled is but one shee is the onely one of her mother the choice one of her that bare her There is one body many members 1. Cor. 12. The eye must not quarrell with the hand nor the head with the foot If we be one against another let vs beware least God be against all We haue one Lord whose Liuery is Loue Iohn 15. By this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if yee haue loue one to another whose doctrine is peace Ephes. 2. He preached peace to you that were farre off and to them that were nigh Let vs then serue him professing one truth with one heart It is wretched when sects vie number with Cities and there are so many creedes as heads Qui conaÌ„tur vel corrumpere fidem vel disrumpere charitatem who striue either to corrupt faith or dissolue charitie none performing his function without faction It is testified of those pure and primitiue times that the multitude of them that beleeued were of one heart and of one soule One mind in many bodies Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in vnitie sayth the Psalmist when inter multa corpora non multa corda as August-sweetly when among diuers men there are not diuers minds Sic viuentes in vnum vt vnum bominem faciant so louing and liuing together in one that they all make but as it were one man There is no knot of loue so sure as that which Religion ties It is able to draw together East and West sea and land and make one of two of ten of thousands of all This is that which gathereth the saints together not to a locall but misticall vnion whereby they are
pleading of it But in vain doth the beggars sonne boast himselfe of the bloud royall or the wicked soule of partaking the diuine nature when hee cannot demonstrate his adoption by his sanctification So that as we giue comfort to them that except themselues so terror to them that accept themselues when God doth not make sure to thy soule that thou art once Gods and my life for thine thou shalt euer be his Lastly from this titular phrase obserue that the daughter of Ierusalem is our mother Ierusalem which is aboue is free which is the mother of vs all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The holy Church is our mother if the most holy God be our Father She feedes vs with sincere milke from her two breastes the scriptures of both the Testaments those Oracles which God hath committed to her keeping God doth beget vs of unmortallseed by the word which liueth and abideth for euer but not without the wombe of the Church Non enim nascimur â—edrenascimur Christianâ— wee are not Christians by our first but by our second birth Neither is she the mother of all but vs all whom God hath chosen before all time and called in time to himselfe Qui sic sunt in domâ— Dei vt ipsi sint domâ—s Dei who are so in the House of God that themselues are the house of God He that ouercommeth I will write vpon him the name of my God and the name of the City of my God which is now Ierusalem that commeth out of heauen from my God So that à quo dominatio ab â—o denominatio our name is giuen vs according to her name that cherisheth and is Mother vnto vs. Hence euery beleeuing soule is a daughter of Ierusalem and a spouse of Christ. Anima credentis est sponsaredimentis The soule of him that beleeues is the spouse of him that saues As a multitude is but a heape of vnites so the Church is a congregation of Saints And as that which belongs to the body belongs to euery member so the priuiledges of our mother Ierusalem are the prerogatiues of all her children not onely the daughter of Sion her selfe but euery daughter of hers euery faithfull soule ' is a pure virgin and so to be presented to Iesus Christ. As Paul to his particular Church of Corinth I am iealous ouer you with a godly iealousie for I haue espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chast virgin to Christ. Mans soule is of an excellent nature and like a beautious damsel hath many Sutours 1. First the Deuill who comes like an old dotard neatly tricked and licked vp his wrinckled hide smoothed and sleeked with tentations he comes euer masqu'd and dares not shew his face Take away his vizour and the soule is worse then a witch that can affect him And as when hee temptes wretched Sorceresses to some reall couenant with him hee assumes the forme of familiar and vnfeared creatures left in a horrid and strange shape they should not endure him So in his spirituall circumuentions for the more facile flie and suspectâ—esse insinuation into mortall hearts Hee transformes himselfe into an Angell of light The promises of this Sutour are large and faire hee offers the soule if it will bee his spouse a greater Ioynture Iudas shall haue money Esau pleasures Naball plenty Christ himselfe shall bee ioyntuâ—'d in many kingdoms but euer hee indents that wee must loue him and ioyne with him in marriage Doeg shall haue a place in the court so he will maligne Gods Priests Pilate shall be Iudge so he will ply his vsury hard The Proctor shall bee made an Eccleâ—asticall Iudge if he will promise more conuiuence then conscience and suffer Master bribery to giue the censure Euery Balâ—am shall be promoted that is readier to curse then blesse the people These things to the wicked doth Sathan forme in speculation though not performe in action Hee is an ill wooer that wanteth wordes Heare his voyce and see not his face belieue his promises and consider him not as a lyer as a murderer and he will goe neere to carry thy hart from all But he that hath two infirmities nay enormities that betray him a stinking breath and a halting foot 1 For his breath though it smell of sulphure and the hote steame of sinne and hell yet hee hath art to sweeten it So hee can rellish couetice with thriftâ—nes voluptuousnes with good diet idlenes with good quiet drunkennes because it is very sowre fulsome and odious â—uâ—n to nature and reason shall be season'd sweeten'd with good fellowship Malice is the argument of a noble Spirit and murder the maintenance of reputation Lust is the direction of nature and swearing a gracefull testimony to the truth of our speeches With such luscious confections he labours to conserue his lungs from stinking If it were not for those mists and shadowes sinne would want both fautors and factors 2 But his lame foot cannot bee hidden as they once foolishly fabled among the vulgar that his clouen foote could not bee changed for his disobedience is manifest If hee saith Steale and God saieth Thou shalt not steale Sweare when God saith Sweare not dissemble when hee cries Woe against hypocrites bee an vsurer when God sayeth thou shalt not then dwell in my glory what pretences soeuer glosse his Text his lamenesse cannot bee hidden All his pollicy cannot deuise a boot to keepe him from this halting This is the first worst Sutour 2 The World comes in like a blustering Captaine with more nations on his backe then crownes in his purse or at least vertues in his conscience This wooer is handsomely breasted but ill backed better to meete then to follow for hee is all vanity before all vexation behind by the witnesse of him that tried and knew him Sometimes trouble followes him but surely followes him The desire of money is the roote of all euill which while sons coueted after they haue erred from the faith and pierced themselues through with many sorrowes Hee is like a Bee or an Epigram all his sting is in his tayle Hee is troubled with a thousand diseases and is attended on with more plagues then euer was Galens study He is now growne exceeding olde and hath but a few minutes to liue Hee is decayed both in stature and nature especially hee is troubled with a stooping and a stopping a stooping in his ioynts a stopping in his lungs He neither hath an vpright face nor a light heart 1 For the former hee is euer poring on the earth as if he had no other heauen or were set to digge there for Paradise His eye neuer lookes vp to heauen but to obserue what weather it will be This is his curuitie hee is a warped aged and decrepite Sutour There is no straightnes in him 2 For the other hee cannot be lightsome because hee neuer did giue good conscience one
and townes 〈◊〉 our gold and goods worldlings gods transporting our wiues children friends shrieking vnder the hand of slaughter we need not call for mourning women Ier. 9. to waile for vs our owne eyes would run downe with teares and our eye lids gush out with waters Let profanenesse lift vp his wicked hand against God to blaspheme his name despise his truth disallow his Saboaths abuse his patience deride his treatinges his threatnings his iudgements this we see and suffer without compassion without opposition But knowing the iudgement of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not onely doe the same but haue pleasure in them that do them These Sicknesses may afflict a Church inwardly Shee may be sicke outwardly 1. by the persecution of man 2. by the affliction of God By persecution of man I need not call your thoughts back to elder times weary you with antiquities to iustifie this assertion This Church of ours so well remembers this sicknes in Q. Maries dayes as if she were but newly recouered whence discended those euils but à culmine Pontifieio as one cals it from the top tower of the Pope yet the Romists stick not to answere this laid to their charge by auerring paradoxically that their persecution was in loue as Sara to Hagar In loue they tyranized slandered beat imprison'd manacled massacred burned vs all in loue As Philippides cudgelled his father pleaded it was in loue If this were charity then sure the very mercies of the wicked are cruell their loue is worse then others hatred Nunquid ouis lupum persequitur aliqnando non sed lupus oueÌ„ Quem videris in sanguine persecutionis gaudenteÌ„ lupus est saith Chrysost. doth the sheep euer persecute the wolfe no but the wolfe the sheep whom thou seest delighting in the bloud of persecution let him plead what he will he is a very wolfe Wee tell the Papists as Augustine told the Donatists notwithstanding their distinguishing by tenses and pretenses that their persecution exceeded in cruelty the very Iewes For the Iewes persecuted Christicarnem ambulantis interra these Christi evangelium sedentis in caelo the flesh of Christ walking on earth the Papists the Gospell of Christ sitting in heauen But their cruelty is our glory we haue sprung vp the thicker for their cutting vs downe Plures efficimur quoties matimur Contrary to the rules of Arithmeticke our substraction hath beene our multiplication The Church of God morte vinit vulnere nascitur receiueth birth by wounding life by dying Occidi possumus vinci non possumus as the ineuitable inuincible truth hath manifested Wee may be killed we cannot be conquered For thy sake we are killed all the day long as Paul saith from the Psalmist to shew that both the Church of the old Testament and of the new giue experimental testimony of the truth yet in althese thing we are more then conquerours through him that loued vs If our plant had not beene set vp by the all-prospering hand of God the malignancie of these enemies would haue soone rooted it vp They haue verefied in their persecutions against vs what one of their own writes of the Turkish Alcoran Omnium quae in Alchorano continentur vltima resolutio est gladius The last resolution propagation propugnation of althings contained in the AlchoraÌ„ in the Popes decretals is not the word but the sword But blessed be our God that hath limited this rage and sealed vs our Quietus est Though they will haue no peace with vs wee haue peace with him that can ouer-rule them But haue we no persecutors still Oh that no Israelite would euer strike his brother There are two sorts of Porsecutors remaining Esau's and Ismaels nourished with the same ayre borne on the same earth and caried in the indulgent bosome of the same Church But nobis ignominia non sit patià fratibus quod passius est Christus neque illis gloria facere quod fecit Iudas Let it be no more shame for vs to suffer of our brethren what our Sauiour suffered of his then it is glory for them to do the workes of Iudas Some persecute with the hand others with the tongue Exercent hi sapientiam illi patientiam Ecclesiae The latter exercise the wisdome the former the patience of the Church We are secured from Ahabs and Herods and Neroes the teeth of the dogges be broken and the iawes of the wolues pulled out the Bonners and butchers of the Church are husht in their graues Oh that the Serpents also which hisse and spet their venime at our peace when all the birds of our ayre sing acclamations to it were at quiet But as then be that was borne after the flesh persecuted him that was borne after the spirit euen so it is now Now so and will be so We cannot see an end of these things without the end of all things Our turne is still to suffer we returne not blow for blow but in stead of sounding a point of warre we cry one to another patiamur potius Let vs rather suffer Let the Romane affections like so many pestilent riuers runne all in mare rubrum or rather in mare mortuum into the red Sea into the dead sea and snatching the sword of vengeance out of his hand that owes it quit themselues on their imagin'd enemies with â—loud and death Let him that is stiled the Seruant of seruants shew himselfe the Tyrant of tyrants Philosophy teacheth that externall accidentes change inward quality â—s but without an absolute mutation ipsius speciei they change no substances A Church may indeed at one time be better or worse disposed then at another more hote or more cold more sicke or more whole But as it were a strange fitte that should transform Apuleius into an Alie so it were a strange variation of accidents in a Church that should turne patience into cruelty humiliâ—y into pride a Tutour into a tormentour Let their motto be ferio the terme whereon all their arguments râ—lf let ours be fero It is far better to suffer then to offer wrong Let sauage persecution sit vnder the Ensignes of wolues meekenes and patience be our armes and armours This outward malady of a Church Persecution discouers the malignity of it selfe in many extentions Especially 1. in martyring her professors 2. in treason against her Soueraignes 3. in seducing her Seers 1 Martyrdome God hath in all ages of his Church suffred som witnesses of his holy truth to be purified like gold in the fire Though they are blessed that haue so suffered the Church hath in conclusion gained by this losse yet during the turbulent working of these thunder exhalations in our ayre we haue lamented miseram regionis fâ—ciem the miserable state of our country whose face hath bin scratcht and torne by the bloudy nailes of these persecuting beares Needs must the land be sicke where
corporall The Soule is at all parts more precious then the Body It is that principall most diuine and excellent halfe of man Dum viuisicat anima dum vult animus dum scit mens dum recolit memoria dum iudicat ratio dum spirat spiritus dum sentit sensus It is called for quickning a soule for knowing mind for remembring memory for iudging reason for breathing spirit for feeling sense when the soule is sicke all these are sicke with it The soule is compared to heauen the body to earth The heauen is glorious with Sun Moon Starres so the soule with vnderstanding memory reason faith hope c. The body like the earth whereof it was made is squallid with lusts The earth hath no heate nor nourishment but from heauen nor the body comfort but from the soule How then oh how terrible is the soules sicknes or death How indulgently should wee tender the health thereof Wee keepe our chicken from the kite our lambe from the Wolfe our fawne from the hound our doues from the vermine and shall wee yeeld our darling to the Lyons our soule to those murdering spirits which endeuour to deuoure them The Soule may bee well when the body is full of griefes but ill goes it with the body when the soule is sicke Nay euen corporall diseases are ofen a means to procure spirituall soundnesse Therefore one cals it optabile malum cum mali remedium sit maioris a happy euill which is the remedy of a greater euill Wee may say of many healthfull bodies tutius aegrotassent they might with lesse danger haue beene sicke Nusquam peius quam in sano corpore ager animus habitat A sicke minde dwels not rightly in a sound body But to find a healthfull and sound soule in a weake sickly body is no wonder Since the Soule before smothered with the cloudes of health is now suffered to see that through the breaches of her prison which former ignorance suspected not Corporall sickenes is a perpetuall Monitor to the conscience euery pang a reproofe and euery stitch reades a lesson of mortality ready euer to checke for euill or to inuite to good which duty weighed a man hath lesse reason to be ouer feareful of sicknesse then ouer glad of health The Spirituall detriment that may ensue on health is more dangerous then the bodily paine that pursues sicknes If a man feare not death what power hath sicknes to make him miserable Tolerabilis est morbipraesentia si contempseris id quod extreâ—um minatur Sicknesse hath little terrour in it if thou shall contemne that which it threatneth Death If it teach thee by the sight of the first death instant to preuent the fury of the second behold it makes thee blessed Such good vse may the wise Soule make of the bodies enemie I haue read it said that singulus morbus paruula mors euery disease is a little death Therefore God sends vs many little deathes to instruct our preparation for the great death The oftner a man dies the better hee may know to die well I yeelde if in sicknes we contract and narrow vp the powers of our soule and direct them as our finger to the griefe of our bodies only forgetting either that God strikes vs or that we haue first stricken God eyther flying to ill meanes or affying to good meanes more then to God our sicknesse may be deadly to body and soule too Asa was sicke but of his feete his feet stood far from his hart yet because he relyed more on his Physitians then on his Maker he died Or if there shall bee no lesse confusion and hurly butly in the faculties of the Soule then there is distemperature in the partes of the body when Reason which should be the Queene and dwell in the highest and choisest roome is deposed from her gouernement When the Senses which are the Court-guardes and the Princesses attendants that giue all admission into the Presence are corrupted when the supreme faculties which are the Peeres are reuolted and the Affections which are the Commons peruerted and all this insurrection and disturbance dethroning the Queene corrupting the Guard drawing from fealty the Peeres and the Commons from alleageance wrought by those violent passions which are refractory and headstrong Rebels hauing once gotten head Alas how far is this miserable distemper and perturbation of these spirituall parts aboue the distresse or distraction of the corporall members neither is the future perill hereof onely more full of prodigious desolation but euen the present sense is also more tetricall piercing and amazing with horror We shall finde the perplexity of this spirituall sicknesse how far exceeding the corporall if wee either compare them generally or particularly instance in any speciall disease 1 Generally The excellency of health is measured according to the Life which holds it and the dignity of Life is considered by the cause that giues it 1. The Life of the Plant is basest because it consists but in the iuyce which is administred by the earth to the root thereof and thence deriued and spred to the parts 2. The Life of the brute creature excels because it is sensitiue and hath power of feeling 3. The Life of man is better then both because it is reasonable conceiuing iudging of things by vnderstanding 4. The Life of a spirituall man is better then all the former and it hath two degrees 1. The life of inchoate regeneration and it consists in grace 2. the perfect life of imputed righteousnes conferred and confirmed by Iesus Christ 5. The Life of Glory exceedes all whereof there are also two degrees 1. the fruition of glory in soule 2. the ful possession in the vnion of the body to it These two last sorts of Life transcend the former in two maine respects 1. Because the other may die must die these haue a patent of eternity sealed them 2. Because the other haue transient causes These haue the Grace and Glory of God Now as by all consent the Life of reasonable man is better then the vegetable of plants or sensitiue of beasts so the health of man must needes be more precious and as that vertue excels in goodnesse so doth the defect exceede in miserablenesse Respect man distinctiuly as hee is a Body onely and then to bee sicke and die are common to him with plants and beastes and what suffering is there in the one more then in the other saue that as the Beast is more sensible of paine then the tree so man is more apprehensiue then the beast the bodies of all returne to the earth But man hath a soule wherein his reason is placed which fainting or sickening through sinne or the punishment for sinne there is offered a passion and griefe whereof the other are not capable Death to the rest is not so terrible as this sickenesse The goodlier the building is the more lamentable the ruine 2