of dayes thy mercie is as ancient and from the beginning O thou whose name is wonderfull thy loue is wonderfull why should men then from the breasts of consolation fly and cal to Aegypt or go to Ashur Leane vpon the worlds lap as long as you will shee will proue but a Dalila to robbe you of your strength she will proue like that little sister Cant. 8. that hath no breasts but Christ is your true Vine Iohn 15. 1. A vine growes neere the house so he is neere to all them that call vpon him a vine is an ornament to the house so Christ is to vs therfore we must cast all our crovvnes dovvne at his feete The Vine keepes the house from a storme So CHRIST keepes vs from storme and tempest vvhich is the portion of the vvicked to drinke But which is tremblable and monstrous there be some who when God smites them they fly vnto a witch or an Inchauntresse and call for succour as though Iob had beene deceiued when he sayd O God thou vvoundest and healest againe thou woundest and killest againe or vvhen he sayde The same God that takes away the same God doth giue When Ahazia was hurt hee sent to Beel-zebub the God of Eckron but God sent Eliah the Thisbite in haste to meet the messenger on the way and bade him say What is there neuer a God in Israel but thou must seeke for helpe of Beel-zebub the God of Eckron Because thou hast done this thing thou shalt neuer rise out of thy bedde Gods fauour neuer was vppon Saul after hee left him and vvent to the Witch of Endor therefore it is sayde that Saul dyed in his sinne because hee forsooke the Lord and asked counsell of a familiar spirit Let this doctrine serue as eye-salue vnto all you if there be any in this place who for the loue of your goods and your bodies health seeke vnto not the hurting witch for flesh and bloud abhorres her but the good witch as you call them commonly who is more sought vnto therefore the more daungerous who assure yourselues is the more Saint the more Diuell Therefore deale you with God by prayer be in league with God this blessed league of loue was not concluded betwixt God and the men of Ephraim because they left their first loue and started aside like a broken bowe but God was angry his iealousie burned like fire he found their goodnesse to be as a cloude and as the morning dewe quickly come and quickly gone their zeale short breathed in going vp the hill to heauen Hee found their motion not to bee naturall not from the heart because it was tardior in fine quà m in principio more flow in their latter end then in their beginning His family admittes no dwarfes or vnthriuing soules which grow not in grace which do not run that they may obtaine but rather with Demas goe backe and imbrace this present world therefore hee weighed them in a ballance and found them too light and diuided their kingdome Heere stand amazed with me and tremble at the angry wordes of our iust God But when they shall goe I wil spread my net vpon them and draw them downe as the fowles of heauen I will chastice them as their congregation hath hearde verse 12. As if God had sayde O ye men of Ephraim though you be without an eye and see not your danger without a foote and returne not vnto me without a heart like a doue deceiued and goe to Ashur yet I wil see you when you go for I search Ierusalem with a candle I will spread a net by my wisedome and draw you downe by my power and chastice you in my iustice and make good my truth by performing that which you haue heard in your congregation Hee will see them when they goe where I note Gods all seeing prouidence watching ouer the godly and ouer the wicked ouer the godly to protect them ouer the wicked to restraine them Ouer the godly for their protection and therefore in the 9. of the Prouerbs Wisedome that is Christ the wisedom of his father is said to buildher an house that is the Church vpon seauen pillars that is vpon a sure foundation and in the foundation of the Church as of the Temple of Ierusalem Zach. 4. there is laide the stone with seauen eyes Gods all seeing prouidence which is is so mounted vpon the wings of birds that two silly Sparrows sould for one farthing cannot fall to the ground without his permission much lesse man who is of more worth then many sparrowes least of all Gods elect for whose good his Angels are appointed to be a guard and to all that are heires of saluation Heb. 1. 14. The difference betweene the God of Israel and the Gods of the Gentiles is this the God of Israel holds his people in his hands Apoc. 2. 1. But the Gentiles held their Gods in their owne hands Gen. 35. 4. The wheeles in the first of Ezechiel things whose motions are giddy and vncertaine resembled the round world and the things therein which things like the rings of those wheeles are full of eyes full of Gods prouidence for now Ierusalem being without walles hath Gods prouidence to be awall of fire about her and himselfe is the glory in the midst of her for the good of his people hee makes the heauens to heare the earth the earth to heare the corne the wine and the oyle and them to heare the cries of Israel when Israell cries hee must bee heard For he that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleepe Least then we plow the Sands and labour in vaine wee must wrastle with all difficulties and businesses and ouercome them as the people of God did the Madianites with the sword of the Lord and the sword of Godion neither being wanting vnto our selues nor yet depending vpon our own endeuours without the blessing of the Lord who will say to the North Giue and to the South keepe not backe It was a worthy resolution of Iacob that hee would not goe into a strange Countrey vpon a great businesse vnlesse GOD would be with him in his iourney Let it be your resolution not to vndertake any businesse for soule nor body but with a request vnto God before you vndertake your worke that hee will further your enterprise When you come into the Church to heare for your soules health or when you are about to labour in your vocations remember this GOD is the supervisour of his owne will to see that it bee performed by the godly and by the wicked hee helpes the godly that they may doe it If the vngodly doe it not Hee teares them in peeces while there is none to help for according to the position of the schooles in him there is bona potentia and potens bonitas Ouer the wicked a power and that is good
they fly for succor vp vnto God no for it followeth There is none among them that calleth vpon me The language of the Prophet is all and none all are like an ouen none call vpon God they went all with one accord down the stream they were either possessed with a dumb spirit they did not call or with a frantick spirit if they called they called not vpon God they did not but wee must call and call vpon God wee must call or else we are sluggish call on God or else we are foolish in the name of Christ or else wee are presumptuous for things lawfull or else wee are impious zealously or else we are but like warme Christians We must aske if we will haue seeke if we will finde Luke 11. for the blessings of God are not the spoiles of Salmacis without sweat and bloud though they be cheap yet they come not alwaies without our own indeauors which indeauors of ours if they be vsed O with what ioy may we expect Gods blessings vpon vs as the husband man waits for the former the later rain Israel sinned as they did often God was angry Moses prayed God sayd vnto him Stay me not Moses as if prayer had beene a corde to binde the hands of God that he could not smite Marke well the words Stay me not Moses but let mee smite the people Is any man afflicted let him pray Yea but God many times seemes not to heare but makes his children like them that goe down into the pit Yet tarry thou the Lords leisure be strong prescribe him no time but as Moses stroke the rock twice and the waters gushed out so be not you weary of prayer but with your prayers beate at the rock of your defence again and againe and if not at the first yet in Gods good time the waters of comfort will issue out and make your soules like vnto a watered garden you shall be changed from Iacobs to Israels that is preuailing with God Pray you must and not be sluggish and when you pray you must be wise and call vpon God Such was the practice of Constantine the Emperour when his enemy Licinius begun his warres with exorcismes and charmes he vndertooke all with prayer and holy meditations and therefore the Lord of heauen made him Lord of the field and he found such comfort by praier that he stamped vpon his coine the image of himselfe kneeling vnto his God Pray to God you must and not be foolish in the name of Christ and not bee presumptuous For the name of him is the only name wherby wee must be saued Iacob in his iourney towarde Padan Aram as hee dreamed saw a ladder reared from earth to heauen which by the iudgements of Diuines was a figure of Christ who by his humane nature touched earth and heauen by his diuinity vpon this ladder there vvere Angells that passed vp and down at the top of the ladder there stood Almighty God whereby wee may be assured that if we or our prayers passe by the ladder by Christ Iesus wee haue God the Father at the top of the ladder ready to receiue vs and our prayers whereas we haue no such assurance if wee goe by Saints or Angells or any other by-path saue onely the Kings high way The ascending to the throne of Salomon was by sixe staiers or steps and at the end of euery stayer was ingrauen a Lion Ascend you vnto the throne of a greater then Salomon by the sixe petitions of the same prayer that the Sonne of God composed and you shall find annexed to euery petition a lion euen the Lion of the tribe of Iuda who by his meditation will procure you both audience and fauour When the wine failed at the mariage at Cana of Galilee Christ tooke sixe water pots full of water and turned them into wine though those sixe petitions deliuered by our hearts and tongues by reason of the mixture of our vanity bee full of water weake wallowish and not seasoned with that salt which euery man should haue in himselfe Mark 9. Uer. 50 Yet by his power and mediation hee can make them strong as wine and vs so strong that by wrastling with God wee shall be called no more Iacobs but Israels that is preuayling with God Yet for all this the diuell would lead 〈◊〉 from the fountaine of liuing water vnto pits which haue no water When demaund was made of the Oracle in Daphne neere vnto Antioch why it ceased to giue answers as formerly it had done the diuell made answer that he had no power because in that place the bones and reliques of the Martyr Babylas were buried insinuating some extraordinarie holinesse and power in the dead martyrs and by consequent inuiting the simple to call vpon them but you haue otherwise learned Christ you know that your high Priest who hath felt your infirmities Hebrews 2. sayth Come vnto me all ye that are heauy laden and I will ease you Mat. 11. When King Ahashuerus waued his golden scepter toward any man hee might boldly come vnto him into the inner court without vsing the meanes of any courtier What neede we vse the meanes of eyther Peter or Paul or the virgin Mary or any Saint seeing the K. of kings hath called vs vnto him by his word the scepter of his kingdom What soeuer you ask the Father in my name saith Christ he will giue it you You must pray in the name of Christ not be presumptuous for things lawfull and not be impious For otherwise you may aske and not haue because you ask amisse If you ask either for things vnlawful or for things lawfull to be spent vnlawfully vpon your lusts I am 4. If you pray for things vnlawfull how can the Spirit help your infirmities Clemens Alexandrinus obserueth of the Pythagoreans that they cryed loud in their prayers not because they thought their Gods did not heare them but because they would haue the world heare that they prayed for nothing but for things iustifiable Let not impietie dead a thing that is so liuely of it selfe as prayer is happy are they that haue their quiuers full of these arrowes it is not euery mans but the prayer of a iust man that preuaileth much if it be feruent Moses was allowed to ascend vp into the mount to conferre with God but sayth God If any beast shal touch the mount that beast shal die So you may send your sanctified thoughts vp vnto the throne of God but as for the beasts let not them once touch the mount away with al beastly cogitations away with cruelty that tyger away with deceit that fox with lust that goate with drunkennesse that swine in your prayers consult not flesh and bloud pray not for satisfaction of your idle vain carnall and sinfull imaginations but pray for things lawfull and be not
decree be flexible at their perswasions Then shall that of Pope Gregory bee more fitly applyed to you then when it was spoken Angli quasi Angeli not for the beauty of the body but for that beauty which is the beauty of your mother the Church who is alglorious within Conyes are a people not mighty yet they make their houses in the Rocke howsoeuer many of you in this world be but meane yet bee wise and build vpon the Rocke of your defence doe it in deed by your obedience vnto the word if you will stand against all temptations if you doe but in shew only it is but a sandy building and will fall Uladislaus no lesse then a king of Polone and Hungary and therefore a Christian King was punished with a great ouerthrowe at Verna for breaking his promise oath made to Amurath the 6. who was no better then a cruel and an irreligious Turke how shall men who are base farre worse then Kings and yet Christians by profession escape Gods fearefull iudgements for breaking their promise and vowe made in their baptisme not vnto a Turke but vnto God not irreligious but the authour of all religion Therefore remember your vow and yeeld your obedience If euer it was a time to hearken to Gods word in Gods congregation it is now when the wicked swarme like the flyes in Aegypt The starre called wormewood is fallen into this glasly sea and hath poysoned the world Antigonum quaero quoth one I seeke Antigonus So may wee Where is the innocency of former ages Now the wicked like the leane kine which Pharaoh sawe in his dreame eate vp the fat ones the good men yet are they neuer a whit the fatter themselues but as ill fauored as they were before In this age one may see Iehoshuaes the best men standing before the Angell of the Lord in the best place and presence and Satan on their right hands hindring their best actions The Lord reproue thee Satan euen the Lord that hath chosen Ierusalem reproue thee Especially now seeing the ends of the world are drawing neere vnto vs. It is in respect of vs long since Christ sayd Surely I come quickly And now by the forerunners of the end we may guesse the beginning of sorrowes vnto the wicked but as for you that haue better learned Christ Lift vp your heads for your redemption draweth neere One forerunner is carnall security men shall as they did in the dayes of Noah put farre from them the euill day euen now men pamper the flesh their bellies haue no eares The man among the myrrhe trees sayd most truly then so might he now that all the world is at rest Such is the security and sleep in sinne that with the world it is midnight but beware at midnight will the Bridegroome come hee will once more shake not onely the earth but the heauens also Looke you bee not taken vnawares in your bloudy feathers vnbrace not your selues as though the armour of a Christian were no wearing for you ye are yet in the militant church the diuell so long as the world indures will neuer dislodge his campe but be vp in armes against you Yet blessed be your God who leads you against him with the two staues beauty and bands a beautifull and comely gouernment and with the bands of loue doe not all the other forerunners follow after with windin their wings warres abroad rumours of warres at home a generall conflagration among priuate men by strife enuy the pestilence knocking at our doores So little faith among men that the wiser sort and more nimble headed are pioners vnderminers of others which made Dauid in his time say hauing the choice of three plagues we haue now much more cause Lord let me not fall into the hands of men Antichrist the man of sinne sitting as God in the temple of God whose mystery of iniquity beginning to work in Pauls time hath now filled the world brimme full of poison many false Christs if you looke into our Chronicles haue lift vp their heads many yeares agoe how many Iews be conuerted to Christ wee cannot tell but wee are to hope that Godâ— priuy seale hath marked many among them who liue in Italy France Germany and other places of Christendome Wee haue seene signes by fire many and fearefull Signes by water when God did let it loose to the spoyle of whole countries the next yeare he bound it vp with frosts and gaue it barres and doores saying Hither to shalt thou come and thou shalt come no further here shalt thou stay thy proude waues There haue bin signes in the stars set by him who guides Arcturus with his sonnes as there was a blazing starre seen in Cassiopaea for the iudging of whose place and altitude our Mathematicians wrote two bookes the one called Ala mathematica the other called Scala mathematica but they could neither fly so high nor clime so high but they found that digitus Dei the finger of God was aboue them These signes and tokens beloued are not limetwigges to catch you but rather markes to direct you let all your kowledge of these and other things end at home your best Geometry is to measure the length and the bredth and the depth of Gods mercy your best Arithmeticke is to learne to number your dayes your best Grammar to learne to know the property of that name which is a name aboue all names whereat all the things in heauen and earth doe bow themselues These signes are past and gone when the sun will be darkned and the moon turned into bloud we cannot tell but for the publication of the Gospel ouer the world it may bee proued by many instances One most pregnant most fresh is that of Virginia which now by God grace through our English shal heare news of Christ the gospel of Christ shall be published no doubt the sound of the Preachers will goe out into that corner of the world and make it as a well watered garden There were a people of the like qualitie with the naturall inhabitants of Virginia poore and naked things I call them so the more to indeare your affections when they were conquered there was that crueltie vsed vnto them that scandall was giuen vnto the name of Christ the name of Christianity grewe odious vnto them by reason of that cruelty they would let it haue no roome in their thoughts It would require a iust volume of it self to tell you what Benzo and Bartholomeus a Casa write of this argument but I hope our English are of that metall that hauing in their hands the key of the kingdome of God they will not keepe those weake ones out but rather make way for the Gospell as I hope they may by their gentle humane dealing You see many of the forerunners of the end haue already
runne their race as the summer followeth the blowing of the figge-tree so the end followes these things it is the application of Christ himselfe O that I had the tong of the learned that I might cloath inrich with due lights of speech this point which was euer acknowledged by as many Philosophers as looking vpon the Sun of righteousnesse through the cloude of Nature held the immortality of the soule and not now denied by any but by that foole that saith in his heart there is no God He is a fool scorne him he sayth in his heart he is a dissembler trust him not hee sayth there is no God therfore he is a blasphemer abhorre him and roue not vpon these things in the tempest of your iudgements but let zeale the carefull nurse of Christianity whose warmth dooth much helpe the blowing of vertue maintaine in you these meditations So did it in Prudentius who framed a song vnto the crowing of the cocke whose noyse resembled the last trumpe which should awake men sleeping in their graues and giue warning of the great day So did it in S. Ierome who whatsoeuer he did thought he heard in his eares the sound of the last trumpe saying Arise you dead and come vnto iudgement The Pilot who gouernes the ship sitteth at the sterne which is at the hinder end of the ship if a man will gouerne his life well his meditations must be settled vpon the later end of his life Who so remembers his end can neuer do amisse And God knowes it is a needfull thing to bee remembred for miile modis morimur vno bene there be a thousand wayes to die and but one way to die well When Christ came first he came to vanquish the Diuel that Goliah that braued the host of the liuing God when he comes the second time hee will come to bee reuenged of those churlish Nabals who haue vnkindly rendred vnto him hatred for his good wil examine your selues of what ranke you be and as Christ aduiseth the man of warre in the Gospell to sit downe and take counsell whether hee be able with ten thousand to meete him that commeth against him with twenty thousand if hee bee not then while he is a great way off if he be wise he will send Embassadours and desire conditions of peace So think and know that you are not able to answere God one for a thousand therefore while he is yet afar off before the ends of the world come vpon you send your Embassadours to intreat a peace cast out the dumb spirit and pray vnto him the deafe spirit and heare his word the lame spirit and walke vnto him in your liues and conuersations the fearefull spirit and beleeue in him that you may sing victoriously as Debora did O my soule thou hast marched valiantly Let your thoughts be sublimed by the the spirit of God Arise vnto your selues arise in your selues arise from your selues and arise aboue your selues vnto your selues by knowing of your sinnes in your selues by acknowledging of your sinnes from your selues by forsaking your sinnes and aboue your selues by hauing your liues a conuersation in heauen God would haue you his sonnes to be as goodly plants and you his daughters to be as the polished corners of the Temple Therfore he doth in his congreations oft many a time perswade by his word therefore per haec lumina for the light of the Gospels sake suggest by his spirit therefore per haec lumina auras for the sake of the spirit of God that wind that is rushing mightie Gods iustice doth inforce therefore per genitorem oro for God the Fathers sake the mercy of Christ doth allure therfore per spem surgentis Iuli for the sake of God the Son in whom you hope I desire you that you will meditate vpon your day of account And while I sound out vnto you these things it becomes me like a Cocke to clap mine own wings vpon mine own breast rowse vp my self out of my slumber before I giue you others warning of the approach of the great day that you with me and I with you may all vpon Angels wings be carried vp to heauen like Larks sing merily while we are mounting Then there that at length I may take my worke out of the loomes and conclude shal we haue ioy of ourselues ioy of our friends ioie of the King of heauen and ioy of the ioyes of heauen Ioie of our selues for though one differ from an other in glory yet we shal be like pots ful of water one being greater then another he that hath least being brimme ful shall haue as much glory as he can haue or desire Ioy one of another for if the rich man in hell knew which was Abraham and which was Lazarus in heauen and if at Christs transfiguration being but a shadow of immortalitie Peter Iames and Iohn knewe Moses and Elias though they had neuer seene them before much more shal we I take it in the fulnes of glorie know one another who haue been acquainted vpon earth Ioy of the king of Heauen who shall be our light for euer at whose right hand there is fulnesse of ioy for euermore Ioy of the ioyes of heauen where we shall not hunger there is the tree of life nor perish with thirst there is the water of life nor be perplexed with melancholy there is a quire of Angels Archangels euer singing making melody which melody that we may be partakers of I desire of God let all the people say Amen and let Christ Iesus whose wordes are Yea and Amen that faithfull witnesse in heauen set to his seale and say Amen vnto it Euen so Lord Iesus Amen Amen LAVS DEO SOLI FINIS a Stulta est clementia cum tot vbique vatibus occurras periturae parcere chaâ—tae Iuuen. Sat. 1. b Plut. Symp. lib. 3. c Seneca in Troa d Math 10. 19 e Gen. 35. 18. f Cant. 2. 4 g Psal. 22. 10 h Iob. 29. 4 i Iam. 1. 17. k Iohn 14. 6 l Gen. 43. 14 a Zach. 9. 10 Ouen b Psal. 39. 4 c Gen. 49 d Iam. 1. 15 Vncleaut e Psal. 14. 5. f Mar. 12. 87 g Plut. Suct h Psal. 91. 5 i Luke 24. 32 k Iohn 2. 17. Psal. 69. 19. Violent a Ex. 18. 21 Iudges b 1. Reg. 22. 17 c Hos. 3. 4 d See Simon Patrichs answere to Mach. part 3. maxim 5. e 1. Cor. 15. 41 f Hos. 4. 2 g Iob. 38. 10 h Zecha 11. 10 i Psal. 81. 6. k Gen. 49. 6. Bribery l Acts 19. 18 m 1. Reg. 12 14 n Amos 6. 12 o Soph. 3. 3. p Arist. Metor 2. cap. 6. Partiality q Exod. 23. 3. r Matth. 27. 24 s 1. Reg. 10 18 t 2. Chr. 19. 6. Kings u Eze. 18. 2. * Ezech. 33. 11. t A booke called variance betweene