bitter pill candyed over with sugar a golden cup like the whores in the Revelation full of dismall and deadly poyson No marvell then that the Prophets Princes and Preachers of the world have left behinde them such lamentable notes and votes of their wearisomnesse in the experience of things here below Jeremy that Prophet of Lamentations cryeth Oh that mine head were a well of waters and mine eyes a fountaine of teares that I might weepe day and night for the slaine of the Daughter of my people O that I had in the wildernesse a lodging place of waifaring men that I might leave my people and goe from them for they be all adulterers an assembly of treacherous men I recommend the whole chapter to the reading and meditation of every sober Christian to fit his soule and tune his heart to the wofull tone of this tumultuous Sea-world David a King tunes his pipes with this dolefull Ditty O that I had wings like a Dove for then would I flee away and be at rest Loe then would I wander farre of and remaine in the wildernesse I would hasten mine escape from this worlds windy storme and tempest Paul the Preacher of the Gentiles exclaimes and sayes O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death And had he not found a deliverer he had sunk under that bitter agony You will further enquire Why the passages of this world are ever so transitory and brittle I answer briefly This fretfull Sea of glasse is like an angry Lady that will turne away her servant for a very Glasse breaking And why are they never satisfactory For that the heart of man is a triangle and the world is a circle and a circle can never fill a triangle Nothing in this world can satisfie mans triangle heart but the holy blessed and glorious Trinity One touch of the Power of God the Father one glimpse of the rayes of the wisdome of God the Sonne in whom are hid all the Treasures of wisdome and knowledge and one drop of the gift and grace of charity from God the Holy Ghost satisfies contents and cheeres the whole nature of the regenerate man But why are all the passages of this world alwayes open and overt to the sight and censure of the eternall God How can it be otherwise It is impossible but that he that made the eye should see Shall not he that made the heart shall not he I say understand When the whole world before his Throne is Crystalline open naked and diaphanous to the Lord our God His all-seeing eyes see and discerne the imaginations of the thoughts of every mans heart that liveth Shall I request this favour at your hands That you would be pleased to turne to the first chapter of Johns Gospel and read from the 45. v. to the end of the Chapter and observe and meditate of that heavenly conference there between Jesus Christ our blessed Saviour Philip of Bethsaida and Nathanael Philip findeth Nathanial and saith unto him Wee have found the Messias Come and see Jesus saw Nathanael comming unto him and said Behold a true Israelite in whom is no guile Nathanael saith unto him Whence knowest thou me Jesus answered and said unto him Before that Philip called thee when thou wast under the fig-tree I saw thee Nathanael is ravished and cryes out Rabbi Thou art the Sonne of God thou art the King of Israel Many there knew Nathanael to be an Israelite but none saving the Lord Jesus knew him to be such an Israelite in whom was no guile Thus farre have I spoken unto your heads in the Doctrinall part of my Proposition Give me now leave to speake to your hearts in the practick part thereof and so I shall incline toward an end The first Use of the Doctrine is of heavenly affection tending to earnestnesse of zeale and longing after Heaven Forasmuch as we finde nothing here below but a Sea restlesse a brittle being and a slippery standing What are we or who are we here present this day and understanding what the frame fashion and garbe of this world is by the sacred Oracle of the text and would not now cry out with Esay to our God in Heaven Oh that thou wouldest rend the Heavens that thou wouldest come downe that the Mountaines might melt at thy presence and that the Nations might tremble at thy power What are mountaines here but the mighty in the earth that set themselves against the Lord Bow thy Heavens O Lord and come down touch the Mountaines and they shall smoak Yea bee the mountaines never so vast so lofty so exalted above measure one touch of his finger shall shake them all to pieces Yea though a rebellious Absolon that had swelled against his Father like to an Olympus God commeth down in his power and gives him but a touch and he and his haughty Rebellion passeth away in a smoake that vanisheth hee hangs between heaven and earth as unworthy of either and all his swelling presently abates like a blown bladder with the pricke of a pin 1. To my Brethren of the Ministry here present I speak and beseech you to preach to this decaying world That we all in it wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture God wil change us and we shall be changed but he is the same yesterday to day and for ever and his yeers shall have no end 2. To the Laicks I say this It is an observation of the Physicians that we are now of shorter stature and of lesse livelihood then heretofore 3. Is there an Astronomer here tell him that Stadius Copernicus and Reinoldus affirm peremptorily that the very Heavens are decayed the Sun lesse orient in his splendour the Moone more pale and the Starres more dimme 4. Art thou a Muck-worme Know that Philip Melancthon a choice Divine in his time being contemporary with Martin Luther left this observation behinde him That the earth is growne so old that it is like a wombe barren with age 5. To whomsoever here present that hath any Christian sense and feeling I would have him know that the whole Creation groaneth and travaileth in paine together untill now And not onely they but wee our selves which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groane within our selves waiting for our full and finall redemption as Paul preacheth 6. Haply there may bee here present some Jesuite or Jesuited spirit whose learning lyes all in the Directories of Machiavels Prince Bodins Commentaries and Lypsius Politiques whose Primer is couched in this one principle Religentem esse oportet religiosum nefas Let me tell that Statizer I am no Platonist whose learning is hid in finall and fatall numbers affirming that no State ever continued above 500. yeeres without some fearefull fate or finall fall But ay me we understand better by experience of times past that that Principle is not true as
be not some plot of villany to insnare thee Can any wise man love the place where Satan domineeres If this our Gospel truth be hid from any here it is hid to them that are lost Are not they lost that can neither be found in heaven nor in the earth nor yet in the sea The god of this world which is the Devil hath blinded the minds of them that beleeve not this truth lest the light of the glorious Gospel truth of Jesus Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them The whole world saith the holy Divine Saint John lyeth in wickednesse and our little world this Island wherein we dwell is on fire about our eares and yet neither the worlds malignity nor yet our owne misery can quicken us to a lothing of this restlesse and brittle sea of glasse But would you learne how to avoid this Traitor that wil Judaize with you this dominion of Satan and this house on fire I shall doe my endeavour to satisfie your desire in this point You all know that whatsoever the shavelings of Rome say we have a Church and it is a principall piece of the holy Catholique Church which we professe to beleeve that is scattered farre and wide upon the surface of the whole Universe and to this Church we have given our names Christian is my name and Catholike is my sirname We are shipped by Baptisme If a tempest arise cry upon Christ as the Apostles did in a storme If the Ship of our state be ready to be swallowed up of the waves flye unto Christ if he be asleep awaken him with our cryes Concutitur fides non excutitur our faith may bee shaken but never shaken off therefore never cease but cry and cry aloud that we may be heard and being heard we may be delivered and being delivered we may glorifie God If the wind roare Christ will rebuke it and there shall follow a great calme The fift Use of the Doctrine is to take a review of the Text If this world be in experience to us a Sea of glasse like unto Crystall This Crystalline resemblance deceives none but children and fooles who are deceived with shewes shadowes and resemblances But wee are men endowed with reason and experience How are we fitted and furnished for our voyage Where 's our Tackles Have we our Maine mast ready that is to say our faith without which it is impossible to please God there 's no walking or talking with God without it Where 's our Anchor and Sailes the Anchor of hope and the Sayles of good workes What wind doe we sayle by no wind under the cope of heaven but the gale of Christian Charity can arrive us at the Port of Heaven But sayling with that gentle gale we need not feare any danger between this and Heaven For if a Whale by the way should swallow us as it did Jonah or a wind called Euroclydon which caused Pauls ship-wracke at the Island then called Melita now Malta In both dangers we should be safe the Whale must cast us upon the Land and though the Ship were wracked yet either by swimming or by some broken fragments of the Ship we should surely come safe to Land The sixt use of this Doctrine is of Discovery The holy Apostle gives every one in particular a Christian Caveat Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall If my Text be a vision unto you it hath discovered how slippery our station is I beseech you therefore when you have forgotten me yet remember my Text and forget it not lest you slippe and slide and fall like the house built upon the sands the fall whereof was great The Royall Preacher tells us that God hath set the world in the heart of man to the end that he should consider the deceitfulnesse and uncertainty of it Shall a man love that which Christ never prayed for I pray for mine Elect I pray not for the world That is I pray not for the Muck-worms and Mammonists of this world And if the grace of God be in us we shall daily blesse and thank God for the Lord Jesus who hath given himselfe for our sinnes that hee might deliver us from this present evill world according to the will of God and our Father They that remember not this discovery of the world have not knowne God as John testifieth The Mammonists of this world cannot endure to heare or thinke of death and yet when they lose the things of this glassie world they murther themselves with worldly sorry St. Paul is a witnesse of this truth saying The sorrow of this world causeth death The Mammonists and Muck-wormes of this world brag boast and pride themselves with the things of the world Saint Paul was otherwise minded God forbid saith he that I should pride my selfe in ought or any thing in the world save in the Crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world It is no marvell that so few love Preachers and gaine so little or nothing by the frequent and powerfull preaching of Gospell-truth Paul sheweth us the reason why Demas forsooke him Hee was in love with this present world Saint Peter gives the Muck wormes Mammonists and lovers of this world their fearfull fatall and finall doom shewing first how we may escape the pollutions of this world and then how dangerous a relapse and backsliding is For saith he and puts the case thus If the Muck-wormes and Mammonists of this world have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are againe intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them then the beginning for then they become Wells without water Clouds that are carried with a tempest to whom the mist of darknesse is reserved for ever For the Lord Christ Jesus sake blessed Auditory you holy people of the Lord remember my Text when you see not me That our standing is very slippery upon this Sea of glasse Remember that all the actions transactions and all the imaginations of all the thoughts purposes and intentions of all hearts are before the Throne of God open and manifest to his sight and censure The Lords Throne is in heaven His eyes behold his eye-lids try the children of men The Lord tryeth the righteous but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soule hateth Oh remember that the Lords Throne is for ever and that his Throne is in heaven and the earth is his pedestoole Oh remember that thou sweare not by heaven for it is the Throne of God For hee that sweareth by heaven sweareth by the Throne of God and by him that sitteth thereon Oh remember that we must all appeare before the Throne of Jesus Christ and render our accompts Oh remember what favour the Lord Jesus hath purchased for us that we may come boldly to a
Throne of grace and obtaine mercy and finde grace to helpe in time of need Oh remember what the Lord Jesus hath promised even that his Saints on earth sit with him in his Throne in heaven even as he is sate downe with his Father in his Throne Psal. 11. 4. Heb. 1. 8. Mat. 5. 13. Heb. 4. 16. Rev. 3. 21. And the God of heaven grant us the Protomartyrs vision that we may be so full of the Holy Ghost that we may have but one glimpse of the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand and that we may see this by the eye of our most precious faith The seventh and last Vse of the Doctrine is of motion and we need not seeke farre for a perswading and convincing motive when we may but cast our eye aside and looke upon this present and emergent occasion which is both sad and sorrowfull even the decease of a worthy servant to the Lord Jesus whose sad Elegy I shall endeavour to couch in as few words as a passage of such moment may be epilogized in yet I hope so much as may awaken and stirre us up to consider where wee are and what our condition is here unlesse it be so with some of us that we are asleep in death and will not be moved nor removed from our brutish slumber for whatsoever may be said or done I confesse indeed that this taske had been fit to have been undertaken by some strong young and skilfull Champion of the Church and not imposed upon an old weake one an Emeritus miles and almost a Silicernium a man merè Edentulus one so farre from eloquence that hath not so much as Elocution But cum nemini obtrudi potest itur ad me when I had not thirty houres time to prepare my selfe to the businesse yet rather then I would wave the memoriall of mine endeared friend I resolved to undergo the censure of the judicious for my plainnesse and simplicity Truly I could willingly take up the lamentable cry of Elisha for Eliah He crying O my Father my Father and I lamenting Oh my Brother my Brother the Chariots of Israel and the horse-men of the same for we have lost a chiefe Chariot of our Churches and an Horse-man of the State not of the Pike but of the Pen But why should I or any lament for him of whom I may say to you all that Distick which old Ennius said at his death and that with a very little alteration Nemo illum lachrymis decoret neque funera fletu Faxit Cur volitat docta per ora virum I beseech you therefore have a little patience and I shall onely speake of two passages First of his Christian living amongst us and then of his sweet leaving of us 1. He was an Academique by birth he was borne of honest parents within three miles of Oxenford that Mother and Mistris of Universities His breeding up was also there in Corpus Christi Colledge an happy Seminary of very many famous and learned men I mention one for all that is Doctor John Reinolds whom I have heard stiled beyond the Sea in the Universities of Rostochium Grominga and Leidon thus That famous Oxford of Learning worthy Dr. Reinolds 2. As he grew up in yeeres he lived in favour with God and man in an unreproveable holy life and conversation honoured for Arts and Sciences and had all Degrees that the University doth afford conferred upon him Ex merito congrul condigni both for his congruity of good manners and condignity of singular knowledge 3. He was commended for a Chaplaine to the Lord Edmonds Leiger Legat Lord Ambassadour for his sacred Majesty to the French King where being at Paris he disputed with the Jesuites who albeit they contemned him for that he was of so low a stature yet admired him for his ready answers and acute distinctions The Jesuites in that contempt of theirs had forgot what that ancient Father Jerome said of Saint Paul That although he was of a very little and low stature yet for all that that Homo tricubitalis ascendit in coelum 4. Some seven yeeres sithence I had a son Fellow of Trinity in Cambridge who being Traveller for his Colledge I kept at Paris for a time habitu dementissimo in an uncouth habit that he might not be knowne and he resorted daily and had conference in the Cleremont with the Jesuites and with them of the Colledge of Sorbon but more intimately with Sirmundus and Petavius two prime Jesuites whom as hee hath told mee remembred Doctor Featley oft-times in their conference with reverentiall respect for his accute and ready Disputation 5. All his Sermons in a great Book in Folio shew how sound he was at heart and discovereth the plots of the Romish Sectaries in abundant manner He also made a Supplement to that worthy Knight Sir Humphrey Linde his Book which he left unfinished at his death and vindicated that worthy Knight from the scandals and aspersions of that Romish railing Rabshakeh 6. He writ against Arminius and all of his rabble shewing demonstratively that their Tenets they had from the patches and pieces of Pelagius that Welch Heretique a Monke of Bangor whose name was Morgan for Pelagius in Latine and Morgan in the Welch Idiome signifie both one and the same party that is to say Mor-gan Mor is more and gan is juxta mare or Accola maris One of the Shires of South-Wales being called La Morganshire for that it is scituate all along the Sea coast 7. He wrote a little Tract called The Sea-Gull against a grosse imposture and shewed it me in Peter-house what time I came to visit him there with Sir Geo Sands Knight my Countryman of Kent with others 8. He wrote a little before his death against the Anabaptists a book seasonable necessary for these unsetled wanton times and in the very frontispice of that Book discovereth fifteen species of them 9. After his returne out of France he was recommended by the University of Oxford to Doctor Abbots chiefe in the Church of England to be his Chaplaine where he loitered not neither ceased to write against Rome as often as ought did peepe out of the Presse of the whore of Babylons trash Neither was his learning onely Polemicall but pious also as his Meditations and Hand maid to Devotion doe witnesse and in that time he was Chaplaine he was the meanes under God of the conversion of a Spanish Frier 10. His nature was meek gracious affable merciful as appeared in his sincerity toward the poore when as he and I had the honour with Doctor Temple Doctor Bernard Master Francis Taylor and others to be returned joyned in the Commission for pioususes with worthy Sir John Lenthall Knight and other Justices of Surry 11. His intimate acquaintance and mine were of thirty seven yeeres duration and one and twenty yeers of which time we lived loving friends and neighbours but 3.