returning from the Lake of Minturnum where he was forced to skulk from the proscriptions of Scylla Catenae fuga exilium honorificaverunt dignitatem that is their Exilements Imprisonments Scornes Miseries did imblazon their dignities and set a varnish upon that Gold which the evil tongues of those and these dayes had laboured to rust and with Calumnies Canker-eat and deface Victrix causa malis placuit sed victa Gatono I loved the Church when she was unlovely when she was blackest then was she comely A dis-figured Parthenia is the lov'd Mistress of a constant Argalus Bright Cynthia with all he spots is amiable and our Ladies in smaller volumes imitate the pale Lady of the skies In my Mother the Church her spots are not black Foyles but red the Red-letter daies being the Ornament of her Year her Festivals my present subject so many pillars as in Solomon 's Porch the beautie and flourish of the building I do acknowledge that learneder Pens have laboured in this Argument and I come forth burthened with their just Fames and must needs incur the censure of an impertinent and superfluous Scribler Scribendi Cacoethes is a Disease incurable for which there is no dose in our Pharmacopaea I can make no other Apologie then this that Nil est dictum quod non est dictum prius the Mode perchance the Fashion may be new but the ground-work is old If I prove Scinctillula de Scinctilla a Sparkle of a Spark is honour enough Longè sequor vestigia semper adoro The many little Starrs in the firmament make a very rare Via lactea which the greater Luminaries do neither envie nor obscure Let my vantage Candle I pray be taken into the pound to make weight at least while your Christmass Tapers carry the glory of the day These Apologetick complements premised I proceed to prove the Antiquity and Legality of these Festivals wherein also I am prevented by the learned Dr. Gunning after whom to glean is too much honour for me unworthy to carry his Books And first of the Antiquity of Easter what can be more reverend for its Age more holy for its Subject it was instituted by the Apostles themselves kept by them and is indeed the leading Sabbath or rather Holiday of the year Dies Dominicus non Sabbatum creationis the Lords Day a Commemoration of the Resurrection of our Saviour which was the complement and perfection of the Redemption of the World This is the Lords day in which his Arm brought mighty things to passe And for the Antiquity of Lent it is deriv'd by Dr. Gunning very far to whose more authentick authority I refer you According to Helvicus and the Cronologer upon him we finde it instituted by that good Prince Sigisbert amongst us English-men having first restored Christian Religion in the year of our Lord 640. but at Rome it obtained sooner observance in Telesphorus his Episcopacy of that See For then the name of Pope was not appropriate to the Bishop of Rome onely but was shared among the rest of his Brethren but in Phocas the Emperour's dayes Boniface the third usurped the title of Universal Bishop and did affix the name of Papa to the Roman See onely though S. Gregory before him plainly said That whoever did assume that title was the fore-runner of Antichrist What need the Geneva Glosse is not S. Gregory enough to state the Question And in 142 Lent was instituted at Rome the forementioned Telesphorus being Pontifex Maximus but as for the business it self the Antiquity makes no great matter no more then our long contentions for the Superiority of Oxford and Cambridge though in this present Parliament my Mother hath got the right-hand side and to shew my thankfulness for that Vote I shall tell the noble Suffragators of a piece of Petrarch a Poet too yet of good authority wherein speaking of the ancientness of the Disputative Ergo he saith Vetustum illud ergo hoc Oxoniense illud Parisciense Which doth intimate that Cambridge had no name then or no ergo or ergo fallor let these Universities be for ever styled as my Father Ben calls them most politickly in his Dedication before Volpone most equal Sisters It is not the oldness of any thing unless it be also very good makes it praiseworthy Stand in the old way that was the first covenant of the Decalogue was a holy Precept but fight for the Good old Cause which was a covenant for Mischief and Treason was an abominable invitation and a call to Rebellion Curse ye Meroz was a very good commination against those backward Israelites which kept their Tents and would not rise with the Lord against the mighty but to your Tents O Israel and the new Curse you Meroz of our times was the decoy to Sedition Tumults and War and a spur to England to ruine themselves to cut off the best King that ever Christianity knew The Iewes at this day attribute their long abandoning and dispersion to their rebellion against the house of Judah Shall a Iew repent of that sin of Witchcraft and shall the Godly Party wipe their mouths like the Harlot and say it is a sweet thing and persist in impenitency and provide for future Risings Pudet haec approbria vobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli Countreymen I am ashamed of your obstinacy and beseech you to undeceive your selves These Meditations if read with impartial eys will befriend you into the true way that way which your King upon his Theatre of Martyrdom told you you had forsaken Remember the words of your dying Father of a true Jonathan though not the son of Rhacab but a sober Prince a chaste Prince a pious Prince and for his sake who prayed for your Pardon who purchased your Act of Indempnity with his own Blood of his Mercifull Son for his Son's sake for his Christ's sake yet in this your day leave off murmuring repining speaking evil of Dignities and every high thought of heart and come with old Barsillai you and your sons and families bring the King to Jerusalem settle him in his Royal City with joy and make one Festival more then I write of make one Iubilee to the universal rejoycing of this yet distracted Nation At this Repentance Heaven will dance the Angels will be pleasant and your own hearts wil be enlarged with everlasting comforts Which is the hearty vote of a true Son of the Church of England and a Religious Physician That word makes me reflect upon my selfe and commands me to shew some reason why I intitle this Book The Religion of a Physician since that hath been used by Doctor Brown an able Artist in that Faculty To whom for that and his Vulgar Errors the world stands still engaged and obliged I do not do it for this end and purpose that either in Physick wherein he was admirable or in Theologie wherein he was curious I should match my selfe with him or labour to out-vie him A poore Dwarf
drinks such Healths Even now in their reformed Common-wealths Mark how Ierusalem runs forth to see This prodigie of new sobriety VVhich Noah though i' th' Flood preserv'd did lose And Moses bred o' th' waters did not choose But as at first Creation on the waves The Plastick Spirit mov'd so here it saves VVhat cannot water do weaknesse is lost VVhen that the Inmate is the Holy Ghost VVater inflames inspires blowes up warms Grace And washes souls but us'd to clense the face Besprinkled with such Holy Water Jew Thou art re-born and circumcis'd anew The Sacerdotal Knife cuts not the Evil These drops drive out the VVorld the Flesh the Devil How highly ought this Sacrament be priz'd Be then baptiz'd but be not re-baptiz'd Iohn was no Anabaptist people came But once to th' Font and Christ did just the same A seven-times washing was for Naaman One dipping will suffice a Christian Preparatory Graces bring in God He fits a lodging for his own abode First Iohn and then a Iesus Penance hath The happinesse to usher saving Faith Safe in thy Desart hadst thou there remain'd Prophet thy vertues to the Court 's proclaim'd Where thy rough Doctrines thy Destructions are So did our Court dispatch a long-liv'd Parr His by a change of diet no excesse Kill'd thee the Court was a fine wildernesse Herod the Beast o' th' Forest whet his sword And did behead our Prophet for a word For a non licet to his lawlesse lust First to the prison then the Axe thou must Methinks in these our later dayes I see Great Saint thy now re-acted Tragedie Onely our age out-strips that horrid thing And does behead not onely Priest but King Thou that but once and that i' th' womb didst dance For joy thy Saviour to thee did advance Art at a dancing Ladies loose request Depriv'd of life but by it higher blest So that thy triple Baptisme standeth good By VVater first next Spirit then by Blood On the Feast of Saint Peter WHat honour Great Apostle is not due To thy renown'd Confession first you I am no Thover started that great word Which made that Article Lord from the Lord And God of very God no Flesh can tell Unlesse inspir'd whence that great Issue fell Th' Eternal Generation was too high For mortal reach and is a Mysterie Reveal'd not understood the motions know Of Divine actions in thick darknesse go Or cloth'd in light that 's inaccessible Hid by their brightness Angels cannot tell Though they desire to peep into it and Shall our unequal souls hope t' understand Not Peter while he spake did comprehend Himself if so he 'd not deny'd it 'fore his end Yet worthily thy name was chang'd a Stone A Rock sirnam'd for this Confession And upon it not thee the Churches Faith Is laid may I believe as Peter saith I do believe by the same Grace not boast My self but give the praise to th' Holy Ghost Peter did so the honest Fisherman Nere dreamt of what the Petropolitan And Denizens of Rome have since contriv'd Nor would have worn three Coronets had he liv'd The Chaire Infallible perchance that he Might well have wish'd before's Apostacie How weak was the Man Peter for to lay A Basis on should last untill this day When that a wave and something weaker too A pitifull wench made him his faith forego But weakness is made strong when Teares precede And high Repentance wash'd away that deed I don't upbraid thy known Apostacy But balance it with their new Primacy VVhich Roman Catholicks kinde souls bestow On thee insensible of things below VVe all allow thee the First Confessour VVhere Iames was President in Chaire and Pow'r VVe all confesse thee prais'd by Christ when one VVas more belov'd the Eagle-ey'd Saint Iohn VVe ne're deny to thee the Keyes of Heaven But of those Keyes there were beside Eleven VVe all applaud thy Heaven-dropt sheet whereby The Faith broke forth into Community VVe all confesse thee Apostle of the Iewes Though now the Roman thee their Primate choose Unkind repulse when Paul to th' Romans wrote Alone and to their Faith such honour got VVe allow thee Bishop of Christs Flock Twelve equall Pastors a most Royall stock Feed then successive Angels that 's your care Feed the poor Lambs they 'r Wolves that do them tear The Legend of Saint James called Major one of the Sons of Zebedee and Apostle of Spaine ARt thou Red Letter'd Yes the Almanack Preserves thee though the Holy-day we lack VVe keep the Fair 't had been good policy If that the Church could it these times foresee Had made the Twelve Apostles Marts then they Might all whereas now some have a Saints day Dame Zebedee so full of zeal ne're thought His Honour should to so low ebb be brought The right hand and the left was her bold boon And that in Heaven her sons both Iames and Iohn Might be advanc'd how would the woman pout If she had known on earth they were put out And that he is deny'd the pay by some Of honour to his glorious Martyrdome Herod thy person murder'd Holy Saint Our mighty men of VVar thy Day why mayn't We hope to see as in those dayes befell Our Herods as that Herod fall as well It was not long before Revenge did seize That Deify'd Orator struck in a trice Pimme had not all the worms it once may please Vengeance to smite not only Conscience But their Apostate body's with close Lice Who onely spoyle and murder solemnize But these and Herod differ in some things Herod kills Prophets These both Them and Kings Herod imprisons for popular applause How many have been coop'd upon that cause But by a finer word Imprisoning Securing's call'd Robbing is Sequestring But Herod speeches it and gives no praise To God O but these do in our good dayes There 's not a Murder not a Plund'ring but They do the Pulpits with Thanksgivings glut Had you now liv'd you Sons sirnam'd of Thunder Then fire from Heaven you could not have ask'd under Nor would have been deny'd but 't is as well Their fire is sure if not Above from Hell Upon the Legend of Saint Bartholomew THe Gospel's sound though the whole world is run Now hear it preach'd where Inmate is the Sun On India's parched ground the East the West Wealth that few Merchants get and yet the best Who dare upbraid the Lord at latter day And say this newes did never come in 's way Shall he be damn'd for what he could not know No Arguer thou shalt not if 't be so No Gospel slighted no Apostle slain No Faith rejected no eternall pain God by no absolute Decree does list Men to damnation maugre Calvin's Twist Conditional are his Decrees and they Mulcted alone who gainsay disobey We fondly therefore to Iamaica sent To convert Indians when for Gold'twas meant Saint Bartholomew full sixteen hundred years Ago as in Eusebius Chronicon appears Preach'd to those Heathen Folk who did
for a Race would ever imagine that the Dutchman should come first to the Goal wherefore with great care and wisdome hath the Church of England called the first day of this Quadragesimal Fast Ashwednesday Dies Cinerum a day of the most low prostration of our Mind and Flesh to all acts of Humiliation In my University it is the day of convoking or convening our determining Batchelors the Lamb-skin hopes which the Mother lately yean'd into the first degree of Academick honour These Cyens Grafts of early learning meet at a Latin Sermon where the Concionator excites them gravely and appositely to both sobrieties the abstinence from Lusts and Meats the Nerves and Sinews of the other that these young men might be as Solomon wished his Rememberers of their Creator in the dayes of their youth with which severe pickle if that age be seasoned you have a Poets warrant Servabit odorem testa diu aliquid haerebit Their whole life will smell of the ingredients if it took a due and handsome tincture This introductory Sermon is the Parent of many more solemnly perform'd in another Pulpit at S. Peters in the East and so held on till the Religious grief of the whole Lent ends in a joyfull Resurrection Sermon in that place and two at S. Mary's which all are and have bin of late years most excellently repeated by two successive admirable sons of Pia Mater memoria Which circumstances premised I shall to the matter of this Meditation which is the things for which we fast and from which we fast Our Saviour could not be imagin'd to undertake the latter part of this whose pure and guiltless soul as it could not be tainted so it needed none of these auxiliaries for its pious support Holinesse it self essentiall Purity wants no Fulcra Pietatis those props are for us mortals made of fragile composures which are apt to faell and break if not corroborated and strengthened by continuall covers and shields of Grace and Prayers And for the things for which we fast unlesse it were the glory of his Father Christ also needed not to have undergone this miraculous Lent which no man could ever keep but himself although some do not forbear to think and say that any man butterest up in Grace may attain to such perfection It were to be wished indeed but never to be hoped for therefore the Montanists of old and the Racovians of late and the Roman Catholicks pretenders to highest Discipline may prescribe much but never can take this Dose of Penance nor observe the Rules they teach others Nor was this Example of our Saviour set for an adaequate Rule to be imitated either by his Apostles which were otherwise assisted then any of us or by any of us who though our spirits perchance may be willing yet he knowes our flesh is weak Deus non requirit ab homine quod non habet and our measures of Grace are proportion'd to our capacities If we are by Divine assistances holy men yet men are men still and not Gods Let no Pharisaicall presumption delude us into a wildernesse for the experience of our strength and spirituall valour for fear Satan that vigilant spie of all our devotions smell out the pride or hypocrisie which first were of his instilling and while we think to be Similes altissimi like Christ in this duty fall down and worship what he never could the Devil himself In my small observation I never found the most Atlantick professors both in Civil and Religious resolution and practice those Hectors for Monarchy and the Hierachy in times of peace I found them fall in the dayes of temptation most sadly Saint Peters verbal magnanimity and great challenge what a poore come off hath it how does it end This Dimock for Christ layes downe the Cudgels at the Quaerie of a poor Damosel turnes an Apostate of a Cavalier untill a Cock the valiant'st of creatures allarum'd his affrighted heart and made him know that it is not good to crow before the Christian Engagement be begun 't is not he that putteth on but he that putteth off the armor knows the success of the battel This diversion pardoned I shall succinctly touch for I intend a speech rather then a Tract the Res substrata or subject of a Fast And first the things we fast for are Faith assistances of Grace and for gifts of Prayer whereby so assisted we may persevere in that Christian state wherein we finde our selves for not onely resolutions of amendment of our lives but reall changes For both charities that principal of the love of God and our Neighbour which indeed is the summary of the Law and the other lesser of the hand which will be opened and enlarged as the heart is enflamed within for fire is of a dilating and expansive property which no clutch'd fist can ever hold We fasted also or should for Righteousnesse Justice Meeknesse Temperance Obedience Patience Thankfulnesse and all Christian and Moral Vertues and if we fast soundly He that onely can quench that thirst and appease that appetite will distill into your dry floores such comfortable showers as the dew of Sion and Hermon hills cannot excel in fragrancy nor fertility This is to fast for life for everlasting life and the Bread of life that came down from Heaven will again descend by his Spirit into your hearts and fill you full of all spirituall joy and assurances of Heaven which are only certified to us by our constant sanctification ietched out in fear and trembling A Christian is alwayes under a Caveat in his most Souldierly posture upon his armour this is the Word Cave pedibus miles look to thy foot take heed lest thou fall The whole Armoury of S. Paul is but little enough to defend these Militia-men against three such enemies which sometime lie in Ambuscadoes sometime attempt them with open hostility and batteries and dangerous onsets besides underminings wherefore knowing you are to fight whether in the Wilderness in a single Duel or in Campania in the open Field or Pickeering that is against one particular vice Cape arma sta in procinctu be harnassed be girt and let the word be Sit Deus nobiscū let God be with us and then you shall so fast and so fight that a joyfull victory will follow or quick delivery which is as good Which hints unto me the second things from which we are to fast which are most excellently enumerated in that singularly well composed Prayer of the Letany of our Churches Liturgy wherein we pray God to deliver us from all Evil and Mischief from Sin from the Crafts and Assaults of the Devil Which if avoyded by necessary consequence Gods wrath and everlasting damnation will be escaped And take the concluding Prayer into your Fasts and say From all Sedition and privy Conspiracy begot by arising from false Doctrine and Heresie and from hardness of Heart which is now called tendernesse of Conscience and contempt of