station where God hath set vs. I see the Leuites not long since drawing their swords for God and Moses against the rest of Israel and that fact wins them both praise and blessing Now they are the forwardest in the rebellion against Moses and Aaron men of their owne Tribe There is no assurance of a man for one act whom one sinne cannot fasten vpon another may Yea the same sinne may finde a repulse one while from the same hand which another time giues it entertainment and that yeeldance loses the thanke of all the former resistance It is no praise to haue done once well vnlesse we continue Outward priuiledges of blood can auaile nothing against a particular calling of God These Reubenites had the right of the natural primogeniture yet do they vainly challenge preeminence where God hath subiected them If all ciuill honour flow from the King how much more from the God of Kings His hand exalts the poore and casts downe the mighty from their throne The man that will be lifting vp himselfe in the pride of his heart from vnder the foot of God is iustly troden in the dust Moses is the Prince of Israel Aaron the Priest Moses was milde Aaron popular yet both are conspired against Their places are no lesse brothers then their persons Both are opposed at once He that is a traytor to the Church is a traytor to the King Any superioritie is a marke of Enuy. Had Moses and Aaron beene but fellowes with the Israelites none had beene better beloued their dispositions were such as must needs haue forced fauour from the indifferent now they were aduanced their malice is not inferiour to their honour High towers must looke for lightnings we offer not to vndermine but those wals which we cannot scale Nature in euery man is both enuious and disdainfull and neuer loues to honour another but where it may be an honour to it selfe There cannot be conceiued an honour lesse worth emulation then this principality of Israel a people that could giue nothing a people that had nothing but in hope a people whom their leader was faine to feed with bread and water which paid him no tribute but of ill words whose command was nothing but a burden and yet this dignitie was an eye-sore to these Leuites and these Reubenites Ye take too much vpon you ye sonnes of Leui. And this challenge though thus vnseasonable hath drawne in two hundred and fifty Captaines of Israel What wonder is it that the ten Rulers preuailed so much with the multitude to disswade them from Canaan when three traitors preuailed thus with 250 Rulers famous in the Congregation and men of renowne One man may kindle such a fire as all the world cannot quench One plague-sore may infect a whole Kingdome The infection of euill is much worse then the act It is not like these Leaders of Israel could erre without followers Hee is a meane man that drawes not some Clients after him It hath been euer a dangerous policy of Satan to assault the best he knowes that the multitude as wee say of Bees will follow their master Nothing can be more pleasing to the vulgar sort then to heare their Gouernours taxed and themselues flattered All the Congregation is holy Euery one of them Wherefore lift ye vp your selues Euery word is a falshood For Moses deiected himselfe Who am I God lifted him vp ouer Israel And so was Israel holy as Moses was ambitious What holinesse was there in so much infidelitie feare Idolatry mutiny disobedience What could make them vncleane if this were holinesse They had scarce wip't their mouths or washt their hands since their last obstinacie and yet these pick-thankes say All Israel is holy I would neuer desire a better proofe of a false teacher then flatterie True meaning need not vphold it selfe by soothing There is nothing easier then to perswade men well of themselues when a mans selfe-loue meetes with anothers flattery it is an high praise that will not be beleeued It was more out of opposition then beliefe that these men plead the holinesse of Israel Violent aduersaries to vphold a side will maintaine those things they beleeue not Moses argues not for himselfe but appeales to God neither speakes for his owne right but his brother Aarons He knew that Gods immediate seruice was worthy to be more precious then his gouernment That his Princedome serued but to the glory of his Master Good Magistrates are more tender ouer Gods honour then their owne and more sensible of the wrongs offred to Religion then to themselues It is safest to trust God with his owne causes If Aaron had been chosen by Israel Moses would haue sheltred him vnder their authority Now that God did immediately appoint him his patronage is sought whose the election was Wee may easily fault in the managing of diuine affaires and so our want of successe cannot want sinne He knowes how to vse how to blesse his owne meanes As there was a difference betwixt the people and Leuites so betwixt the Leuites and Priests The God of order loues to haue our degrees kept Whiles the Leuites would be looking vp to the Priests Moses sends downe their eyes to the people The way not to repine at those aboue vs is to looke at those below vs. There is no better remedy for ambition then to cast vp our former receits and to compare them with our deseruings and to conferre our owne estate with inferiours So shall wee finde cause to be thankfull that wee are aboue any rather then of enuy that any is aboue vs. Moses hath chid the sonnes of Leui for mutining against Aaron and so much the more because they were of his owne Tribe now hee sends for the Reubenites which rose against himselfe They come not and their message is worse then their absence Moses is accused of iniustice cruelty falshood treacherie vsurpation and Egypt it self must be commended rather then Moses shall want reproch Innocency is no shelter from ill tongues Malice neuer regards how true any accusation is but how spightfull Now it was time for Moses to be angry They durst not haue been thus bold if they had not seene his mildnesse Lenity is ill bestowed vpon stubborne natures It is an iniurious senslesnesse not to feele the wounds of our reputation It well appeares hee is angry when he prayes against them He was displeased before but when he was most bitter against them he still prayed for them but now hee bends his very prayers against them Looke not to their offering There can be no greater reuenge then the imprecation of the righteous There can be no greater iudgement then Gods reiection of our seruices With vs men what more argues dislike of the person then the turning backe of his present What will God accept from vs if not prayers The innocence of Moses cals for reuenge on his Aduersaries If hee had wronged them in his gouernment in vaine should he haue
corne which were worthy of a sickle It is a breach of Iustice not to proportionate the punishment to the offence To whip a man for a murder or to punish the purse for incest or to burne treason in the hand or to award the stockes to burglary is to patronize euill in stead of auenging it Of the two extremes rigour is more safe for the publike weale because the ouer-punishing of one offender frights many from sinning It is betâ—er to liue in a common-wealth where nothing is lawfull then where euery thing Indulgent parents are cruell to themselues and their posterity Ely could not haue deuised which way to haue plagued himselfe and his house so much as by his kindnesse to his childrens sinnes What variety of iudgements doth he now heare of from the messenger of God First because his old age which vses to be subiect to choler inclined now to mis-fauour his sonnes therefore there shall not be an old man left of his house for euer and because it vexed him not enough to see his sonnes enemies to God in their profession therefore he shall see his enemie in the habitation of the Lord and because himselfe forbore to take vengeance of his sonnes and esteemed their life aboue the glory of his Master therefore God will reuenge himselfe by killing them both in one day and because he abused his soueraignty by conniuence at sinne therefore shall his house be stripped of his honour and see it translated to another and lastly because he suffered his sonnes to please their owne wanton appetite in taking meat off from Gods trencher therefore those which remaine of his house shall come to his successors to beg a piece of siluer and a morsell of bread in a word because he was partiall to his sonnes God shall execute all this seuerely vpon him and them I doe not read of any fault Ely had but indulgence and which of the notorious offenders were plagued more Parents need no other meanes to make them miserable then sparing the rod. Who should be the bearer of these fearfull tidings to Ely but young Samuel whom himselfe had trained vp He was now grown past hiâ— mothers coats fit for the Message of God Old Ely rebuked not his young sonnes therefore yong Samuel is sent to rebuke him I maruell not whiles the Priesthood was so corrupted if the Word of God were precious if there were no publike vision It is not the manner of God to grace the vnworthy The ordinarie ministration in the Temple was too much honor for those that robbed the Altar though they had no extraordinary reuelations Hereupon it was that God lets old Ely sleepe who slept in his sinne and awakes Samuel to tell what he would do with his master He which was wont to be the mouth of God to the people must now receiue the Message of God from the mouth of another As great persons will not speake to those with whom they are highly offended but send them their checks by others The lights of the Temple were now dim and almost ready to giue place to the morning when God called Samuel to signifie perhaps that those which should haue been the lights of Israel burned no lesse dimly and were neere their going out and should be succeeded with one so much more lightsome then they as the Sunne was more bright then the Lampes God had good leasure to haue deliuered this message by day but he meant to make vse of Samuels mistaking and therefore so speakes that Ely may be asked for an answer and perceiue himself both omitted censured He that meant to vse Samuels voice to Ely imitates the voice of Ely to Samuel Samuel had so accustomed himselfe to obedience and to answer the call of Ely that lying in the further cells of the Leuites he is easily raised from his sleep and euen in the night runs for his message to him who was rather to receiue it from him Thrice is the old man disquieted with the diligence of his seruant and though visions were rare in his daies yet is he not so vnacquainted with God as not to attribute that voice to him which himselfe heard not Wherefore like a better Tutor then a parent he teaches Samuel what he shall answer Speake Lord for thy seruant heareth It might haue pleased God at the first call to haue deliuered his message to Samuel not expecting the answer of a nouice vnseene in the visions of a God yet doth he rather deferre it till the fourth summons and will not speake till Samuel confessed his audience God loues euer to prepare his seruants for his imployments and will not commit his errands but to those whom he addressed both by wonder and attention and humility Ely knew well the gracious fashion of God that where he tended a fauour prorogation could be no hindrance therefore after the call of God thrice answered with silence he instructs Samuel to be ready for the fourth If Samuels silence had been wilfull I doubt whether he had been againe sollicited now God doth both pitty his error and requite his diligence by redoubling his name at the last Samuel had now many yeeres ministred before the Lord but neuer till now heard his voice and now heares it with much terror for the first word that he heares God speake is threatning and that of vengeance to his master What were these menaces but so man premonitions to himselfe that should succeed Ely God begins early to season their hearts with feare whom hee meanes to make eminent instruments of his glory It is his mercy to make vs witnesses of the iudgements of others that we may be forewarned ere we haue the occasions of sinning I doe not heare God bid Samuel deliuer this message to Ely He that was but now made a Prophet knowes that the errands of God intend not silence and that God would not haue spoken to him of another if he had meant the newes should be reserued to himselfe Neither yet did he run with open mouth vnto Ely to tell him this vision vnasked No wise man will be hasty to bring ill tidings to the great rather doth he stay till the importunity of his Master should wring it from his vnwillingnes and then as his concealement shewed his loue so his full relation shall approue his fidelity If the heart of Ely had not told him this newes before God told it Samuel he had neuer been so instant with Samuel not to conceale it His conscience did well presage that it concerned himselfe Guiltines needs no Prophet to assure it of punishment The minde that is troubled protecteth terrible things and though it cannot single out the iudgement allotted to it yet it is in a confused expectation of some grieuous euill Surely Ely could not thinke it worse then it was The sentence was fearefull and such as I wonder the necke or the heart of old Ely could hold out the report of That God sweares he will
though not so blessed yet so shalt thou be separated that my very dust shall be vnited to thee still and to my Sauiour in thee Wert thou vnwilling at the command of thy Creator to ioine thy selfe at the first with this body of mine why art thou then loth to part with that which thou hast found The Testimonies though intire yet troublesome Doest thou not heare Salomon say The day of death is better than the day of thy birth dost thou not beleeue him or art thou in loue with the worse and displeased with the better If any man could haue found a life worthy to be preferred vnto death so great a King must needs haue done it now in his very Throne he commends his Coffin Yea what wilt thou say to those Heathens that mourned at the birth and feasted at the death of their children They knew the miseries of liuing as well as thou the happinesse of dying they could not know and if they reioiced out of a conceit of ceasing to be miserable how shouldest thou cheere thy selfe in an expectation yea an assurance of being happy He that is the Lord of life and tried what it was to die hath proclaimed them blessed that die in the Lord. Those are blessed I know that liue in him but they rest not from their labours Toyle and sorrow is betweene them and a perfect enioying of that blessednesse which they now possesse onely in hope and inchoation when death hath added rest their happinesse is finished O death how sweet is that rest The taste of our Meditation wherewith thou refreshest the weary Pilgrims of this vale of mortalitie How pleasant is thy face to those eies that haue acquainted themselues with the sight of it which to strangers is grim and gastly How worthy art thou to be welcome vnto those that know whence thou art and whither thou tendest who that knowes thee can feare thee who that is not all nature would rather hide himselfe amongst the baggage of this vile life than follow thee to a Crowne what indifferent Iudge that should see life painted ouer with vaine semblances of pleasures attended with troupes of sorrowes on the one side and on the other with vncertaintie of continuance and certaintie of dissolution and then should turne his eyes vnto death and see her blacke but comely attended on the one hand with a momentanie paine with eternitie of glorie on the other would not say out of choice that which the Prophet said out of passion It is better for me to die than to liue But O my Soule what ailes thee to bee thus suddenly backward and fearefull The Complaint No heart hath more freely discoursed of death in speculation no tongue hath more extolled it in absence And now that it is come to thy beds-side and hath drawne thy curtaines and takes thee by the hand and offers thee seruice thou shrinkest inward and by the palenesse of thy face and wildnesse of thine eye bewraiest an amazement at the presence of such a ghest That face which was so familiar to thy thoughts is now vnwelcome to thine eies I am ashamed of this weake irresolution Whitherto haue tended all thy serious meditations what hath Christianitie done to thee if thy feares bee still heathenish Is this thine imitation of so many worthy Saints of God whom thou hast seene entertaine the violentest deaths with smiles and songs Is this the fruit of thy long and frequent instruction Didst thou thinke death would haue beene content with words didst thou hope it would suffice thee to talke while all other suffer Where is thy faith Yea where art thou thy selfe O my soule Is heauen worthy of no more thankes no more ioy Shall Heretikes shall Pagans giue death a better welcome than thou Hath thy Maker thy Redemer sent for thee and art thou loth to goe hath hee sent for thee to put thee in possession of that glorious Inheritance which thy wardship hath cheerefully expected and art thou loth to goe Hath God with this Sergeant of his sent his Angels to fetch thee and art thou loth to goe Rouze vp thy selfe for shame O my soule and if euer thou hast truly beleeued shake off this vnchristian diffidence and addresse thy selfe ioyfully for thy glory The Wish Yea O my Lord it is thou that must raise vp this faint and drooping heart of mine thou onely canst rid me of this weake and cowardly distrust Thou that sendest for my soule canst prepare it for thy selfe thou onely canst make thy messenger welcome to me O that I could but see thy face through death Oh that I could see death not as it was but as thou hast made it Oh that I could heartily pledge thee my Sauiour in this cup that so I might drinke new wine with thee in thy Fathers Kingdome The Confession But alas O my God nature is strong and weake in mee at once I cannot wish to welcome death as it is worthy when I looke for most courage I finde strongest temptations I see and confesse that when I am my selfe thou hast no such coward as I Let me alone and I shall shame that name of thine which I haue professed euery secure worldling shall laugh at my feeblenesse O God were thy Martyrs thus haled to their stakes might they not haue beene loosed from their rackes and chose to die in those torments Let it be no shame for thy seruant to take vp that complaint which thou mad'st of thy better Attendants The spirit is willing but the flesh is weake The Petition and enforcement O thou God of spirits that hast coupled these two together vnite them in a desire of their dissolution weaken this flesh to receiue and encourage this spirit either to desire or to contemne death and now as I grow neerer to my home let me increase in the sense of my ioyes I am thine saue me O Lord It was thou that didst put such courage into thine ancient and late witnesses that they either inuited or challenged death and held their persecutors their best friends for letting them loose from these gieues of flesh I know thine hand is not shortned neither any of them hath receiued more proofes of thy former mercies Oh let thy goodnesse inable me to reach them in the comfortable steddinesse of my passage Doe but draw this vaile a little that I may see my glory and I cannot but be inflamed with the desire of it It was not I that either made this body for the earth or this soule for my body or this heauen for my soule or this glorie of heauen or this entrance into glory All is thine owne worke Oh perfect what thou hast begun that thy praise and my happinesse may be consummate at once The assurance or Confidence Yea O my soule what need'st thou wish the God of mercies to be tender of his owne honour Art thou not a member of that body whereof thy Sauiour
relate ought better than he would he redoubles the question as being hard to beleeue what he likes not and hopes yet if that be auerred againe to his griefe that there is somewhat concealed in the relation which if it were knowne would argue the commended partie miserable and blemish him with secret shame He is readie to quarrell with God because the next field is fairer growne and angerly calculates his cost and time and tillage Whom he dares not openly backbite nor wound with a direct censure he strike smoothly with an ouer-cold praise and when he sees that he must either maliciously oppugne the iust praise of another which were vnsafe or approue it by assent he yeeldeth but shewes withall that his meanes were such both by nature and education that he could not without much neglect be lesse commendable so his happinesse shall be made the colour of detraction When an wholsome law is propounded he crosseth it either by open or close opposition not for any incommoditie or inexpedience but because it proceeded from any mouth besides his owne And it must bee a cause rarely plausible that will not admit some probable contradiction When his equall should rise to honour hee striues against it vnseene and rather with much cost suborneth great aduersaries and when hee sees his resistance vaine he can giue an hollow gratulation in presence but in secret disparages that aduancement either the man is vnfit for the place or the place for the man or if fit yet lesse gainfull or more common than opinion whereto he addes that himselfe might haue had the same dignitie vpon better tearmes and refused it He is wittie in deuising suggestions to bring his Riuall out of loue into suspition If he be courteous he is seditiously popular if bountifull he bindes ouer his clients to a faction if successefull in warre he is dangerous in peace if wealthy he laies vp for a day if powerfull nothing wants but opportunitie of rebellion His submission is ambitious hypocrisie his religion politike insinuation no action is safe from a iealous construction When hee receiues a good report of him whom he emulates he saith Fame is partiall and is wont to blanch mischiefes and pleaseth himselfe with hope to finde it worse and if Ill-will haue dispersed any more spightfull narration he laies hold on that against all witnesses and brocheth that rumour for truest because worst and when he sees him perfectly miserable he can at once pitie him and reioyce What himselfe cannot doe others shall not hee hath gained well if he haue hindred the successe of what hee would haue done and could not Hee conceales his best skill not so as it may not be knowne that he knowes it but so as it may not be learned because he would haue the world misse him He attained to a soueraigne medicine by the secret Legacy of a dying Empericke whereof he will leaue no heire lest the praise should be diuided Finally he is an enemy to Gods fauours if they fall beside himselfe the best nurse of ill Fame a man of the worst diet for he consumes himselfe and delights in pining a thorne-hedge couered with nettles a peeuish Interpreter of good things and no other than a leane and pale carkase quickned with a Fiend FINIS SALOMONS DIVINE ARTS OF 1. ETHICKS 2. POLITICKS 3. OECONOMICKS THAT IS THE GOVERNMENT OF 1. BEHAVIOVR 2. COMMON-WEALTH 3. FAMILIE DRAWNE INTO METHOD OVT of his PROVERBS and ECCLESIASTES With an open and plaine Paraphrase vpon the SONG OF SONGS By IOS HALL By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE AND HOPEFVLL LORD ROBERT Earle of Essex my singular good Lord all increase of Grace and true HONOVR RIGHT HONOVRABLE WHilest J desired to congratulate your happy returne with some worthy present I fell vpon this which I dare not onely offer but commend the royallest Philosopher and wisest King giuing you those precepts which the Spirit of God gaue him The matter is all his nothing is mine but the method which I doe willingly submit to censure In that hee could not erre in this J cannot but haue erred either in Art or application or sense or disorder or defect yet not wilfully I haue meant it well and faithfully to the Church of God and to your Honour as one of her great hopes If any man shall cauill that I haue gone about to correct Salomons order or to controule Ezekias seruants I complaine both of his charity and wisdome and appeale to more lawfull iudgement Let him as well say that euery Concordance peruerts the Text. J haue onely endeuoured to be the common place-booke of that great King and to referre his Diuine rules to their heads for more ease of finding for better memory for readier vse See how that God whose wisdome thought good to bereaue mankinde of Salomons profound Commentaries of Nature hath reserued these his Diuine Morals to out-liue the world as knowing that those would but feed mans curiositie these would both direct his life and iudge it He hath not done this without expectation of our good and glory to himselfe which if we answer the gaine is ours J know how little need there is either to intreat your Lordships acceptation or to aduise your vse It is enough to haue humbly presented them to your hands and through them to the Church the desire of whose good is my good yea my recompence and glory The same God whose hand hath led and returned you in safetie from all forraine euils guide your waies at home and graciously increase you in the ground of all true honour Goodnesse My praiers shall euer follow you Who vow my selfe your Honours in all humble and true dutie IOS HALL SALOMONS ETHICKS OR MORALS JN FOVRE BOOKES The 1. Of FELICITIE 2. Of PRVDENCE 3. Of IVSTICE 4. Of TEMPERANCE FORTITVDE By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. SALOMONS ETHICKS OR GOVERNMENT OF Behauiour and Manners THE FIRST BOOKE FELICITY § 1. Of Ethicks in common The description The chiefe end which is Felicitie ETHICKS is a Doctrine of wisdome and knowledge to liue well Ec. 1.17 Ec. 7. â—7 and of the madnesse and foolishnesse of vice or instruction to doe wisely by iustice and iudgement and equity and to doe good in our life Pr. 1.3 The end whereof is to see and attaine that chiefe goodnesse of the children of men Ec. 3.12 Ec. 3.2 which they enioy vnder the Sunne the whole number of the daies of their life § 2. Wherein Felicity is not Not in pleasure Not in wealth for herein is 1 No satisfaction 2 Increased expence 3 Restlesnesse 4 Want of fruition 5 Vncertaintie 6 Necessitie of leauing it WHich consists not in pleasure for I said in mine heart Goe to now Ec. 2.1 I will
is he that drinkes the waters of his owne Cisterne Pr. 5.15 Pr. 6.25 that desires not the beautie of a stranger in his heart neither lets her take him with her eye-lids contrarily the incontinent is hee that delights in a strange woman Pr. 5.20 Pr. 2.17 Pr. 23.28 Pr. 23.27 Ec. 7.28 See more of this vice Oecoâ— sect 2. and 3. Pr. 16.32 Pr. 14.29 Pr. 19.11 Pr. 14.29 Pr. 29.8 Pr. 16.23 Pr. 20.3 Ec. 7.11 Ec. 7.11 Pr. 14.17 Pr. 14.29 Pr. 27.4 Pr. 29.22 Pr. 22.24 Pr. 22.25 and embraces the bosome of a stranger or she that forsakes the guide of her youth and forgetteth the couenant of God she lieth in wait for a prey and she increaseth the transgressors amongst men For a whore is as a deepe ditch and a strange woman as a narrow pit Yea I finde more bitter than death the woman whose heart is as nets and snares and whose hands as bands he that is good before God shall be deliuered from her but the sinner shall be taken by her Of the second is he that is slow to anger slow to wrath whose discretion deferreth his anger and whose glory is to passe by an offence which moderation as it argues him to be of great wisdome for wise men turne away wrath so it makes him better than the mightie man and procures him iust honour for It is the honour of a man to cease from strife contrary to which is he that is of an hastie spirit to be angry which as it proues him foolâ—sh for anger resteth in the bosome of fooles and he that is hastie to anger not onely committeth folly but exalteth it so it makes him dangerous Anger is cruell and wrath is raging and a furious man aboundeth in transgressions wherefore make no friendship with an angry man lest thou learne his waies and receiue destruction to thy soule §. 5. Fortitude In generall The specials of it Confidence Patience in Gods afflictions in mens iniuries Pr. 18.14 Pr. 28.1 Pr. 24.10 Pr. 29.25 Pr. 18 14. Pr. 28.1 Pr. 3.5 Pr. 3.6 Pr. 16.3 Pr. 14.32 Pr. 13.12 Pr. 28.25 Pr. 16.3 Pr. 3.6 Pr. 30.5 Pr. 21.31 Pr. 18.12 Pr. 16.20 Pr. 28.26 Pr. 27.1 FOrtitude is that whereby The spirit of a man sustaines his infirmities which makes the righteous bold as a Lion contrarily the weake of strength is hee that is faint in the day of aduersitie whose feare bringeth a snare vpon him and that desperate A wounded spirit who can beare which is often caused through guiltinesse The wicked fleeth when none pursueth him Confidence is to trust in the Lord with all thine heart and not to leane to thine owne wisdome but in all thy waies to acknowledge him and to commit thy workes to the Lord and to haue hope in thy death and though in other things The hope that is deferred is the fainting of the heart yet in this he that trusteth in the Lord shall be fat for from hence not onely his thoughts and waies are directed but he receiueth safetie and protection He is a shield to those that trust in him The horse is prepared for the day of battell but saluation is of the Lord. Yea The name of the Lord is a strong tower the righteous runneth to it and is exalted So that He that trusteth in the Lord he is blessed whereas He that trusteth in his owne heart is a foole and it is a vaine thing to boast thy selfe of to morow for thou knowest not what a day will bring forth Pr. 3.11 Ec. 7.16 Patience is not to refuse the chastening of the Lord neither to bee grieued with his correction The patient man in the day of wealth is of good comfort and in the day of affliction considereth God also hath made this contrarie to that that man should finde nothing after him whereof to complaine knowing that the Lord correcteth whom hee loueth Pr. 3.12 Pr. 10.28 Pr. 19.3 Ec. 6.10 Pr. 29.1 and that the patient abiding of the righteous shall bee gladnesse Contrarily The heart of the foole fretteth against the Lord he is carelesse and rageth but to what purpose Man cannot striue with him that is stronger than he yea rather the man that hardeneth his necke when he is rebuked shall suddenly bee destroied and cannot be cured Pr. 20.22 in respect of mens iniuries Hee saith not I will recompence euill but waits vpon the Lord and hee shall saue him In which regard the patient in spirit that suffers Ec. 7.10 is better than the proud of spirit that requites SALOMONS POLITICKS OR COMMON-WEALTH THE FIRST BOOKE His KING COVNCELLOVR COVRTIER SVBIECT By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. SALOMONS POLITICKS OR Common-Wealth And first HIS KING §. 1. Degrees must be and are subordinate highest not many but one and those from God IN all well ordered gouernments there are degrees And higher than the highest and yet an higher than they and these Ec. 5.7 of Gods appointment not onely in the inferiour ranks The rich and poore meet and the Lord is the Maker of them all but in the supreme Pr. 2.22 By me Kings raigne saith Wisdome and Princes decree Iustice Pr. 8.15 Pr. 8.16 Pr. 30.27 and not they onely but the Nobles and all the Iudges of the earth so it is a iust wonder that the Grashoppers haue no King yet they goe forth by bands And as no King is a iudgement so many for Because of the transgression of the Land there are many Princes many Pr. 28.2 not onely in frequent succession but in society of regiment §. 2. In a King are described Quality of his person Naturall Morall Actions A King must be high as in place so in bloud Blessed art thou O Land Ec. 10.17 when thy King is the sonne of Nobles not of any seruile condition Pr. 19.10 Ec. 10.17 for nothing can be more vncomly than for a seruant to haue rule ouer Princes and it is a monster in State to see seruants ride on horses and Princes of bloud to walke as seruants on the ground neither more monstrous than intollerable There are three things for which the earth is moued Pr. 30.21 Pr. 30.22 yea foure which it cannot sustaine whereof one is A seruant when he raigneth §. 3. Morall qualities Negatiue what one he Not lasciuious Not riotous Not hollow and dissembling Not childish Not imprudent Not oppressing may not be Affirmatiue ANd as his bloud is heroicall so his disposition not lascinious What Pr. 31.25 Ec. 2.10 O my sonne of my desires giue not thy strength to women nor thy waies But why should he withhold from his eyes whatsoeuer they can desire Ec. 2.8 Can. 6.7 Pr. 31.3 Ec. 7.28 and withdraw his heart from any ioy why may he not haue all the delights of the sonnes of men as women taken captiue as Queenes and Concubines and
Damosels without number This is to destroy Kings He shall finde more bitter than death the woman whose heart is as nets and snares Not riotously excessiue Pr. 31.4 whether in wine for It is not for Kings to drinke wine nor for Princes strong drinke Ec. 9.7 What not at all To him alone is it not said Goe eat thy bread with ioy and drinke thy wine with a cheerefull heart who should eat or drinke or haste to outward things more than he Ec. 2.25 Pr. 31.5 Ec. 10.16 Pr. 23.2 Pr. 23.3 Not immoderatly so as he should drinke and forget the decree and change the iudgement of all the children of affliction Or in meat for Woe be to thee O Land when thy Princes eat in the morning and if he be not the master of his appetite his dainty meats will proue deceiueable Not hollow not double in speeches in profession Pr. 17.7 Ec. 10.16 The lip of excellency becomes not a foole much lesse lying talke a Prince Not childish Woe to thee O Land whose King is a childe not so much in age which hath sometimes proued successefull Pr. 23.16 but in condtion Not imprudent not oppressing two vices conioyned A Prince destitute of vnderstanding is also a great oppressor And to conclude in all or any of these Ec. 4.13 not wilfully inflexible A poore and wise childe is better than an old and foolish King that will no more be admonished §. 4. Affirmatiue what one he must be To others Iust Mercifull Slow to Anger Bountifull In himselfe Temperate Wise Valiant Secret Ec. 10.17 Pr. 11.1 COntrarily he must be Temperate Blessed art thou O Land when thy Princes eat in time for strength and not for drunkennesse Iust and righteous for false ballances especially in the hand of gouernment are an abomination to the Lord but a perfect weight pleaseth him Pr. 16.12 Pr. 14.34 Pr. 29.2 A vertue beneficiall both 1 to himselfe for the Throne is established by Iustice and 2. to the State Iustice exalteth a Nation than which nothing doth more binde and cheare the hearts of the people for When the righteous are in authority the people reioyce but when the wicked beares rule the people sigh and with truth and iustice Pr. 20.18 must mercy be ioyned inseparably for Mercy and truth preserue the King and his Throne shall be established also by mercy And all these must haue wisdome to menage them Pr. 8.16 Pr. 20.26 Pr. 28.16 Pr. 29.4 By it Princes rule and are terrible to the ill-deseruing A wise King scattereth the wicked and causeth the wheele to turne ouer them To all these must bee added bounty A Prince that hateth couetousnesse shall prolong his daies where contrarily A man of gifts destroyeth his country and yet further a conquest of his owne passions a princely victory Pr. 16.32 for He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty man and hee that ruleth his owne minde better than he that winneth a City because of all other The Kings wrath is like the roaring of a Lion Pr. 19.12 and what is that but the messenger of death and if it may be Pr. 30.29 Pr. 30.31 a conquest of all others through valour There are three things that order well their going yea foure are comely in going whereof the last and principall is A King against whom no man dares rise vp Pr. 25.3 Lastly secrecie in determinations The Heauen in height and earth in deepnesse and the Kings heart can no man no man should search out Pr. 21.1 neither should it be in any hands but the Lords who as he knowes it so he turnes it whithersoeuer it pleaseth him §. 5. His actions common speciall to his place To iudge righteously 1. according to the truth of the cause 2. according to the distresse of the party vnpartially remit mercifully Pr. 16.12 Pr. 16.7 HIs actions must suit his disposition which must bee vniuersally holy for It is an abomination to Kings of all other to commit wickednesse Which holinesse alone is the way to all peace When the waies of a man please the Lord he will make his enemies at peace with him Peculiarly to his place hee must first iudge his people Pr. 20.8 a King that sitteth in the Throne of iudgement chaseth away all euill with his eies Pr. 29.4 Pr. 16.10 and by this hee maintaines his country and while he doth sit there A diuine sentence must be in the lips of the King and his mouth may not transgresse in iudgement For Pr. 29.14 a King that iudgeth the poore in truth his Throne shall be established for euer Neither may his eare be partially open which disposition shall be sure to be fed with reports for Pr. 29.12 Of a Prince that harkneth to lies all his seruants are wicked nor his mouth shut especially in cases of distresse Open thy mouth for the dumbe in the cause of all the children of destruction Pr. 31.8 Pr. 31.9 open thy mouth iudge righteously and iudge the afflicted and the poore yet not with so much regard to the estate of persons as the truth of the cause Pr. 17.26 for Surely it is not good to condemne the iust in what euer condition nor that Princes should smite such for equity wherein he shall wisely search into all difficulties The glory of God is to passe by infirmities Pr. 25.1 but the Kings honour is to search out a thing yet so as he is not seldome mercifull in execution Deliuering them that are drawne to death Pr. 24.11 Ec. 8.9 and preseruing them that are drawne to be slaine These obserued it cannot be that man should rule ouer man to his hurt SALOMONS COVNSAILOR §. 6. Counsaile For the soule How giuen The necessity of it The qualitie wise righteous pleasant How receiued For the State AS where no soueraignty so where no counsell is the people fall and contrarily Pr. 11.14 Pr. 22.6 Pr 15.22 Pr. 29.18 Pr. 11.30 Ec. 22.9 where many Counsellors are there is health and more than health Stedfastnes Counsell for the soule Where no vision is the people perish which requires both holinesse and wisdome The fruit of the righteous is as a tree of life and he that winneth soules is wise the more wise the Preacher is the more he teacheth the people knowledge and causeth them to heare and searcheth forth and prepareth many parables and not only an vpright writing and speaking euen the word of truth Ec. 12.10 but pleasant words also so that the sweetnesse of the lips increaseth doctrine and not more delightfull than effectuall for Pr. 16.21 The words of the wise are like goads and nailes fastned by the masters of the assemblies that are giuen by one Pastor Ec. 12.11 which againe of euery hearer challenge due reuerence and regard who must take heed to his foot when he entreth into the House of God Ec. 4
to your God the World and seek to please him with your base and seruile deuotions it shall be long enough ere such religion shall make you happy You shall at last forsake those altars emptie and sorrowfull How easie is it for vs Christians thus to insult ouer the worldling that thinkes himselfe worthy of enuie How easie to turne off the world with a scornfull repulse and when it makes vs the Deuils profer All these will I giue thee to returne Peters answer Thy siluer and thy gold perish with thee How easie to account none so miserable as those that are rich with iniurie and grow great by being conscious of secret euils Wealth and honor when it comes vpon the best tearmes is but vaine but when vpon ill conditions burdensome When they are at the best they are scarce friends but when at the worst tormentors Alas how ill agrees a gay coat and a festred heart What auailes an high title with an hell in the soule I admire the faith of Moses but presupposing his faith I wonder not at his choice He preferred the afflictions of Israel to the pleasures of Aegypt and chose rather to eate the Lamb with sowre hearbs than all their flesh-pots for how much better is it to be miserable than guilty and what comparison is there betwixt sorrow and sinne If it were possible let me rather be in hell without sinne than on earth wickedly glorious But how much are we bound to God that allowes vs earthly fauours without this opposition That God hath made you at once honourable and iust and your life pleasant and holy and hath giuen you an high estate with a good heart are fauours that looke for thanks These must be acknowledged not rested in They are yet higher thoughts that must perfect your contentment What God hath giuen you is nothing to that he meanes to giue He hath bin liberall but he will be munificent This is not so much as the taste of a full cup. Fasten your eyes vpon your future glory and see how meanly you shall esteeme these earthly graces Here you command but a little pittance of mould great indeed to vs little to the whole there whole heauen shall be yours Here you command but as a subiect there you shall reigne as a King Here you are obserued but sometimes with your iust distaste there you shall raigne with peace and ioy Here you are noble among men there glorious amongst Angels Here you want not honour but you want not crosses there is nothing but felicity Here you haue some short ioyes there is nothing but eternity You are a stranger here there at home Here Satan tempts you and men vexe you there Saints and Angels shall applaud you and God shall fill you with himselfe In a word you are onely blessed here for that you shall be These are thoughts worthy of greatnesse which if we suffer eyther imployments or pleasures to thrust out of our doores we doe wilfully make our selues comfortlesse Let these still season your mirth and sweeten your sorrowes and euer interpose themselues betwixt you and the world These onely can make your life happy and your death welcome To my Lord HAY H. and P. EP. III. Of true Honour MY Lord it is safe to complaine of Nature where Grace is and to magnifie Grace where it is at once had and affected It is a fault of Nature and not the least that as she hath dimme eyes so they are miss-placed She lookes still eyther forward or downeward forward to the obiect she desires or downeward to the meanes neuer turnes her eyes eyther backward to see what shee was or vpward to the cause of her good whence it is iust with God to with-hold what he would giue or to curse that which hee bestowes and to besot carnall minds with outward things in their value in their desire in their vse whereas true wisedome hath cleare eyes and right set and therefore sees an inuisible hand in all sensible euents effecting all things directing all things to their due end sees on whom to depend whom to thanke Earth is too low and too base to giue bounds vnto a spirituall sight No man then can truely know what belongs to wealth or honour but the gracious eyther how to compasse them or how to prize them or how to vse them I care not how many thousand wayes there are to seeming-honour besides this of vertue they all if more still lead to shame or what plots are deuised to improue it if they were as deepe as hell yet their end is losse As there is no counsell against God so there is no honour without him Heâ— inclines the hearts of Princes to fauour the hearts of inferiours to applause Without him the hand cannot moue to successe nor the tongue to praise And what is honour without these In vaine doth the world frowne vpon the man whom hee meanes to honour or smile where hee would disgrace Let mee then tell your Lordship who are fauourites in the Court of heauen euen whiles they wander on earth yea let the great King himselfe tell you Those that honour mee I will honour That men haue the grace to giue honour to God is an high fauour but because men giue honour to God as their dutie that therefore God should giue honour to men is to giue because hee hath giuen It is a fauour of God that man is honoured of man like himselfe but that God alloweth of our endeuours as honour to himselfe is a greater fauour than that wherewith hee requites it This is the goodnesse of our God The man that serues him honours him and whosoeuer honours him with his seruice is crowned with honour I challenge all times places persons Who euer honoured God and was neglected Who hath wilfully dishonoured him and prospered Turne ouer all Records and see how successe euer blessed the iust after many dangers after many stormes of resistance and left their conclusion glorious how all godlesse plots in their loose haue at once deceiued shamed punished their Author I goe no further Your owne brest knowes that your happy experience can herein iustifie God The world hath noted you for a follower of vertue and hath seene how fast Honour followed you Whiles you sought fauour with the God of heauen he hath giuen you fauour with his Deputy on earth Gods former actions are patternes of his future He teacheth you what he will doe by what hee hath done Vnlesse your hand be weary of offering seruice he cannot eyther pull in his hand from rewarding or hold it out empty Honour him still and God pawnes his honour on not failing you You cannot distruct him whom your proofe hath found faithfull And whiles you settle your heart in this right course of true glory laugh in secret scorne at the idle endeuours of those men whose policies would out-reach God and seize vpon honour without his leaue God laughes at them in heauen it is a safe and
God wee did not finde it a sure rule that as it is in this little world the older it growes the more diseased the more couetous we are all too much the true sonnes of our great grandmother and haue each of vs an Eues sweet tooth in our heads we would be more than we are and euery man would be either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either the man or some-body If a number of your consciences were ript O yee that would be Christian Gentlemen Lawyers Citizens what doe we thinke would be found in your mawes Here the deuoured patrimonie of poore Orphans there the commons of whole Towneships here the impropriate goods of the Church there piles of vsury here bribes and vnlawfull fees there the raw and indigested gobbets of Simonie yea would God I might not say but I must say it with feare with sorrow euen of our sacred and diuine profession that which our Sauiour of his Twelue Yee are cleane but not all The multitude of our vnregarded Charges and soules dying and starued for want of spirituall prouision while they giue vs bodily would condemne my silence for too partiall In all conditions of men for particulars are subiect to enuy and exception the daughters of the horse-leech had neuer such a fruitfull generation They cry still Giue Giue not giue alone that is the bread of sufficiency but giue giue that is more than enough But what is more than enough What is but enough What is not too little for the insatiable gulfe of humane desires Euery man would ingrosse the whole world to himselfe and with that ambitious conqueror feares â—t will be too little and how few Agurs are there that pray against too much From hence 〈◊〉 that ye Courtiers grate vpon poore Trades with hard Monopolies Hence ye Merchants load them with deepe and vnreasonable prices and make them pay deare for dayes Hence ye great men wring the poore spunges of the Commonalty into your priuate purses for the maintenance of pride and excesse Hence ye cormorant Corne-mongers hatch vp a dearth in the time of plenty God sends graine but many times the Deuill sends garners The earth hath beene no niggard in yeelding but you haue beene lauish in transporting and close in concealing Neuer talke of our extreme frosts we see Gods hand and kisse the rod but if your hearts your charity were not more frozen than euer the earth was meane House-keepers should not need to beg nor the meanest to starue for want of bread Hence lastly our loud oppressions of all sorts cry to heauen and are answered with threats yea with variety of vengeances Take this with thee yet O thou worldling which hast the greedy-worme vnder thy tongue with Esaies dogs and neuer hast enough Thou shalt meet with two things as vnsatiable as thy selfe the Graue and Hell and thou whom all the world could not satisfie there be two things whereof thou shalt haue enough Enough would in the graue enough fire in hell I loue not to end with a iudgement and as it were to let my Sunne set in a cloud We are all Christians we should know the world what it is how vaine how transitorie how worthlesse We know where there are better things which we professe our selues made for and aspiring to Let vs vse the world like it selfe and leaue this importunate wooing of it to Heathens and Infidels that know no other heauen no other God Or if you like that counsell better Be couetous Be ambitious Couet spirituall gifts 1 Cor. 14.1 Neuer thinke you haue grace enough desire more seeke for more this alone is worthy your affections worthy your cares Be still poore in this that you may be rich be rich that you may bee full bee full that you may bee glorious Bee ambitious of fauour of honour of a kingdome of Gods fauour of the honour of Saints of the Kingdome of glory whither he that bought it for vs and redeemed vs to it in his good time safely and happily bring vs. To that blessed Sauiour of ours together with the Father and his good Spirit the God of all the world our Father Redeemer and Comforter be giuen all praise honour and glory now and for euer Amen FJNJS THE PASSION SERMON PREACHED AT PAVLS CROSSE ON GOOD-FRIDAY Aprill 14. 1609. By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE ONELY HONOR AND GLORY OF GOD MY DEARE AND BLESSED SAVIOVR WHICH HATH DONE AND SVFFERED ALL THESE THINGS FOR MY SOVLE HIS WEAKE AND VNWORTHY SERVANT HVMBLY DESIRES TO CONSECRATE HIMSELFE AND HIS POORE LABOVRS BESEECHING HIM TO ACCEPT AND BLESSE THEM TO THE PVBLIKE GOOD AND TO THE PRAISE OF HIS OWNE GLORIOVS NAME TO THE READER I Desire not to make any Apologie for the Edition of this my Sermon It is motiue enough that herein I affect a more publike and more induring good Spirituall nicenesse is the next degree to vnfaithfulnesse This point cannot bee too much vrged either by the tongue or Presse Religion and our soules depend vpon it yet are our thoughts too much beside it The Church of Rome so fixes her selfe in her adoration vpon the Crosse of Christ as if she forgat his glory Many of vs so conceiue of him glorious that wee neglect the meditation of his Crosse the way to his glory and ours If wee would proceed aright wee must passe from his Golgotha to the mount of Oliues and from thence to Heauen and there seeke and settle our rest According to my weake abilitie I haue led this way in my speech beseeching my Readers to follow mee with their hearts that wee may ouertake him which is entred into the true Sanctuary euen the highest Heauens to appeare now in the sight of GOD for vs. THE PASSION SERMON IOH. 19. VER 30. When Iesus therefore had receiued the Vineger he said It is finished and bowing the head he gaue vp the ghost THE bitter and yet victorious passion of the Sonne of God Right Honourable and beloued Christians as it was the strangest thing that euer befell the earth so is both of most soueraigne vse and lookes for the most frequent and carefull meditation It is one of those things which was once done that it might bee thought of for euer Euery day therefore must bee the Good-Friday of a Christian who with that great Doctor of the Gentiles must desire to know nothing but Iesus Christ and him crucified There is no branch or circumstance in this wonderfull businesse which yeelds not infinite matter of discourse According to the solemnitie of this time and place I haue chosen to commend vnto your Christian attention our Sauiours Farewell to Nature for his reuiuing was aboue it in his last word in his last act His last word It is finished his last act He gaue vp the Ghost That which hee said hee did If there bee any theame
himselfe of himselfe a worme and no man the shame of men and contempt of the people Who is the King of glory Psal 24.10 the Lord of Hoasts he is the King of glory Set these two together the King of glory the shame of men the more honour the more abasement Looke backe to his Cradle there you finde him rejected of the Bethlemites borne and laid alas how homely how vnworthily sought for by Herod exiled to Aegypt obscurely brought vp in the Cottage of a poore Foster-Father transported and tempted by Sathan derided of his kindred blasphemously traduced by the Iewes pinched with hunger restlesse harbourlesse sorrowfull persecuted by the Elders and Pharises sold by his owne seruant apprehended arraigned scourged condemned and yet it is not finished Let vs with that Disciple follow him a farre off and passing ouer all his contemptuous vsage in the way see him brought to his Crosse Still the further we looke the more wonder euery thing adds to this ignominie of suffering and triumph of ouer-comming Where was it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act 26.27 not in a corner as Paul saith to Festus but in Ierusalem the eye the heart of the world Obscuritie abateth shame publique notice heightens it Before all Israel and before this Sunne saith God to Dauid when he would thorowly shame him In Ierusalem which he had honoured with his presence taught with his preachings astonisht with his miracles bewayled with his teares O Ierusalem Ierusalem how oft would I and thou wouldest not O yet if in this thy day Crueltie and vnkindnesse after good desert afflict so much more as our merit hath beene greater Whereabouts without the gates in Caluarie among the stinking bones of execrable Malefactors Before the glory of the place bred shame now the vilenesse of it When but in the Passeouer a time of greatest frequence and concourse of all Iewes and Proselytes An holy time when they should receiue the figure they reiect the substance when they should kill and eat the Sacramentall Lambe in faith in thankfulnesse they kill the Lambe of God our true Passeouer in crueltie and contempt With whom The qualitie of our companie either increases or lessens shame In the midst of theeues saith one as the Prince of theeues In â—â—edio latronuÌ„ tanquam latronuÌ„ immanissimus Luthâ—r there was no guile in his mouth much lesse in his hands yet behold he that thought it no robberie to be equall with God is made equall to robbers and murderers yea superiour in euill What suffered he As all lifes are not alike pleasant so all deaths are not equally fearefull There is not more difference betwixt some life and death than betwixt one death and another See the Apostles gradation He was made obedient to the death euen the death of the Crosse The Crosse a lingring tormenting ignominious death The Iewes had foure kindes of death for malefactors the towell the sword fire stones each of these aboue other in extremitie Strangling with the towell they accounted easiest the sword worse than the towell the fire worse than the sword stoning worse than the fire but this Romane death was worst of all Cursed is euery one that hangeth on a Tree Yet as Ierome well hee is not therefore accursed because he hangeth but therefore he hangeth because he is accursed He was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Curse for vs. The curse was more than the shame yet the shame is vnspeakable and yet not more than the paine Yet all that die the same death are not equally miserable the very theeues fared better in their death than hee I heare of no irrision no inscription no taunts no insultation on them they had nothing but paine to encounter he paine and scorne An ingenuous and noble Nature can worse brooke this than the other any thing rather than disdainfulnesse and derision especially from a base enemie I remember that learned Father begins Israels affliction with Ismaels persecuting laughter The Iewes the Souldiers yea the very Theeues flouted him and triumpht ouer his misery his bloud cannot satisfie them without his reproach Which of his senses now was not a window to let-in sorrow his eyes saw the teares of his Mother and friends the vnthankfull demeanure of Mankinde the cruell despight of his enemies his eares heard the reuilings and blasphemies of the multitude and whether the place were noysome to his sent his touch felt the nayles his taste the gall Looke vp O all yee beholders looke vpon this pretious bodie and see what part yee can finde free That head which is adored and trembled at by the Angelicall spirits is all raked and harrowed with thornes Caput Angelicis spiritibus tremebundum spinis corenatur c. that face of whom it is said Thou art fairer than the children of men is all besmeared with the filthy spettle of the Iewes and furrowed with his teares those eyes clearer than the Sunne are darkned with the shadow of death those eares that heare the heauenly consorts of Angels now are filled with the cursed speakings and scoffs of wretched men those lips that spake as neuer man spake that command the spirits both of light and darknesse are scornfully wet with vinegar and gall those feet that trample on all the powers of hell his enemies are made his footstoole are now nayled to the footstoole of the Crosse those hands that freely sway the scepter of the heauens now carry the reede of reproach and are nayled to the tree of reproach that whole bodie which was conceiued by the Holy-Ghost was all scourged wounded mangled this is the out-side of his sufferings Was his heart free Oh no the inner part or soule of this paine which was vnseene is as far beyond these outward and sensible as the soule is beyond the bodie Gods wrath beyond the malice of men these were but loue-tricks to what his soule endured O all yee that passe by the way behold and see if there bee any sorrow like to my sorrow Alas Lord what can we see of thy sorrowes wee cannot conceiue so much as the hainousnes and desert of one of those sinnes which thou barest wee can no more see thy paine than wee could vndergoe it onely this wee see that what the infinite sinnes of almost infinite men committed against an infinite Maiestie deserued in infinite continuance all this thou in the short time of thy Passion hast sustained Wee may behold and see but all the glorious spirits in Heauen cannot looke into the depth of this suffering Doe but looke yet a little into the passions of this his Passion for by the manner of his sufferings we shall best see what he suffered Wise and resolute men doe not complaine of a little holy Martyrs haue beene racked and would not be loosed what shall we say if the author of their strength God and Man bewray passions what would haue ouerwhelmed men would not haue made him shrinke and what made him
And if wee could but as heartily haue prayed for him before as we haue heartily wept for him since perhaps we had not had this cause of mourning From sorrow let vs descend to paines which is no small cause of crying and teares as I feare some of vs must the word howsoeuer it is here translated is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 labour I must confesse labour and paine are neere one another whence we say that he which labours takes paines and contrarily that a woman is in labour or trauell when shee is in the paine of child-birth teares cannot be wip't away whiles toile remaines That the Israelites may leaue crying they must bee deliuered from the brick-kilnes of Aegypt Indeed God had in our creation allotted vs labour without paine but when once sinne came into the soule paine seized vpon the bones and the minde was possessed with a wearinesse and irksome loathing of what it must do and euer since sorrow and labour haue beene inseparable attendants vpon the life of man Insomuch as God when he would describe to vs the happy estate of the dead does it in those termes They shall rest from their labours Looke into the field there you shall see toiling at the plough and sithe Looke into the waters there you see tugging at the oares and cabels Looke into the City there you see plodding in the streets sweating in the shops Looke into the studies there you see fixing of eyes tossing of bookes scratching the head palenesse infirmity Looke into the Court there you see tedious attendance emulatory officiousnesse All things are full of labour and labour is full of sorrow If we doe nothing idlenesse is wearisome if any thing worke is wearisome in one or both of these the best of life is consumed Who now can bee in loue with a life that hath nothing in it but crying and teares in the entrance death in the conclusion labour and paine in the continuance and sorrow in all these What Gally-slaue but we would be in loue with our chaine what prisoner would delight in his dungeon How hath our infidelity besotted vs if we doe not long after that happy estate of our immortality wherein all our teares shall be wip't away and we at once freed from labour sorrow and death Now as it is vaine to hope for this till then so then not to hope for it is paganish and brutish He that hath tasked vs with these penances hath vndertaken to release vs. God shall wipe away all teares While we stay here he keepes all our teares in a bottle Psal 56. so precious is the water that is distilled from penitent eies and because he will be sure not to faile he notes how many drops there be in his register It was a pretious ointment wherewith the woman in the Pharises house it is thought Mary Magdalene anointed the feet of Christ Luke 7.37 but her teares wherewith shee washt them were more worth than her spilâ—nard But that which is here precious is there vnseasonable then hee shall wipe away those which here hee would saue As death so passions are the companions of infirmity whereupon some that haue beene too nice haue called those which were incident into Christ Propassions not considering that he which was capable of death might be as well of passions These troublesome affections of griefe feare and such like doe not fall into glorified soules It is true that they haue loue desire ioy in their greatest perfection yea they could not haue perfection without them but like as God loues and hates and reioyces truly but in a manner of his owne abstracted from all infirmity and passion so doe his glorified Saints in imitation of him There therefore as we cannot die so wee cannot grieue we cannot be afflicted Here one saies My belly my belly with the Prophet another mine head mine head with the Shunamites sonne another my sonne my sonne as Dauid another my father my father with Elisha One cries out of his sinnes with Dauid another of his hunger with Esau another of an ill wife with Iob another of trecherous friends 2 Kings 4. with the Psalmist One of a sore in body with Ezechias another of a troubled soule with our Sauiour in the garden euery one hath some complaint or other to make his cheekes wet and his heart heauy Stay but a while and there shall be none of these There shall be no crying no complaining in the streets of the new Ierusalem No axe no hammer shall be heard within this heauenly Temple Why are we not content to weepe here a while on condition that we may weepe no more Why are we not ambitious of this blessed ease Certainly we doe not smart enough with our euils that we are not desirous of rest These teares are not yet dry yet they are ready to be ouertaken by others for our particular afflictions Miseries as the Psalmist compares them are like waues which breake one vpon another and tosse vs with a perpetuall vexation and we vaine men shall we not wish to be in our hauen Are we sicke and grieue to thinke of remedie Are we still dying and are wee loth to thinke of life Oh this miserable vnbeleefe that tho we see a glorious heauen aboue vs yet we are vnwilling to go to it we see a wearisome world about vs and yet are loth to thinke of leauing it This gracious master of ours whose dissolution is ours while he was here amongst vs his princely crowne could not keepe his head from paine his golden rod could not driue away his feuers now is hee freed from all his aches agues stitches convulsions cold sweats now he triumphs in glory amongst the Angels and Saints now he walkes in white robes and attends on the glorious bridegroome of the Church and doe we thinke he would be content now for all the kingdomes of the world to be as he was We that professe it was our ioy and honour to follow him whither soeuer he had gone In his disports in his warres in his trauels why are we not now ambitious of following him to his better crowne yea of raigning together with him for heauen admits of this equality in that glory wherein he raignes with his Sauiour ours Why doe we not now heartily with him that was rauished into the third heauan say Cupio dissolui esse cum Christo not barely to be dissolued a malecontent may doe so but therefore to be dissolued that we may be with Christ possessed of his euerlasting glory where we shall not onely not weepe but reioyce and sing Halleluiahs for euer not onely not die but enioy a blessed and heauenly life Euen so Lord Iesus come quickly Now if any man shall aske the Disciples question Master when shall these things be the celestiall voyce tels him it must bee vpon a change For the first things are passed It shall be in part so soone as euer our first things our life
them that loue our soules and hate them that loue our sinnes They are these rough hands that must bring vs sauory dishes and carry away a blessing truth is for them now thankes shall be for them hereafter but in the meane time they may not be iudged by the appearance Lastly if we shall iudge friendship by complement salubrity by sweetnesse seruice by the eye fidelity by oathes valour by brags a Saint by his face a deuill by his feet we shall be sure to be deceiued Iudge not therefore according to appearance But that yee mistake not though we may not iudge onely by the appearance yet appearance may not bee neglected in our iudgement Some things according to the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seeme and are are as they seeme Semblances are not alwaies seuered from truth Our senses are safe guides to our vnderstandings Wee iustly laugh at that Scepticke in Laertius who because his seruant robbed his Cup-bord doubted whether hee left his victuals there What doe wee with eyes if wee may not beleeue their intelligence That world is past wherein the glosse Clericus amplectens foeminam praesumitur benedicendi causà fecisse The wanton imbracements of another mans wife must passe with a Clarke for a ghostly benediction Men are now more wise lesse charitable Words and probable shewes are appearances actions are not and yet euen our words also shall iudge vs If they bee filthy if blasphemous if but idle wee shall account for them wee shall bee iudged by them Ex ore tuo A foule tongue shewes euer a rotten heart By their fruits yee shall know them is our Sauiours rule I may safely say No body desires to borrow colours of euill if you doe ill thinke not that we will make dainty to thinke you so When the God of loue can say by the Disciple of loue Qui facit peccatum ex diabolo est Hee that committeth sinne is of the deuill Euen the righteous Iudge of the world iudgeth secundum opera according to our works we cannot erre whiles wee tread in his steps If wee doe euill sinne lies at the doore but it is on the street side Euery Passenger sees it censures it How much more he that sees in secret Tribulation and anguish vpon euery soule that doth euill Euery soule here is no exemption by greatnesse no buying off with bribes no bleering of the eyes with pretences no shrouding our selues in the night of secrecy but if it be a soule that doth euill Tribulation and anguish is for it Contrarily If we doe well shall we not be accepted If we be charitable in our almes iust in our awards faithfull in our performances sober in our carriages deuout in our religious seruices conscionable in our actions Glory and honour and peace to euery man that workeâ—h good we shall haue peace with our selues honour with men glory with God and his Angels Yea that peace of God which passeth all vnderstanding such honour as haue al his Saints the incomprehensible glory of the God of peace the God of Saints and Angels to the participation whereof that good God that hath ordained vs as mercifully bring vs for the sake of his deare Sonne Iesus Christ the iust To whom with thee O Father and thy good Spirit one infinite God our God be giuen all praise honour and glory now and for euer Amen THE GREAT IMPOSTOR LAID OPEN IN A SERMON AT GRAYES INNE Febr. 2. 1623. By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON ⧠Printed for NATHANIEL BVTTER 1624. TO THE MOST NOBLE AND WORTHILY HONOVRED SOCIETIE OF GRAYES INNE AT WHOSE BARRE THIS JMPOSTOR WAS openly arraigned J. H. HVMBLY DEDICATES THIS PVBLIKE LIFE OF HIS WEAKE AND VNWORTHIE LABOVR THE GREAT IMPOSTOR LAID OPEN OVT OF IER 17.9 The heart is deceitfull aboue all things I Know where I am in one of the famous Phrontisteries of Law and Iustice wherefore serues Law and Iustice but for the preuention or punishment of fraud and wickednesse Giue me leaue therefore to bring before you Students Masters Fathers Oracles of Law and Iustice the greatest Cheator and Malefactor in the world our owne Heart It is a great word that I haue said in promising to bring him before you for this is one of the greatest aduantages of his fraud that hee cannot bee seene That as that old Iugler Apollonius Thyanaeus when he was brought before the Iudge vanished out of sight so this great Impostor in his very presenting before you dispeareth and is gone yea so cunningly that he doth it with our owne consent and we would be loth that he could be seene Therefore as an Epiphonema to this iust complaint of deceitfulnesse is added Who can know it It is easie to know that it is deceitfull and in what it deceiues though the deceits themselues cannot bee knowne till too late As wee may see the ship and the sea and the ship going on the sea yet the way of a ship in the sea as Salomon obserues wee know not God askes and God shall answer What hee askes by Ieremie he shall answer by S. Paul Who knowes the heart of man Euen the spirit of man that is in him 1 Cor. 2.11 If then the heart haue but eyes enow to see it selfe by the reflection of thoughts it is enough Ye shall easily see heare enough out of the analogie and resemblance of hearts to make you both astonished and ashamed The heart of man lies in a narrow roome yet all the world cannot fill it but that which may be said of the heart would more than fill a world Here is a double stile giuen it of deceitfulnesse of wickednesse either of which knowes no end whether of being or of discourse I spend my houre and might doe my life in treating of the first See then I beseech you the Impostor and the Imposture The Impostor himselfe The heart of man The Imposture Deceitfull aboue all things As deceitfull persons are wont euer to goe vnder many names and ambiguous and must be exprest with an alias so doth the heart of man Neither man himselfe nor any part of man hath so many names as the heart alone For euery facultie that it hath and euery action it doth it hath a seuerall name Neither is there more multiplicitie than doubt in this name Not so many termes are vsed to signifie the heart as the heart signifies many things When ye heare of the heart ye thinke straight of that fleshie part in the center of the body which liues first and dies last and whose beatings you finde to keepe time all the body ouer That is not it which is so cunning Alas that is a poore harmelesse peece meerely passiue and if it doe any thing as the subministration of Vitall spirits to the maintenance of the whole frame it is but good no it is the spirituall part that lurkes in this flesh which is guilty of such deceit We must learne of
of the sonnes of Anak the spirituall wickednesses in heauenly places If we looke at their number they are Legions If to their strength they are Principalities and Powers If to their nature they are spirits that rule in the aire We are men flesh and bloud single weake sinfull What euer we are our God is in heauen and doth whatsoeuer he will he is the Lord of Hosts though Cowards in our selues yet in him we are more than Conquerors he who is more than all power than All truth hath said it The Gates of Hell shall not preuaile against his Church Thanks be to God which giueth vs victory through our Lord Iesus Christ Lastly he is the Lord of hosts his vndertakings are infallible Hath he said that the glory of the Euangelicall Church shall exceed the Legall Hath he said that In this place he will giue peace How can the Church faile of glory or the soule of peace His word can be no more defectiue than himselfe impotent Trust God with his owne causes trust him with thy selfe doe that he bids expect what he promises haunt this House of his wait on his ordinances The Lord of Hosts shall giue thee that peace which passeth all vnderstanding and with peace glory in that vpper House of his not made with hands eternall in the Heauens To the possession whereof that God who hath ordained vs in his good time mercifully bring vs. And now O Lord God of Hosts make good thy promises to this House of thine Whensoeuer any Suppliant shall in this place offer vp his praiers vnto thee heare thou in Heauen thy dwelling place and when thou hearest haue mercy What Word soeuer of thine shall sound out of this place let it be the fauour of life vnto life to euery hearer What Sacrament soeuer of thine in this place shall be administred let it be effectuall to the saluation of euery receiuer Thou that art the God of glory and peace giue peace and glory to thy Seruants for thy mercies sake for thy Sonnes sake euen the Sonne of thy loue Iesus Christ the iust To whom with thee and the holy Ghost one infinite God be giuen all praise honour and thanksgiuing now and for euer TO THE WORSHIPFVLL AND REVEREND Mr. Dr. HALL DEANE OF WORCESTER my worthie and much respected Friend all happinesse with my loue in CHRIST IESVS REuerend Sir this Sermon I know is at the Presse before you expected But I thought as this glorious Chapell occasioned it so it might minister occasion of perpetuall remembrance of the Chapell by remaining its first Monument And altho both these were confined to the priuate the Chapell for the Family of my Right Honorable Lord the Earle of Exceter who hath giuen the materiall thereof sufficient luster and the Copie of the Sermon to the Cabinet of my truly Noble and vertuous Lady his Countesse yet both these are much and oft required to the publike the Sermon to be an instruction and so it is the Chapell to be an example and so it may be The Sermon to teach all to be all glorious in their soules The Chapell to teach some who build houses for their owne habitation to set vp another for Gods Religion The Sermon was craued at the hands of my Honourable Ladie that it might come to the Presse who of her owne pious disposition gaue forth the Copie and for her Noble esteeme of your selfe and of the worth of your sermon was willing and desirous to giue it way to the Printer And this I thought good to impart vnto you and to the courteous Reader that you may be satisfied of the meanes how and the cause why it comes in publike And so praying for you and desiring your prayers for me I remaine Your truly louing Friend H. BAGVLEY THE TRVE Peace-Maker LAID FORTH IN A SERMON BEFORE HIS MAIESTY AT THEOBALDS September 19. 1624. By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed by IOHN HAVILAND for NATHANIEL BVTTER 1624. THE TRVE Peace-Maker ESAY 32.17 Opus Iustitiae pax The worke of Iustice or righteousnesse shall be peace MY Text you heare is of Iustice and peace two royall graces and such as flow from soueraigne Maiesty There is a double Iustice Diuine and humane there is a double peace outward in the state inward in the soule Accordingly there is a double sense of my Text a spirituall a ciuill sense The spirituall concerning Theologicall Iustice and inward peace The ciuill concerning humane iustice and outward peace The spirituall thus The Messias shall cause the fruit of his perfect iustice to be our inward peace with God and our selues The ciuill thus The Magistrate shall cause the worke of ciuill Iustice in his administration to be our outward peace with one another In both or either as Musculus well there is an allusion in the Hebrew word to a field the soile is the heart or the State the seed is Iustice the fruit peace That which was waste ground is now a Carmell a fruitfull field and the fruit of this field of Iustice is peace As there is good reason we will beginne with the spirituall Iustice and Peace The great King of Heauen will disforest that peece of the world which hee calls his Church and put it to tillage it shall be sowne with righteousnesse and shall yeeld a sweet crop of peace in this onely not in the barren heaths of the prophane world shall true peace grow At first God and man were good friends How should there bee other than good termes betwixt Heauen and Paradise God made man iust and iust man whiles he was so could not chuse but loue the iust God that made him sin set them at odds in one act and instant did man leese both his iustice and peace now the world is changed now the stile of God is Fortis vltor God the auenger Ier. 51.56 and the stile of men God the auenger The sonnes of wrath Filij irae sons of wrath Ephes 2.3 There is no possible peace to be made betwixt God man but by the perfect Iustice of him that was both God man I would there were a peace in the Church about this Iustice It is pitie shame there is not but there must be heresies As there are two parts of Diuinity the Law and the Gospell so each of these haue their Iustice there is a Iustice of the Law and an Euangelicall Iustice The Iustice of the Law when a meere morall man is iustified out of his owne powers by the works of the Law very Papists will giue so much way to S. Paul so much affront to Pelagius as to renounce this freely anathematizing that man who by the strength of humane nature or the doctrine of the Law shal challenge iustification Vnlesse perhaps some Andradius haue priuiledge to teach Morall righteousnesse that this Ethica Iustitia was enough to iustifie and saue the old Philosophers The Euangelicall Iustice is
there are that lurke in secret and will not be confessed How loth would we bee after all exclamations that your busie Iesuites could rake out so many confessed quarrels out of all our Authors as I haue heere found in two of yours We want onely their cunning secrecy in the carriage of our quarrels Our few and slight differences are blazoned abroad with infamy and offence their hundreds are craftily smothered in silence Let your owne eyes satisfie you in this not my pen see now what you would neuer beleeue What is it then that could thus bewitch you to forsake the comely and heauenly Truth of God and to dote vpon this beastly Strumpet to change your Religion for a ridiculous sensuall cruell irreligious faction A Religion if wee must call it so that made sport to our plaine forefathers with the remembrance of her grauest deuotions How oft haue you seene them laugh at themselues whiles they haue told of their creeping-crouch kissing the Pax offering their Candles signing with Ashes partiall Shrifts merry Pilgrimages ridiculous Miracles and a thousand such May-games which now you begin after this long hissing at to looke vpon soberly and with admiration A Religion whose fooleries very Boyes may shout and laugh at if for no more but this that it teaches men to put confidence in Beades Medals Roses hallowed Swords Spels of the Gospell Agnes Dei and such like idle bables ascribing vnto them Diuine vertue yea so much as is due to the Sonne of God himselfe and his precious bloud I speake not of some rude Ignorants your very Booke of holy-ceremonies shall teach you what your holy-fathers doe and haue done That tels you first with great allowance and applause that Pope VRBAN the fift sent three Agnes Dei to the Greeke Emperor with these verses Balsam pure wax and Chrismes-liquor cleere Balsamus munda cerae cum Chrismatis vnda conficiunt AgnuÌ„ quod munus de tibi magnuÌ„ c. Fulgura de coelo c. Peccatum frangit vt Christi sanguis angit c. Sacr. Cerem lib. 1. Vt ea quae in hoc equaruÌ„ vesculo praeparato ad nominis tui gloriaÌ„ infundere decreuimê° benedicas quatenus ipsoruÌ„â— veneratione honore nobis famulis tuis crimina diluantur abster gentur maculae peccatorum iâ—petrentur veniae gratia conferantur vt tandem vna cum sanctis electis tuis vitam percipere mereaâ—ur aeternam Fran. a Victoria Ordin Praedicatorum Sum. Sacram art 184. p. 204. Sed quod faciet Confessor cum interrogatur de peccato c. Respondes secundum omnes quod sic Sed fac quod Index aut praelatus ex malitia exigat à me iuramentuÌ„ an sciam in Confessione Respondeo quod coactus iuret se nescire in confessura quia intelligitur senescire ad reuelandum aut taliter quod possit dicere Make vp this pretious Lambe I send thee heere All lightning it dispels and each ill spright Remedies stone and makes the heart contrite Euen as the bloud that Christ for vs did shed It helps the child-beds paine and giues good speed Vnto the birth Great gifts it still doth win To all that weare it and that worthy bin It quels the rage of fire and cleanely bore It brings from shipwracke safely to the shore And lest you should plead this to be the conceite of some one Phantasticall Pope heare and be ashamed out of the same Booke what by prescription euery Pope vseth to pray in the blessing of the water which serues for that Agnus Dei If you know not thus he prayeth That it would please thee O God to blesse those things which we purpose to powre into this Vessell of water prepared to the glory of thy Name so as by the worship and honour of them we thy seruants may haue our heynous offences done away the blemishes of our sinnes wip't off and thereby we may obtaine pardon and receiue grace from thee so that at the last with thy Saints and Elect Children we may merit to obtaine euerlasting life Amen How could you choose but be in loue with this Superstition Magicke Blasphemie practised and maintained by the heads of your Church A Religion that allowes iuggling Equiuocations and reserued senses euen in very oathes Besides all that hath bin shamelesly written by our Iesuites to this purpose Heare what Franciscus Victoria an ingenuous Papist and a learned Reader of Diuinitie in Salmantica writes in the name of all But what shall a Confessor doe saith he if he be askt of a sin that he hath heard in Confession May he say that he knowes not of it I answere according to all our Doctors that he may But what if hee be compelled to sweare I say that he may and ought to sweare that he knowes it not for that it is vnderstood that he knowes it not besides confession and so he sweares true But say that the Iudge or Prelate shall maliciously require of him vpon his oath whether he know it in confession or no I answer that a man thus vrged may still sweare that he knowes it not in confession for that it is vnderstood he knowes it not to reueale it or so as he may tell Who teach and doe thus in anothers case iudge what they would doe in their owne O wise cunning and holy periuries vnknowne to our fore-fathers A Religion that allowes the buying and selling of sins of Pardons of soules so as now Purgatory can haue no rich men in it but fooles and friendlesse Deuils are Tormenters there as themselues hold from many Reuelations of Bede Bernard Carthusian yet Men can command Deuils and money can command men A Religion that relies wholy vpon the infallibilitie of those whom yet they grant haue bin and may be monstrous in their liues and dispositions How many of those heyres of PETER by confession of their owne Records by Bribes by Whores by Deuils haue climed vp into that chaire Yet to say that those men which are confessed to haue giuen their soules to the Deuil that they might be Popes can erre while they are Popes is Heresie worthy of a stake and of Hell A Religion that hood-winks the poore Laitie in forced ignorance lest they should know Gods will or any way to Heauen but theirs so as millions of soules liue no lesse without Scripture than as if there were none that forbids spirituall food as poyson and fetches Gods Booke into the Inquisition A Religion that teaches men to worship stockes and stones with the same honour that is due to their Creator which practise lest it should apeare to her simple Clyents how palpably opposite it is to the second Commandement they haue discreetly left out those words of Gods Law as a needlesse illustration in their Catechismes and Prayer Bookes of the vulgar A Religion that vtterly ouerthrowes the true humanitie of Christ while they giue vnto it tenne thousand places at once and yet no place flesh and no flesh
seuerall members without distinction a substance without quantity and other accidents or substance and accidents that cannot bee seene felt perceiued So they make either a Monster of their Sauiour or nothing A Religion that vtterly ouerthrowes the perfection of Christs satisfaction If all be not paid how hath he satisfied If temporall punishments in Purgatory be yet due how is all paid and if these must be paid by vs how are they satisfied by him A Religion that makes more Scriptures than euer God and his ancient Church and those which it doth make so imperiously obtrudes vpon the world as if God himselfe should speake from heauen while it thunders out curses against all that will not add these Bookes to Gods regards not Gods Curse If any man shall add vnto these things God shall adde vnto him the plagues that are written in this Booke A Religion whose Patrons disgrace the true Scriptures of God with reprochfull termes odious comparisons imputations of corruption and imperfection and in fine pin their whole authority vpon the sleeues of men Papa facit protestationem ante Canonizationem se nihil intendere facire quod fit contra fidem aut Ecclesiam Catholicam Aliqui tamen clarissimi viri dicunt c. Quia Papâ— quodammodo cogebatur ad Canonizandum quendam contra suum voluntatem lib. Sacr. Ceremon A Religion that erects a throne in the Conscience to a meere man and giues him absolute power to make a sinne to dispense with it to create new Articles of Faith and to impose them vpon necessitie of saluation A Religion that baffoules all Temporall Princes making them stand bare-foot at their great Bishops gate lye at his foot hold his stirrup yea their owne Crownes at his Courtesie exempting all their Ecclesiasticall Subiects from their Iurisdiction and when they list all the rest from their Allegiance A Religion that hath made wicked men Saints and Saints Gods Euen by the confession of Papists lewd and vndeseruing men haue leapt into their Calendar Whence it is that the Pope before his Canonization of any Saint makes solemne protestation that he intends not in that businesse to doe ought preiudiciall to the glory of God or to the Catholike Faith and Church And once Sainted they haue the honour of Altars Temples Inuocations and some of them in a stile fit only for their Maker I know not whether that blessed Virgin receiue more indignitie from her enemies that deny her or these her flatterers that dâ—ifie her A Religion that robs the Christian heart of all sound comfort whiles it teacheth vs that we neither can nor ought to be assured of the remission of our sinnes and of present grace and future saluation That we can neuer know whether we haue receiued the true Sacraments of God because we cannot know the intention of the Minister without which they are no Sacraments A Religion that rackes the conscience with the needlesse torture of a necessary shrift wherein the vertue of absolution depends on the fulnesse of confession and that vpon examination and the sufficiencie of examination is so full of scruples besides those infinite cases of vnresolued doubts in this fained penance that the poore foule neuer knowes when it is deare A Religion that professes to be a 〈◊〉 of sinne whiles both in practise it tolerates open stâ—wes and preferres fornication in some cases to honourable Matrimonie and gently blanches ouer the breaches of Gods Law with the name of Venialls and fauourable titles of Diminution daring to affirme that Veniall sinnes are no hinderance to a mans cleannesse and perfection A Cruell Religion that sends poore Infants remedilesly vnto the eternall paines of Hell for want of that which they could not liue to desire and fâ—ighâ—s simple soules with expectation of fained torments in Purgatory not inferiour for the time to the flames of the damned How wretchedly and fearfully must their poore Layicks needs die for first they are not sure they shall not goe to Hell and secondly they are sure to be scorched if they shall goe to Heauen A Religion that makes nature namely proud in being ioyned by her as copartner with God in our Iustification in our Saluation and idlely puffed vp in a conceit of her perfection and abilitie to keepe more Lawes than God hath made A Religion that requires no other faith to iustification in Christians than may bee found in the Deuils themselues who besides a confused apprehension can assent vnto the Truth of Gods reuealed will Poperie requires no more A Religion that instead of the pure milke of the Gospell hath long fed her starued soules with such idle Legends as the Reporter can hardly deliuer without laughter and their Abettors not heare without shame and disclamation the wiser sort of the World read those Stories on winter Euenings for sport which the poore credulous multitude heares in their Churches with a deuout astonishment A Religion which lest ought should bee here wanting to the Doctrine of Deuils makes Religious Prohibitions of meat and difference of dyet superstitiously preferring Gods workmanship to it selfe and willingly polluting what he hath sanctified A Religion that requires nothing but meere formalitie in our deuotions the worke wrought suffices alone in Sacraments in Prayers So the number be found in the Chappelet there is no care of the affection as if God regarded not the heart but the tongue and hands and while he vnderstands vs cared little whether we vnderstand our selues A Religion that presumptuously dares to alter and mangle Christs last Institution and sacrilegiously rob Gods people of one halfe of that heauenly prouision which our Sauiour left for his last and dearest Legacie to his Church for euer as if Christs Ordinance were superfluous or any Shaueling could be wiser than his Redeemer A Religion that depends wholly vpon nice and poore vncertainties and vnproueable supposals that Peter was Bishop of Rome that hâ—e left any heires of his graces and spirit or if any but one in a perpetuall and vnfaileable succession at Rome That hee so bequeathed his infallibilitie to his chaire as that whosoeuer sits in it cannot but speake true that all which sit where he sate must by some secret instinct say as hee taught That what Christ said to him absolutely ere euer Rome was thought of must be referred yea tyed to that place alone and fulfilled in it That Linus or Clemens or Cletus the Schollers and supposed Successors of Peter must bee preferred in the Headship of the Church to Iohn the beloued Apostle then liuing That hee whose life whose pen whose iudgement whose keyes may erre yet in his Pontificall chaire cannot erre That the Golden Line of this Apostolicall Succession in the confusion of so many long desperate Schismes shamefully corrupt Vsurpations and Intrusions yeelded Heresies neither was nor can be broken Denie any of these and Poperie is no Religion Oh the lamentable hazard of so many Millions of poore soules that stand vpon these slipperie
termes whereof if any be probable some are impossible Oh miserable grounds of Popish faith whereof the best can haue but this praise that perhaps it may be true A Religion that hath bin oft dyed in the bloud of Princes that in some cases teaches and allowes Rebellion against Gods Anointed and both suborneth Treasons and excuses pities honors rewards the Actors A Religion that ouerloades mens consciences with heauy burdens of infinite vnnecessary Traditions far more than euer Moses commented vpon by all the Iewish Masters imposing them with no lesse authoritie and exacting them with more rigor than any of the royall lawes of their Maker A Religion that coozens the vulgar with nothing but shadowes of Holinesse in Pilgrimages Processions Offerings Holy-water Latine Seruices Images Tapers rich Vestures garish Altars Crosses Censings and a thousand such like fit for Children and Fooles robbing them in the meane time of the sound and plaine helps of true pietie and saluation A Religion that cares not by what wilfull falshoods it maintaines a part as Wickliffes blasphemie Luthers aduice from the Deuill Tindals communitie Caluins fained Miracle and blasphemous death Bucers necke broken Bezaes revolt the blasting of Huguenots Englands want of Churches and Christendome Queene ELIzABETHS vnwomanlinesse her Episcopall Iurisdiction her secret fruitfulnesse English Catholikes cast in Beares skins to Doggs Plesses shamefull ouerthrow Garnets Straw the Lutherans obscene night-revels Scories drunken ordination in a Tauerne the Edict of our Gracious King IAMES Anno 87. for the establishment of Poperie our casting the Crusts of our Sacrament to Doggs and ten thousand of this nature maliciously raised and defended against knowledge and conscience for the disgrace of those whom they would haue hated ere knowne A Religion that in the conscience of her owne vntruth goes about to falsifie and depraue all Authors that might giue euidence against her to out-face all ancient truths to foist in Gibeonitish witnesses of their owne forging and leaues nothing vnattempted against Heauen or Earth that might aduantage her faction disable her innocent Aduersarie Loe this is your choice If the zeale of your losse haue made me sharpe yet not malicious not fasle God is my Record I haue not to knowledge charged you with the least vntruth and if I haue wronged accuse mee and if I cleere not my selfe and my challenge let me be branded for a Slanderer In the meane time what spirituall phrensie hath ouertaken you that you can finde no beautie but in this Monster of Errors It is to you and your fellowes that God speakes by his Prophet O yee Heauens be astonied at this be afraid and vtterly confounded saith the Lord for my people hath committed two euils they haue forsaken me the Fountaine of liuing Waters to digge them pits euen broken pits that can hold no water what shall bee the issue Et tu Domine deduces eos in puteum interitus Thou O God shalt bring them downe into the pit of destruction If you will thus wilfully leaue God there I must leaue you But if you had not rather dye returne and saue one returne to God returne to his Truth returne to his Church your bloud be vpon my head if you perish AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER THe Reader may please to take notice that in the former Edition there was added vnto this Discourse a iust Volume of aboue three hundred Contradictions and dissentions of the Romish Doctors vnder the name of The Peace of Rome which because it was but a collection out of Bellarmine and Navar and no otherwise mine but as a Gatherer and Translator I haue here thought good to omit FINIS NO PEACE WITH ROME WHEREIN IS PROVED THAT AS TERMES NOW Stand there can be no Reconciliation of the REFORMED RELIGION with the ROMISH And that the Romanists are in all the fault Written first in Latine by J. H. And now Englished SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE TRVE SOVND AND HOLY CHVRCH OF GOD wheresoeuer warfaring vpon Earth I Present vnto thee deare and holy Mother this poore vnworthy token of my loue and loialtie the not so pleasing as true report of thy future broiles How much gladder should I haue beene if thy Spouse had so thought good to haue beene the messenger of thy Peace and securitie But since the great and wise Moderator of all things hath thought a Palme fitter for thee than an Oliue it is for thee to thinke of victory not of rest Thou shalt once triumph in heauen and rest for all but in the meane time here is nothing to bee lookt for but ambushes skirmishes tumults And how cheerefully must thou needs both beare and ouercome all oppositions that art not more sure of the necessitie of thy warfare than of the happinesse of thy successe whilest thou seest thy glorious husband not onely the leader of this field but a most iust and mercifull crowner of thy Conquest Certainly it is as vnpossible for thee to miscarry as to sit still and not fight Behold all the forces of heauen and earth conspire and reioyce to come voluntaries vnto this holy warre of thine and promise thee a most happy issue addresse thy selfe therefore as thou art wont couragiously to this worke of God But remember first to inquire as thou dost of ABEL Spare no teares to thy desperate Sister now thine enemie and calling heauen and earth to witnesse vpon thy knees beseech and intreat her by her owne soule and by the deare bowels of CHRIST by those precious drops of his bloudy sweat by that common price of our eternall redemption that she would at the last returne to her selfe and that good disposition which she hath now too long abandoned that she would forbeare any more as I feare shee hath hitherto wilfully done to fight against God but if shee shall still persist to stop her eares against thee and to harden her selfe in rebellion against her God forget if thou canst who shee once was and flie mercilesly vpon this daughter of Beliall that vaunts her selfe proudly in the glory of her munition Goe smite destroy conquer and reigne as the worthy partner of thine husbands Throne For mee I shall in the meane time be as one of thy rude Trumpets whose noise shall both awaken thy courage vnto this spirituall battell and whose ioyfull gratulations shall after thy rich spoiles applaud thine happy returne in the day of thy victory J. H. THE SVMME OF THE following Sections SECTION I. THe state of the now-Roman Church SECTION II. The commodities and conditions of Peace SECTION III. The obstinate and Peace-hating disposition of Papists SECTION IV. That the Confession of the same Creed is not with them sufficient to Peace SECTION V. The imputation or corruption of the Roman Church and their impossibility of Reconciliation arising from that wilfull fable of the Popes infallibilitie SECTION VI. That the other Opinions
vvas gone forth had frequent visions of his Maker So whiles in our affections we remaine here below in our Cofers wee cannot haue the comfortable assurances of the presence of God but if wee can abandon the loue and trust of these earthly things in the conscience of our obedience now God shall appeare to vs and speake peace to our soules and neuer shall we finde cause to repent vs of the change Let mee therefore conclude this point with that diuine charge of our Sauiour Lay not vp for your selues treasures on earth where moth and rust doc corrupt and theeues breake thorow and steale but lay vp for your selues treasure in heauen Thus much of the Negatiue part of our charge Wherein wee haue dwelt so long that we may scarce soiourne in the other But trust in God Trust not but Trust The heart of man is so conscious of his owne weaknesse that it will not goe vvithout a prop and better a weake stay then none at all Like as in matter of policy the very state of Tyrannie is preferred to the want of a King The same breath therfore that withdraws one refuge from vs substitutes a better and in stead of Riches which is the false god of the world commends to vs the true and liuing God of heauen and earth Euen as some good Carpenter raises vp the studs and in stead of a rotten groundsell layes a sound The same trust then must we giue to God which wee may not giue to riches The obiect onely is changed the act is not changed Him must wee esteeme aboue all things to him must we looke vp in all on him must we depend for all both protection and prouision from his goodnesse and mercy must we acknowledge all and in him must we delight with contempt of all and this is to Trust in God It was a sweet dirty of the Psalmist which we must all learne to sing Bonum est confidere in Domino It is good to trust in the Lord Good in respect of him and good for vs. For him It is one of the best pieces of glory to be trusted to as with vs Ioseph holds Potiphar cannot doe him a greater honour then in trusting him with all And his glory is so precious that he cannot part with that to any creature all other things hee imparts willingly and reserues nothing to himselfe but this Being life knowledge happinesse are such blessings as are eminently originally essentially in God and yet Being he giues to al things Life to many Knowledge to some kindes of creatures Happinesse to some of these kinds as for Riches he so giues them to his creature that hee keepes them not at all to himselfe but as for his Glory whereof our trust is a part hee will not endure it communicated to Angell or man not to the best ghost in heauen much lesse to the drosse of the earth Whence is that curse not without an indignation Cursed bee the man that trusts in man that maketh flesh his arme yea or spirit either besides the God of Spirits Whom haue I in heauen but thee Herein therefore doe wee iustice to God when we giue him his owne that is his glory our confidence But the greatest good is our own God shewes much more mercy to vs in allowing and inabling vs to trust him then we can doe iustice in trusting him For alas hee could in his iust iudgement glorifie himselfe in our not trusting him in taking vengeance of vs for not glorifying him Our goodnesse reaches not to him but his goodnesse reaches downe to vs in that our hearts are raised vp to confidence in him For what safety what vnspeakable comfort is there in trusting to God When our Sauiour in the last words of his Diuine Farewell Sermon to his Disciples would perswade them to confidence Iob 16. vlt. he sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so doth the Angell to Paul in prison a a word that signifies boldnesse implying that our confidence in God causeth boldnes and courage and what is there in all he world that can worke the heart to so comfortable and vnconquerable resolution as our reposall vpon God The Lord is my trust whom then can I feare In the Lord put I mâ— trust how say ye then to my soule Flee hence as a bird to the hils Yea how oft doth Dauid inferre vpon this trust a non confundar I shal not be ashamed And this case is generall That they that but their trust in the Lord are as mount Sion that cannot be moued Faith can remoue mountaines but the mountaines that are raised on faith are vnremoueable Here is a stay for you O ye wealthy great worthy of your trust If ye were Monarchs on earth or Angels in heauen ye could be no way safe but in this trust How easie is it for him to inrich or impouerish you to hoyse you vnto the seats of honor or to spurne you down What mynes what Princes can raise you â—â— to wealth against him without him Hee can bid the winds and Seas fauour your vessels he can bid them sinke in a calm The rich and the poore meet together God is the maker of both Pro. 22. Ye may trade and toyle and carke and spare and put vp and cast about and at last sit you downe with a sigh of late repentance and say Except the Lord build the house they labour in vaine that build it It is in vaine to rise early and lye down late and eat the bread of sorrow Vnto how many of you may I say with the Prophet Haggai Ye haue sowne much and bring in little ye eat and haue not enough ye drink but ye are not filled ye cloâ—th you but ye â—e not warme and hee that earneth much puts his gaines into a broken 〈◊〉 And whence is all this Ye looked for much and loe it came to little when yee brought it home I did blow vpon it saith the Lord of Hosts Behold how easie a thing it is for the God of heaâ— onto blast all your substance yea not onely to diminish but to curse it 〈…〉 and to make you weary of it and of your selues Oh cast your selâ—e◠〈…〉 those Almighty hands Seeke him in whom onely you shall fiâ—d 〈…〉 happinesse Honour him with your substance that hath honored you with it Truâ—â— in riches but trust in God It is motiue enough to your trust that he is a God all arguments are in folded in that one yet this Text giues you certaine explicit inforcements of this confidence Euery one of these reasons implying a secret kind of disdainfull comparison betwixt the true God and the false perswade you to trust in God Riches are but for this world the true God is Lord of the other and beginnes his glory where the glory of the world ends therefore trust in him Riches are vncertaine the true God is Amen the first and the last euer like himselfe therefore trust in
with you also from him Doe not talke and purpose and proiect but execute Doe not so doe good that wee may thanke your death-bed for it and not you Late beneficence is better then none but so much as early beneficence is better then late Hee that giues not till hee dyes shewes that hee would not giue if hee could keepe it And God loues a cheerfull giuer That which you giue thus you giue it by your Testament I can scarce say you giue it by your will The good mans praise is Dispersit dedit he disperses his goods not he left them behind him and his distribution is seconded with the retribution of God His righteousnesse endureth for euer Psalme 112.9 Our Sauiour tells vs that our good works are our light Let your light so shine that men may see your good workes which of you lets his light go behinde him and hath it not rather caried before him that he may see which way it goes and which way himselfe goes by it Doe good therefore in your life that you may haue comfort in your death and a Crowne of life after death Now all this haue I spoken not for that I haue ought as S. Paul sayes whereof to accuse my Nation Blessed be God as good workes haue abounded in this age so this place hath superabounded in good workes Bee it spoken to the glory of that God whose all our good works are to the honour of the Gospell to the conuiction of that lewd slander of Solifidianisme London shall vye good workes with any City vpon earth This day and your eares are abundant witnesses As those therefore that by an handfull ghesse at the whole sacke it may please you by this yeeres Briefe to iudge of the rest Wherein I doe not feare lest Enuie it selfe shall accuse vs of a vaine-glorious ostentation Those obstreperous benefactors that like to Hens which cannot lay an egge but they must cackle straight giue no almes but with trumpets lose their thankes with God Almes should be like oyle which though it swimme aloft when it is falne yet makes no noise in the falling not like water that still sounds where it lights But howsoeuer priuate beneficence should not be acquainted with both the hands of the giuer but silently expect the reward of him that seeth in secret yet God should bee a great loser if the publike fruits of charity should bee smothered in a modest secrecy To the praise therefore of that good God which giues vs to giue and rewards vs for giuing to the example of posterity to the honor of our Profession to the incouragement of the wel-deseruing and to the shame of our malicious aduersaries heare what this yeare hath brought forth Here followeth a briefe memoriall of the charitable acts of the City this yeere last past c. And if the season had not hindered your eyes should haue seconded your eares in the comfortable testimonie of this beneficence Euge c. Well done good and faithfull seruants Thus should your Profession bee graced thus should the incense of your almes ascend in pillers of holy smoke into the nostrils of God thus should your talents bee turned into Cities This colour is no other then celestiall and so shall your reward be Thus should the foundation be laid of that building whose wals reach vp vnto heauen whose roofe is finished and laid on in the heauen of heauens in that immortalitie of glory which the God of all glory peace and comfort hath prouided for all that loue him Vnto the participation whereof the same God of ours mercifully bring vs through the Sonne of his loue Iesus Christ the righteous to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite and incomprehensible God be giuen all praise honour and glory now and for euer Amen FINIS THE HONOVR OF THE MARIED CLERGIE MAINTAINED AGAINST THE MALICIOVS CHALLENGES of C.E. Masse-Priest OR THE APOLOGIE WRITTEN SOME yeares since for the Mariage of persons Ecclesiasticall made good against the Cauils of C. E. Pseudo-Catholike Priest Jn three Bookes BY IOS HALL LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD AND MY MOST HONORED Lord GEORGE Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitane one of his Maiesties most Honorable Priuy Councell MOST REVEREND FATHER and no lesse honored Lord IT was my desire and hope to spend the residue of my Time and thoughts in sweet and sacred Contemplation Satan enuying me this happinesse interrupts me by the malice of an importunate Aduersarie Twelue yeares agoe I wrote a little Apologeticall Letter for the Mariage of persons Ecclesiasticall and now thus late when I had almost forgot that I had written it a moody Masse-priest drops out a tedious and virulent Refutation thorow my sides striking at the most Honorable and flourishing Clergie of the whole Christian world labouring not so much for my disgrace what would that auaile him as the dishonour and scorne of our holy Profession in the eyes of our people I could contemne it in silence if the Quarrell were onely mine Now my wrong cannot be distinguished from thousands God and his Church are ingaged in this cause which in my foile could not but sustaine losse neither may I be now silent with safetie without misconstruction Let this hand and Tongue bee no longer mine then they may serue my Master in Heauen and his Spouse on Earth That which I wrote in some three houres he hath answered in three quaternions of yeares and what I vvrote in three leaues hee hath answered in no fewer Pages then 380. Should I follow him in this proportion hee might after some Centuries of yeares expect an answer in Tostatus-hydes whose first word should be Quis legit haec Or if my patience would delay my Reply to the iust paces of his Answer this Volume of his vvould perhaps bee vanished into Grocers shops for waste Paper in thuris piperisue cucullos and vvould no more need answer then now it deserueth one But hearing of the insultation of some Popishly affected who gloried and triumphed in this ACHILLES pro Catholicis I addressed my selfe to the Worke vvith no little indignation and no lesse speed That my selfe-conceited Aduersarie and his seduced abettors may see how little a well-ordered Mariage is guilty of deadding our spirits or slacking our hands At the beginning of this Summers Progresse when it pleased his sacred Maiestie to take notice of this sorie Libell and to question vvith me concerning it I had not so much as read it ouer so newly vvas it come to my hands ere his happy returne be it spoken to the onely glory of him that inabled me I had not only finished this Answer but twice written it ouer with my owne hand and yet made this but the recreation of the weightier businesse of my Calling which now did more then ordinarily vrgeme It was my purpose to haue answered as beseemeth the person
see that in those yong dayes of the Church the mystery of iniquity began in this point to worke so as Mariage according to the Apostles prediction began to be in an ill name though the cleere Light of that Primitiue Truth would not endure the disgrace So as in all this I haue both by Moses and the examples of that Leuiticall Priesthood by the Testimonie of the Apostles by their practice by their anciently-reputed Canons and by the testimonie of the agedest Fathers so made good the lawfulnesse and antiquity of the Mariages of persons Ecclesiasticall that I shall not need to feare a Diuorce either from my Wife or from the Truth in that my Confident and iust Assertion THE HONOVR OF THE MARIED CLERGIE maintained c. The second Booke SECT I. AND now since in this point wee haue happily won the day lesse labour needs in the other Refut p. 130. It is safe erring with Moses and the Prophets with Christ and his Apostles Soone after according to Saint Pauls Prophesie Spirits of Errors were abroad and whether out of the necessary exigence of those prosecuted times or out of an affectation to win fauour and admiration in the eyes of Gentilisme Virginity began to raise vp it selfe in some priuate conceits vpon the ruines of honest Wedlocke neither is it hard to discerne by what degrees yet neuer with such absolute successe as to proceed to any Law of restraint I doe not therefore faine to my selfe as mine idle Refuter golden ages of mirth and k k Though Amram the Leuite father to Moses maried in the heat of Pharaohs persesecution and Dauid did the like in Sauls Refut p. 131. Refut p. 131 132 133 marying vnder those tyrannous persecutions but in those bloody ages I doe auouch to him and the World an immunity from the tyrannous yoke of forced continency This if hee could haue disproued by any iust instances he had not giuen vs words If he be angry that I said some of the pretended Epistles of his ancient Popes to this purpose are palpably foysted Let him fasten where he lists if he haue not an answer let me haue the shame in the meane time it is enough to snarle where he dares not bite That which I cited from Origen aduising the sons of Clergie men nor to be proud of their parentage he cannot deny he can cauill at The same perswasion saith he might be made to Saint Peters daughter as many are of opinion that he had one yet will it not follow that he knew his wife after he was an Apostle So he But what needs this Parenthesis if the man be true to his owne Authors Did wee deuise the Storie of Petronilla Did we inuent the passage of her Sutor Flaccus Of her Feuer the cure whereof her father denyed Of her Epitaph ingrauen in Marble by her fathers owne hand Aureae Petronillae dilectissimae filiae To my deare and precious Petronilla l l Esp 1. c. 8. Volat. 1.18 Pet. Nat. l. 5. c. 69. Plat. vis Paul 1. Sigeb 757. my most beloued daughter found by Paul the First Are not these things reported by their owne Volateranus Petr. Natalis Beda Vssuradus Sigebertus Platina Still where is the man that cryes out of reiecting authorities in other cases allowed either then let him giue the lye to his Histories or else let him compute the Time when Flaccus the Roman Count was a Sutor to her and see if he be not forced to grant that she was begotten of S. Peter after his Apostleship And so for ought he knowes might those sonnes be whom Origen thus dehoureth This man was not their Midwife The place of Origen which hee m m Orig. Homil. 13. in Numer cites to the contrary he tooke vp somewhat on trust let him goe and inquire better of his Creditor by the same token that in the Homily of Origen whither he sends vs he shall find nothing but Balaeams Asse an obiect fit for his meditation As for that parcell of the testimony Refut p. 133. which hee saith my chiâ— cough câ—used mee to suppresse sin ipsa Christianitate it is as Herbe Iohn in the Pot to the purpose of my allegation Origen speakes of that Text Many that are first shall be last c. Which he applies as a cooling-card to the children of Christian Parents especially Si fuerint ex patribus Sacerdotali sede dignificatis If they be the sons of them which are dignified with Sacerdotall honour The change of the Preprosition is remarkeable ex Patribus argâ—ing that hee speakes not of their education but their descent and therefore implying no lesse then I affirmed that their parentage giues them a supposed cause of exaltation SECT II. HOly n n Athanas Epist ad Dracent Many Bishops c. Refut p. 134. Athanasius was brought by me in stead of a thousand Histories Who tels vs that it was no rare thing to find maried Bishops in his time My wise Refuter after he hath idlely gone about the bush a little comes out with this dry verdict What will Master Hall hence infer That Bishops and Priests may lawfully marrie Saint Athanasius saith it not but onely recounteth the fact that some maried of both sorts but whether they did well or ill or whether himselfe did approue or condemne the same there is no word in this sentence Thus he We take what he giues and seeke for no more We cited Athanasius in stead of many Histories not of many Arguments Histories de facto not discourses de iure The lawfulnesse was discussed before the practice and vse is now inquired of This Athanasius witnesses and C. E. yeelds Wherein yet I may not forget to put my Refuter in minde how brittle his memorie is who in the same leafe contradicts himselfe For when he had before confessed that Athanasius doth neither approue nor condemne the practice Refut p. 136. either as good or euill now he plainly tels vs that the words were not spoken by way of simple narration but of mislike and reprehension He would be a good lyer if he could agree with himselfe Why of dislike For saith he it was neuer lawfull for Monks or Bishops to beget children Ipse dixit wee must beleeue him Not to tell him that o o Chrys ad Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome teaches vs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is possible with Mariage to doe the acts of Monkes not to conuince him with counter testimonies let him tell me what fault it is to doe or not to doe miracles These in this sentence of * * Athanas ibid. We haue knowne Bishops working miracles and Monkes working none Many Bishops not to haue maried c. As likewise you may finde Bishops to haue beene fathers of Children and Monkes not to haue sought for mariage Athanasius goe in the same ranke with Mariage But to cleare Athanasius he brings Hierom against Vigilantius impudently called by him The
perfited euen of the sonnes of Priests and if the number of Angels be of them to be repayred those that indeuour to procure that they should not be doe what in them lies destroy the supernall City and labour that the number of Angels may not be perfited then which what can be more peruersely done For this is done against the will and predestination of him which hath done those things which shall be for he hath done in his predestination those things which shall be in effect whosoeuer therefore goes about to procure that God may not in effect doe those things which he hath done in his predestination goes about to make void the very predestination of God If then God haue already in his predestination decreed that the sons of Priests shall once be in effect he that goes about to procure that they may not be in effect endeuours to destroy the work of God because he hath already done it in predestination and so striues to ouerthrow Gods predestination and to gain-stand that will of God which is eternall For God would from eternity and before all worlds create all men in the world in that certaine order wherein he pre-conceiued and predestinated to create them He doth nothing disorderly he createth nothing in the world which he hath not fore-ordained by disposing it in the predestination of his mind that went before all worlds Whatsoeuer therefore is by him created in this world doth necessarily follow the predestination of his mind predisposing and preordaining all things because it is impossible that should not be done which God from eternity hath willed and fore-ordained to be done It is therefore necessary that all men should be created in that very Order wherein he willed and from eternity fore-ordained Or else all men are not created as God would haue them nor as he fore-ordained them But because this is inconuenient it must needs bee that they are created as hee willed from eternity and fore-thought and fore-ordained because he hath done all things that he would and neuer did any thing which he willed nor from euerlasting and hath fore-conceiued in his certaine and vnchangcable Decree For neither can his will be frustrated nor his fore-thought deceiued nor his fore-ordinations altered Which since it is so needs must it be that as Laicks so Priests also of whom men are created should yeeld their seruice to the diuine will and preordination to the creating of them For parents are not the authors of the creation of their children but the seruants who if they should not yeeld their seruice they should if it were possible make void the fore-thought of God and resist his ordination which if they should wittingly doe they should offend the more if ignorantly the lesse not onely against God the Father but also against the heauenly Ierusalem the Mother of all Saints because what in them were they should not suffer those to be created of whom it is to be builded and those things to be prepared whereby that Celestiall Country is bestowed But from this offence their impotence frees them because they cannot resist the will of God and crosse his preordination For the will and predestination of God is that eternall Law in which the course of all things is decreed and the patterne wherein the forme of all ages is set forth which can by no meanes be defaced Not to yeeld our seruice then hereunto is euill because to yeeld it is good and especially if it be done with a good intent which is then done when as Parents meet together in a desire of propagation of issue not in an appetite of exercising their lust Of propagation I say that both the present Church may be multiplyed and the celestiall City built and the number of the Elect made vp none of which could be done without such coniugal meeting For if the first Parents of the Saints had continued all either continent or virgins no Saint had beene borne of them in the world none of them had beene crowned with glory and honour in heauen none of them ascribed into the number of Angels But since it is an inestimable good that Saints are borne in the world that they are crowned with glory and honour in heauen and that they are ascribed into the number of Angels thereupon the fruitfulnesse of Parents is more blessed and their meeting holier So then it is better for them to haue begotten such children then not to haue begotten them and to haue brought forth such fruit of mariage then to haue beene continent or Virgins without fruit Although it is good for some to be continent or virgins namely for them whom God eternally willed and preordained to be so created in the world that they should remaine either in Continence or Virginity For as he hath eternally willed and fore-ordained that some should be so created in the world as that they should yeeld the fruit of mariage and beget children so also hath he willed and from eternity fore-ordained some to be so created that they should continue in Continencie or Virginity And as those other yeeld their seruice to the will and preordination of God in the creation of children so these also serue the will and preordination of God in conseruing their continence and virginity and hereupon is both the fruitfulnesse of the one and the Virginity of the other good and laudable which if it did not yeeld seruiceâ— the will and preordination of God would be neither good nor laudable For whatsoeuer is contrary to the wil and preordination of God is neither good nor laudable If therefore God willed and predestinated some to be Virgins others to yeeld the fruit of mariage for if all were virgins no Saint that now is or shall bee borne should either bee now or hereafter borne in the world neither should those virgins be at all because they should not be borne for of the fruitfulnesse of the one arises the others virginity therefore is fruitfulnesse a great good from which holy virginity hath proceeded now that there should be some virgins and others that should beare the fruits of mariage the word which God soweth in their hearts teacheth vs. For in the hearts of some he soweth the word of good fruitfulnesse yeelding the encrease of mariage and in the hearts of others he sowes the word of virginity Those then in whom hee sowes the the word of virginity they desire to keepe virginity but those in whom hee sowes the word of mariage they desire to yeeld the fruit of mariage WHERETO I WILL ADDE FOR Conclusion the wise and ingenuous iudgement of Erasmus Roterodamus The rather because it pleased my Refuter to lay this worthy Author in our dish Jn his Epistle to Christopher Bishop of Basil Habetur Tomo nono Op. Eras pag. 982. concerning humane Constitutions Thus he writes Nam in totum quae sunt humani iuris quemadmodum in morbis remedia c. FOr those things which are
of a nurse hath gained her both her son and his education and with both a recompence Religion doth not call vs to a weake simplicitie but allowes vs as much of the Serpent as of the Doue lawfull policies haue from God both liberty in the vse and blessing in the successe The good Lady did not breed him as some child of almes or as some wretched outcast for whom it might be fauour enough to liue but as her owne son in all the delicacies in all the learning of Aegypt Whatsoeuer the Court or the Schoole could put into him he wanted not yet all this could not make him forget that he was an Hebrew Education works wondrous changes and is of great force either way a little aduancement hath so puffed some vp aboue themselues that they haue not onely forgot their friends but scorned their parents All the honors of Aegypt could not win Moses not to call his nurse mother or weane him from a willing misery with the Israelites If we had Moses his faith we could not but make his choice It is only our infidelity that binds vs so to the world and makes vs preferre the momentany pleasures of sinne vnto that euerlasting recompence of reward He went forth and looked on the burdens of Israel What needed Moses to haue afflicted himselfe with the afflictions of others Himselfe was at ease and pleasure in the Court of Pharaoh A good heart cannot endure to be happy alone and must needs vnbidden share with others in their miseries He is no true Moses that is not moued with the calamities of Gods Church To see an Aegyptian smite an Hebrew it smote him and moued him to smite He hath no Israelitish blood in him that can endure to see an Israelite stricken either with hand or tongue Here was his zeale where was his authority Doubtlesse Moses had an instinct from God of his Magistracy else how should he thinke they would haue vnderstood what himselfe did not Oppressions may not be righted by violence but by law The redresse of euil by a person vnwarranted is euill Moses knew that God had called him he knew that Pharaoh knew it not therefore he hides the Aegyptian in the sand Those actions which may be approued vnto God are not alwayes safe with men as contrarily too many things goe currant with men which are not approued of God Another Hebrew is stricken but by an Hebrew the act is the same the agents differ neither doth their profession more differ then Moses his proceedings He giues blowes to the one to the other words The blowes to the Aegyptian were deadly the words to the Hebrew gentle and plausible As God makes a difference betwixt chastisements of his owne and punishments of strange children so must wise Gouernors learn to distinguish of sins and iudgements according to circumstances How mildly doth Moses admonish Sirs ye are brethren If there had beene but any dram of good nature in these Hebrewes they had relented now it is strange to see that being so vniuersally vexed with their common aduersary they should yet vexe one another One would haue thought that a common opposition should haue vnited them more yet now priuate grudges do thus dangerously diuide them Blowes enow were not dealt by the Aegyptians their owne must adde to the violence Still Satan is thus busie and Christians are thus malicious that as if they wanted enemies they flye in one anothers faces While we are in this Aegypt of the world all vnkind strifes would easily be composed if wee did not forget that we are brethren Behold an Aegyptian in the skin of an Hebrew how dogged an answer doth Moses receiue to so gentle a reproofe who would not haue expected that this Hebrew had bin enough deiected with the common affliction But vexations may make some more miserable not more humble as we see sicknesses make some tractable others more froward It is no easie matter to beare a reproofe well if neuer so well tempered no Sugar can bereaue a Pill of his bitternesse None but the gracious can say Let the righteous smite me Next to the not deseruing a reproofe is the well taking of it But who is so ready to except and exclaime as the wrong doer The patient replies not One iniury drawes on another first to his brother then to his reprouer Guiltinesse will make a man stir vpon euery touch he that was wronged could incline to reconciliation Malice makes men vncapable of good counsell and there are none so great enemies to Iustice as those which are enemies to peace With what impatience doth a galled heart receiue an admonition This vnworthy Israelite is the patterne of a stomackfull offender first hee is moued to choller in himselfe then he cals for the authority of the admonisher A small authority will serue for a louing admonition It is the duty of men much more of Christians to aduise against sin yet this man askes Who made thee a Iudge for but finding fault with his iniury Then he aggrauates and misconstrues Wilt thou kill me when Moses meant onely to saue both It was the death of his malice onely that was intended and the safety of his person And lastly he vpbraids him with former actions Thou killedst the Aegyptian What if he did What if vniustly What was this to the Hebrew Another mans sin is no excuse for ours A wicked heart neuer lookes inward to it selfe but outward to the quality of the reprouer if that afford exception it is enough as a dog runs first to reuenge on the stone What matter is it to me who he be that admonisheth me Let me looke home into my selfe let me looke to his aduice If that be good it is more shame to me to be reproued by an euill man As a good mans allowance cannot warrant euill so an euill mans reproofe may remedy euill If this Hebrew had beene well pleased Moses had not heard of his slaughter now in choller all will out and if this mans tongue had not thus cast him in the teeth with blood he had beene surprised by Pharaoh ere he could haue knowne that the fact was knowne Now he growes iealous flees and escapes No friend is so commodious in some cases as an aduersary This wound which the Hebrew thought to giue Moses saued his life As it is good for a man to haue an enemy so it shall be our wisedome to make vse of his most cholericke obiections The worst of an enemy may proue most soueraigne to our selues Moses flees It is no discomfort for a man to flee when his conscience pursues him not Where Gods warrant will not protect vs it is good for the heeles to supplie the place of the tongue Moses when he may not in Aegypt he will be doing iustice in Midian In Aegypt he deliuers the oppressed Israelite in Midian the wronged daughters of Iethro A good man wil be doing good wheresoeuer he is his Trade is a compound of Charity
experienced Yet Who am I The more fit any man is for whatsoeuer vocation the lesse he thinkes himselfe Forwardnesse argues insufficiency The vnworthy thinkes still Who am I not Modest beginnings giue hopefull proceedings and happy endings Once before Moses had taken vpon him and laid about him hoping then they would haue knowne that by his hand God meant to deliuer Israel but now when it comes to the point Who am I Gods best seruants are not euer in an equall disposition to good duties If we find differences in our selues sometimes it argues that grace is not our owne It is our frailty that those seruices which we are forward to aloofe off wee shrinke at neere hand and fearfully misse giue How many of vs can bid defiances to death and suggest answers to absent temptations which when they come frome to vs we dye off and change our note and in stead of action expostulate Of the plagues of Aegypt IT is too much honour for flesh and blood to receiue a message from heauen yet here God sends a message to man and is repulsed well may God aske Who is man that I should regard him but for man to aske Who is the Lord is a proud and bold blasphemy Thus wyld is Nature at the first but are God haue done with Pharaoh he will be knowne of him he will make himselfe knowne by him to all the world God might haue swept him away suddenly How vnworthy is he of life who with the same breath that he receiues denies the Giâ—er of it But he would haue him conuinced ere hee were punished First therefore he workes miracles before him then vpon him Pharaoh was now from a staffe of protection sustentation to Gods people turned to a Serpent that stung there to death God shewes himselfe in this reall Embleme doing that suddenly before him which Satan had wrought in him by leisure And now when he crawles and winds and hisses threatning perill to Israel he shewes him how in an instant he can turne him into a senslesse sticke and make him if not vsefull yet fearlesse The same God which wrought this giues Satan leaue to imitate it the first plague that hee meant to inflict vpon Pharaoh is delusion God can be content the Deuill should winne himselfe credit where he meanes to iudge and holds the honour of a miracle well lost to harden an enemy Yet to shew that his miracle was of power the others of permission Moses his Serpent deuours theirs how easily might the Aegyptians haue thought that hee which caused their Serpent not to bee could haue kept it from being and that they which could not keepe their Serpent from deuouring could not secure them from being consumed but wise thoughts enter not into those that must perish Al Gods iudgements stands ready and wait but till they be called for They need but a watch-word to be giuen them No sooner is the rod lift vp but they are gone forth into the world presently the waters run into blood the Frogs Lice crawle about all the other troops of God come rushing in vpon his aduersaries All creatures conspire to reuenge the iniuries of God If the Aegyptians looke vpward there they haue Thunder Lightning Hayle Tempests one while no light at all another while such fearfull flashes as had more terror then darknes If they look vnder them there they see their waters changed into blood their earth swarming with Frogs Grashoppers if about them one while the Flies till their eyes and eares another while they see their fruits destroyed their cattell dying their children dead If lastly they looke vpon themselues they see themselues lothsome with Lice painfull and deformed with Scabs Biles and Botches First God begins his iudgements with waters As the riuer of Nilus was to Aegypt in stead of heauen to moisten and fatten the earth so their confidence was more in it then in heauen Men are sure to be punisht most and soonest in that which they make a corriuall with God They had before defiled the riuers with the blood of innocents and now it appeares to them in his owne colour The waters will no longer keep their counsell Neuer any man delighted in blood which had not enough of it ere his end they shed but some few streames and now behold whose riuers of blood Neither was this more a monument of their slaughter past then an image of their future destruction They were afterward ouer-whelmed in the Red Sea and now beforehand they see the Riuers red with blood How dependant and seruile is the life of man that cannot either want one Element or endure it corrupted It is hard to say whether there were more horror or annoyance in this plague They complaine of thirst and yet doubt whether they should dye or quench it with blood Their fish the chiefe part of their sustenance dyes with infection and infecteth more by being dead The stench of both is ready to poison the inhabitants yet Pharaohs curiosity caries him away quite from the sense of the iudgement he had rather send for his Magicians to worke feats then to humble himselfe vnder God for the remoueall of this plague and God plagues his curiosity with deceit those whom he trusts shall vndoe him with preuailing the glory of a second miracle shall bee obscured by a false imitation for a greater glory to God in the sequell The rod is lift vp again Behold that Nilus which they had before adored was neuer so beneficiall as it is now troublesome yeelding them not onely a dead but a liuing annoyance It neuer did so store them with Fish as now it plagues them with Frogs whatsoeuer any man makes his god besides the true one shall be once his tormenter Those lothsome creatures leaue their owne element to punish them which rebelliously detained Israel from their owne No Bed no Table can be free from them their daintie Ladies cannot keepe them out of their bosomes neither can the Aegyptians sooner open their mouthes then they are ready to creepe into their throats as if they would tell them that they came on purpose to reuenge the wrongs of their Maker yet euen this wonder also is Satan allowed to imitate Who can maruell to see the best vertues counterfaited by wicked men when hee sees the Deuill emulating the miraculous power of God The feats that Satan playes may harden but cannot benefit He that hath leaue to bring Frogs hath neither leaue nor power to take them away nor to take away the stench from them To bring them was but to adde to the iudgement to remoue them was an act of mercy God doth commonly vse Satan in executing of iudgement neuer in the workes of mercy to men Yet euen by thus much is Pharaoh hardned the Sorcerers growne insolent When the deuill and his agents are in the height of their pride God shames them in a trifle The rod is lift vp the very dust receiues life Lice
be brought to nothing and Atomes and dust is neerest to nothing that in stead of going before Israel it might passe thorow them so as the next day they might finde their god in their excrements To the iust shame of Israel when they should see their new god cannot defend himselfe from being either nothing or worse Who can but wonder to see a multitude of so many hundred thousands when Moses came running downe the Hill to turne their eyes from their god to him And on a sudden in stead of worshipping their Idoll to batter it in pieces in the very height of the noueltie In stead of building Altars and kindling fires to it to kindle an hotter fire then that wherewith it was melted to consume it In stead of dancing before it to abhorre and deface it in stead of singing to weepe before it There was neuer a more stiffe-necked people Yet I doe not heare any one man of them say He is but one man We are many how easily may we destroy him rather then hee our god If his brother durst not resist our motion in making it Why will we suffer him to dare resist the keeping of it It is our act and wee will maintaine it Here was none of this but an humble obeysance to the basest and bloodiest reuenge that Moses shall impose God hath set such an impression of Maiestie in the face of lawfull authoritie that wickednesse is confounded in it selfe to behold it If from hence visible powers were not more feared then the inuisible God the world would be ouer-runne with out-rage Sinne hath a guiltinesse in it selfe that when it is seasonably checked it puls in his head and seekes rather an hiding place then a fort The Idoll is not capable of a further reuenge It is not enough vnlesse the Idolaters smart The gold was good if the Israelites had not beene euill So great a sinne cannot be expiated without blood Behold that meeke spirit which in his plea with God would rather perish himselfe then Israel should perish armes the Leuites against their brethren and reioyces to see thousands of the Israelites bleed and blesses their executioners It was the mercy of Moses that made him cruell He had been cruell to all if some had not found him cruell They are mercilesse hands which are not sometimes imbrued in blood There is no lesse charitie then iustice in punishing sinners with death God delights no lesse in a killing mercy then in a pitifull iustice Some tender hearts would be ready to censure the rigour of Moses Might not Israel haue repented and liued Or if they must dye must their brethrens hand be vpon them Or if their throats must be cut by their brethren shall it be done in the very heat of their sinne But they must learne a difference betwixt pity and fondnesse mercy and vniustice Moses had an heart as soft as theirs but more hot as pitifull but wiser He was a good Physician and saw that Israel could not liue vnlesse he bled hee therefore le ts out this corrupt blood to saue the whole body There cannot bee a better sacrifice to God then the blood of Malefactors and this first sacrifice so pleased God in the hands of the Leuites that he would haue none but them sacrifice to him for euer The blood of the Idolatrous Israelites cleared that Tribe from the blood of the innocent Sichemites Contemplations THE SIXTH BOOKE The Vayle of Moses Nadab and Abihu Aaron and Miriam The Searchers of Canaan Corah's Conspiracie BY IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deaue of WORCESTER TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THOMAS LORD VISCOVNT FENTON CAPTAINE OF THE ROYALL GVARD ONE OF HIS MAIESTIES MOST HONOVRABLE PRIVY COVNSELLORS ONE OF THE HAPPY RESCVERS OF THE DEARE LIFE OF OVR GRACIOVS SOVERAIGNE LORD A WORTHY PATTERNE OF ALL TRVE HONOR I. H. DEDICATES THIS PART OF HIS MEDITATIONS AND WISHETH ALL INCREASE OF GRACE AND HAPPINESSE Contemplations THE SIXTH BOOKE Of the Vaile of MOSES IT is a wonder that neither Moses nor any Israelite gathered vp the shiuers of the former Tables Euery sheard of that stone and euery letter of that writing had beene a Relike worth laying vp but he well saw how headlong the people were to Superstition and how vnsafe it were to feed that disposition in them The same zeale that burnt the Calfe to ashes concealed the ruines of this Monument Holy things besides their vse challenge no further respect The breaking of the Tables did as good as blot out all the Writings defaced left no vertue in the stone no reuerence to it If God had not beene friends with Israel he had not renewed his Law As the Israelites were wilfully blind if they did not see Gods anger in the Tables broken so could they not but hold it a good signe of grace that God gaue them his Testimonies There was nothing wherein Israel out-stripped all the rest of the world more then in this priuiledge the pledge of his Couenant the Law written with Gods owne hand Oh what a fauour then is it where God bestowes his Gospell vpon any Nation That was but a killing letter this is the power of God to saluation Neuer is God throughly displeased with any people where that continues For like as those which purposed loue when they fall off call for their tokens back againe So when God begins once perfectly to mislike the first thing he with-drawes is his Gospell Israel recouers this fauour but with an abatement Hew thee two Tables God made the first Tables The matter the forme was his now Moses must hew the next As God created the first man after his owne Image but that once defaced Adam begat Cain after his owne Or as the first Temple razed a second was built yet so far short that the Israelites wept at the sight of it The first workes of God are still the purest those that he secondarily works by vs decline in their perfection It was reason that though God had forgotten Israel they should still find they had sinned They might see the footsteps of displeasure in the differences of the Agent When God had told Moses before I will not goe before Israel but my Angell shall lead them Moses so noted the difference that he rested not till God himselfe vndertooke their conduct So might the Israelites haue noted some remainders of offence whiles in stead of that which his owne hand did formerly make hee saith now Heâ— thee And yet these second Tables are kept reuerently in the Arke when the other lay mouldred in shiuers vpon Sinai like as the repaired repaired Image of God in our Regeneration is preserued perfited and layd vp at last safe in Heauen whereas the first Image of our created innocence is quite defaced so the second Temple had the glory of Christs exhibition though meaner in frame The mercifull respects of God are not tyed to glorious out-sides or the inward worthinesse of things or persons He hath chosen the weake
neither must dye nor be quenched God as he is himselfe eternall so he loues permanency and constancie of grace in vs If wee be but a flash and away God regards vs not all promises are to perseuerance Sure it is but an elementary fire that goes out that which is celestiall continues it was but some presumptuous heat in vs that decayes vpon euery occasion But he that miraculously sent downe this fire at first will not renew the miracle euery day by a like supply it began immediately from God it must bee nourished by meanes Fuell must maintaine that fire which came from Heauen God wil not work miracles euery day if he haue kindled his Spirit in vs we may not expect he shall euery day begin againe wee haue the fuell of the Word and Sacraments Prayers and Meditations which must keepe it in for euer It is from God that these helps can nourish his graces in vs like as euery flame of our materiall fire hath a concourse of prouidence but we may not expect new infusions rather know that God expects of vs an improuement of those habituall graces we haue receiued Whiles the people with feare and ioy see God lighting his owne fire fire from heauen the two sonnes of Aaron in a carelesse presumption will be seruing him with a common flame As if he might not haue leaue to choose the formes of his owne worship If this had beene done some ages after when the memory of the originall of this heauenly fire had beene worne out it might haue beene excused with ignorance but now when God had newly sent his fire from aboue newly commanded the continuance of it either to let it goe out or whiles it still flamed to fetch prophane coales to Gods Altar could sauour of no lesse then presumption and Sacriledge when we bring zeale without knowledge misconceits of faith carnall affections the deuices of our Wil-worship Superstitious Deuotions into Gods Seruice we bring common fire to his Altar these flames were neuer of his kindling Hee hates both Altar Fire Priest and Sacrifice And now behold the same fire which consumed the Sacrifice before consumes the Sacrificers It was the signe of his acceptation in consuming the beast but whiles it destroyed men the fearfull signe of his displeasure By the same meanes can God bewray both loue and hatred Wee would haue pleaded for Nadab and Abihu They are but yong-men the sonnes of Aaron not yet warme in their Function let both age and blood and inexperience excuse them as yet No pretences no priuiledges can beare off a sinne with God Men thinke either to patronize or mitigate euils by their fained reasons That no man may hope the plea either of birth or of youth or of the first commission of euill may challenge pardon I see heere yong men sonnes of the Ruler of Israel for the first offence strooke dead Yea this made God the more to stomack and the rather to reuenge this impiety because the Sonnes of Aaron did it God had both pardoned and graced their Father he had honoured them of the thousands of Israel culling them out for his Altar and now as their Father set vp a false god so they bring false fire vnto the True God If the sonnes of Infidels liue godlessely they doe their kinde their punishment shall be though iust yet lesse but if the children of religious Parents after all Christian nurture shall shame their Education God takes it more hainously and reuenges is more sharply The more bonds of duty the more plagues of neglect If from the Agents wee looke to the act it selfe set aside the originall descent and what difference was there betwixt these fires Both lookt alike heated alike ascended alike consumed alike both were fed with the same materiall wood both vanished into smoke There was no difference but the Commandement of God If God had inioyned ordinarie fire they had sinned to looke for celestiall now he commanded onely the fire which he sent they sinned in sending vp Incense in that fire which he commanded not It is a dangerous thing in the seruice of God to decline from his owne institutions we haue to doe with a power which is wise to prescribe his owne worship iust to require what he hath prescribed powerful to reuenge that which he hath not required If God had strooke them with some Leprosie in their forehead as he did their Aunt Miriam soon after or with some palsie or lingering consumption the punishment had beene grieuous but he whose iudgements are euer iust sometimes secret saw fire the fittest reuenge for a sinne of fire his owne fire fittest to punish strange fire A sudden iudgement fit for a present and exemplarie sinne He saw that if he had winkt at this his seruice had been exposed to prophanation It is wisedome in gouernours to take sinne at the first bound and so to reuenge it that their punishments may bee preuentions Speed of death is not alwayes a iudgement suddennesse as it is euer iustly suspicable so then certainly argues anger when it finds vs in an act of sinne Leasure of repentance is an argument of fauour vvhen God giues a man Law it implyes that he would not haue iudgement surprize him Doubtlesse Aaron lookt somewhat heauily on this sad spectacle It could not but appall him to see his two sonnes dead before him dead in displeasure dead suddenly dead by the immediate hand of God And now hee could repent him of his new honour to see it succeed so ill with the sonnes of his loynes neither could hee chuse but see himselfe stricken in them But his Brother Moses that had learned not to know either Nephewes or Brother when they stood in his way to God wisely turned his eyes from the dead carkasses of his Sonnes to his respect of the liuing God My Brother this euent is fearfull but iust These were thy sonnes but they sinned it was not for God it is not for thee to looke so much who they were as what they did It was their honour and thine that they were chosen to minister before the Lord Hee that called them iustly required their Sanctification obedience If they haue prophaned God and themselues can thy naturall affection so miscary thee that thou couldest wish their impunity with the blemish of thy Maker Our sonnes are not ours if they disobey our Father to pitie their misery is to partake of their sinnes If thou grudge at their iudgement take heed lest the same fire of God come forth vpon this strange fire of nature Shew now whether thou more louest God or thy sonnes Shew whether thou be a better Father or a Sonne Aaron weighing these things holds his peace not out of an amazement or sullennesse but out of patient and humble submission and seeing Gods pleasure and their desert is content to forget that hee had sonnes He might haue had a silent tongue and a clamorous heart There is no voice louder in
the eares of God then a speechlesse repining of the soule Heat is more intended with keeping in but Aarons silence was no lesse inward He knew how little he should get by brawling with God If he breathed our discontentment he saw God could speake fire to him againe And therefore he quietly submits to the will of God and held his peace because the Lord had done it There is no greater proofe of grace then to smart patiently and humbly and contentedly to rest the heart in the iustice and wisedome of Gods proceeding and to bee so farre from chiding that we dispute not Nature is froward and though shee well knowes we meddle not with our match when we striue with our Maker yet she pricks vs forward to this idle quarrell and bids vs with Iobs wife Curse and dye If God either chide or smite as seruants are charged to their Masters wee may not answer againe when Gods hand is on our backe our hand must be our mouth else as mothers doe their children God shall whip vs so much the more for crying It is hard for a stander by in this case to distinguish betwixt hard-heartednesse and piety There Aaron sees his sonnes lye he may neither put his hand to them to bury them nor shead a teare for their death Neuer parent can haue iuster cause of mourning then to see his sonnes dead in their sinne if prepared and penitent yet who can but sorrow for their end but to part with children to the danger of a second death is worthy of more then teares Yet Aaron must learne so farre to deny nature that he must more magnifie the iustice of God then lament the iudgement Those whom God hath called to his immediate seruice must know that hee will not allow them the common passions and cares of others Nothing is more naturall then sorrow for the death of our owne if euer griefe be seasonable it becomes a funerall And if Nadab and Abihu had dyed in their beds this fauour had been allowed them the sorrow of their Father and Brethren for when God forbids solemne mourning to his Priests ouer the dead hee excepts the cases of this neernesse of blood Now all Israel may mourne for these two only the Father and Brethren may not God is iealous lest their sorrow should seeme to countenance the sinne which he had punished euen the fearfullest acts of God must be applauded by the heauiest hearts of the faithfull That which the Father and Brother may not doe the Cousins are commanded dead carkasses are not for the presence of God His iustice was shewne sufficiently in killing them They are now fit for the graue not the Sanctuary Neither are they caried out naked but in their coats It was an vnusuall sight for Israel to see a linnen Ephod vpon the Beere The iudgement was so much more remarkable because they had the badge of their calling vpon their backs Nothing is either more pleasing vnto God or more commodious to men then that when he hath executed iudgement it should bee seene and wondred at for therefore he strikes some that he may warne all Of AARON and MIRIAM THe Israelites are stayed seuen dayes in the station of Hazzeroth for the punishment of Miriam The sinnes of the gouernors are a iust stop to the people all of them smart in one all must stay the leasure of Miriams recouerie Whosoeuer seekes the Land of Promise shall finde many lets Amalek Og Schon and the Kings of Canaan meet with Israel these resisted but hindred not their passage their sinnes onely stay them from remouing Afflictions are not crosses to vs in the way to heauen in comparison to our sinnes What is this I see Is not this Aaron that was brother in nature and by office ioynt Commissioner with Moses Is not this Aaron that made his Brother an Intercessor for him to God in the case of his Idolatry Is not this Aaron that climbed vp the Hill of Sinai with Moses Is not this Aaron whom the mouth and hand of Moses consecrated an high Priest vnto God Is not this Miriam the elder Sister of Moses Is not this Miriam that led the Triumph of the Women and sung gloriously to the Lord It not this Miriam which layd her Brother Moses in the Reeds and fetcht her Mother to be his Nurse Both Prophets of God both the flesh and blood of Moses And doth this Aaron repine at the honor of him which gaue himselfe that honour and saued his life Doth this Miriam repine at the prosperity of him whose life she saued Who would not haue thought this should haue beene their glory to haue seene the glory of their owne Brother What could haue beene a greater comfort to Miriam then to thinke How happily doth he now sit at the Sterne of Israel whom I saued from perishing in a Boat of Bul-rushes It is to mee that Israel owes this Commander But now enuy hath so blinded their eyes that they can neither see this priuiledge of nature nor the honour of Gods choyce Miriam and Aaron are in mutiny against Moses Who is so holy that sinnes not What sinne is so vnnaturall that the best can auoyde without God But what weaknesse soeuer may plead for Miriam who can but grieue to see Aaron at the end of so many sinnes Of late I saw him caruing the molten Image and consecrating an Altar to a false god now I see him seconding an vnkind mutiny against his Brother Both sinnes find him accessary neither principall It was not in the power of the legall Priesthood to performe or promise innocency to her Ministers It was necessary wee should haue another high Priest which could not bee tainted That King of righteousnesse was of another order He being without sinne hath fully satisfied for the sinnes of men Whom can it now offend to see the blemishes of the Euangelicall Priesthood when Gods first high Priest is thus miscaried Who can looke for loue and prosperity at once when holy and meeke Moses finds enmity in his owne flesh and blood Rather then we shall want A mans enemies shall be those of his owne house Authority cannot fayle of opposition if it be neuer so mildly swayed that common make-bate will rather raise it out of our owne bosome To doe well and heare ill is Princely The Midianitish wife of Moses cost him deare Before she hazarded his life now the fauour of his people Vnequall matches are seldome prosperous Although now this scandall was onely taken Enuy was not wise enough to choose a ground of the quarrell Whether some secret and emulatory brawles passed between Zipporah and Miriam as many times these sparkes of priuate brawles grow into a perillous and common flame or whether now that Iethro and his family was ioyned with Israel there were surmises of transporting the Gouernment to strangers or whether this vnfit choice of Moses is now raised vp to disparage Gods gifts in him Euen in fight the exceptions were
friuolous Emulation is curious and out of the best person or act will raise something to cauill at Seditions doe not euer looke the same way they moue Wise men can easily distinguish betwixt the visor of actions and the face The wife of Moses is mentioned his superiority is shot at Pride is lightly the ground of all sedition Which of their faces shined like Moses Yea let him but haue drawne his vaile which of them durst looke on his face Which of them had fasted twice forty dayes Which of them ascended vp to the top of Sinai and was hid with smoke and fire Which of them receiued the Law twice in two seuerall Tables from Gods owne hand And yet they dare say Hath God spoken only by Moses They do not deny Moses his honour but they challenge a part with him and as they were the elder in nature so they would bee equall in dignitie equall in administration According to her name Miriam would bee exalted And yet how vnfit were they One a woman whom her sex debarred from rule the other a Priest whom his office sequestred from earthly gouernment Selfe-loue makes men vnreasonable and teaches them to turne the glasse to see themselues bigger others lesse then they are It is an hard thing for a man willingly and gladly to see his equals lifted ouer his head in worth and opinion Nothing will more try a mans grace then questions of emulation That man hath true light which can bee content to be a candle before the Sunne of others As no wrong can escape God so least of all those which are offered to Princes Hee that made the care needs no intelligence of our tongues We haue to doe with a God that is light of hearing we cannot whisper any euill so secretly that hee should not cry out of noise and what need we any further euidence when our Iudge is our witnesse Without any delation of Moses God heares and challenges them Because hee was meeke therefore he complained not Because hee was meeke and complained not therefore the Lord struck in for him the more The lesse a man striues for himselfe the more is God his Champion It is the honour of great persons to vndertake the patronage of their Clients How much more will God reuenge his Elect which cry to him day and night He that said I seeke not mine owne glory addes But there is one that seekes it and iudges God takes his part ouer that sights not for himselfe No man could haue giuen more proofes of his courage then Moses Hee slue the Egyptian He confronted Pharaoh in his owne Court Hee beat the Midianite shepheards He feared not the troopes of Egypt He durst looke God in the face amidst all the terrors of Sinai and yet that spirit which made and knew his heart sayes Hee was the mildest man vpon earth Mildnesse and Fortitude may well lodge together in one brest to correct the misconceits of those men that thinke none valiant but those that are fierce and cruell No sooner is the word out of Miriams mouth then the Word of Gods reproofe meets it How he bestirs him and will be at once seene and heard when the name of Moses is in question Moses was zealously carefull for Gods glory and now God is zealous for his The remunerations of the Almightie are infinitely gracious He cannot want honour and patronage that seekes the honour of his Maker The ready way to true glory is goodnesse God might haue spoken so lowd that Heauen and Earth should haue heard it so as they should not haue needed to come forth for audience but now hee cals them out to the barre that they may be seene to heare It did not content him to chide them within doores the shame of their fault had beene lesse in a priuate rebuke but the scandall of their repining was publike Where the sinne is not afraid of the light God loues not the reproofe should be smothered They had depressed Moses God aduances him They had equalled them to Moses God prefers him to them Their plea was that God had spoken by them as well as Moses Gods reply is That hee hath in a more entire fashion spoken to Moses then them God spake to the best of them but either in their dreame sleeping or in vision waking But to Moses he spake with more inward illumination with more liuely representation To others as a stranger to Moses as a friend God had neuer so much magnified Moses to them but for their enuy We cannot deuise to pleasure Gods seruants so much as by despighting them God was angry when he chode them but more angry when he departed The withdrawing of his presence is the presence of his wrath Whiles hee stayes to reproue there is fauour in his displeasure but when he leaues either man or Church there is no hope but of vengeance The finall absence of God is hell it selfe When he forsakes vs though for a time it is an introduction to his vtmost iudgement It was time to looke for a iudgement when God departed so soone as he is gone from the eyes of Miriam the leprosie appeares in her face her foule tongue is punished with a foule face Since she would acknowledge no difference betwixt her selfe and her brother Moses euery Israelite now sees his face glorious here leprous Deformitie is a fit cure of Pride Because the venome of her tongue would haue eaten into the reputation of her brother therefore a poisonous infection eates into her flesh Now both Moses Miriam need to weare a vayle the one to hide his glory the other her deformitie That Midianite Zapparah whom she scorned was beautifull in respect of her Miriam was striken Aaron escaped both sinned his Priesthood could not rescue him the greatnesse of his dignity did but adde to the haynousnesse of his sinne his repentance freed him Alasse my Lord I beseech thee lay not this sinne vpon vs which we haue foolishly committed I wonder not to see Aaron free while I see him penitent This very confession saued him before from bleeding for Idolatry which now preserues him from Leprosie for his enuious repining The vniuersall Antidote for all the iudgements of God is our humble repentance Yea his sad deprecation preuailed both to cleare himselfe and recouer Miriam The brother sues for himselfe and his sister to that brother whom they both emulated for pardon from himselfe and that God which was offended in him Where now is that equality which was pretended Behold hee that so lately made his brother his fellow now makes him his God Lay not this sinne vpon vs Let her not bee as one dead As if Moses had imposed this plague and could remoue it Neuer any opposed the seruants of God but one time or other they haue beene constrained to confesse a superiority Miriam would haue wounded Moses with her tongue Moses would heale her with his O Lord heale her now The wrong is the greater because
courses are quite contrary to the Commandements of God Vpon the act done God passed the sentence of restraining Moses with the rest from the promised Land Now he performes it Since that time Moses had many fauors from God All which could not reuerse this decreed castigation That euerlasting rule is grounded vpon the very essence of God I am Iehouah I change not Our purposes are as our selues fickle and incertaine His are certaine and immutable some things which he reueales he alters nothing that he hath decreed Besides the soule of Moses to the glory whereof God principally intended this change I finde him carefull of two things His Successor and his Body Moses moues for the one the other God doth vnasked He that was so tender ouer the welfare of Israel in his life would not staken his care in death He takes no thought for himselfe for hee knew how gainfull an exchange he must make All his care is for his charge Some enuious natures desire to be missed when they must goe and wish that the weakenesse or want of a successor may be the foyle of their memory and honour Moses is in a contrary disposition It sufficeth him not to find contentment in his owne happinesse vnlesse hee may haue an assurance that Israel shall prosper after him Carnall minds are all for themselues and make vse of gouernment onely for their owne aduantages But good hearts looke euer to the future good of the Church aboue their owne against their owne Moses did well to shew his good affection to his people but in his silence God would haue prouided for his owne He that called him from the sheepe of Iethro will not want a gouernour for his chosen to succeed him God hath fitted him whom he will choose Who can be more meet then he whose name whose experience whose graces might supply yea reuiue Moses to the people He that searched the Land before was fittest to guide Israel into it Hee that was indued with the Spirit of God was the fittest deputy for God He that abode still in the Tabernacle of Ohel-moed as Gods attendant was fittest to bee sent forth from him as his Lieutenant But oh the vnsearchable counsell of the Almighty Aged Caleb and all the Princes of Israel are past ouer and Ioshua the seruant of Moses is chosen to succeed his master The eye of God is not blinded either with gifts or with blood or with beauty or with strength but as in his eternall elections so in his temporary hee will haue mercy on whom he will And well doth Ioshua succeed Moses The very acts of God of old were allegories where the Law ends there the Sauiour begins we may see the Land of Promise in the Law Onely Iesus the Mediator of the New Testament can bring vs into it So was he a seruant of the Law that hee supplies all the defects of the Law to vs Hee hath taken possession of the promised Land for vs he shall cary vs from this Wildernesse to our rest It is no small happinesse to any state when their gouernours are chosen by worthinesse and such elections are euer from God whereas the intrusions of bribery and iniust fauour or violence as they make the Common-wealth miserable so they come from him which is the author of confusion Woe be to that state that suffers it woe be to that person that workes it for both of them haue sold themselues the one to seruitude the other to sinne I doe not heare Moses repine at Gods choyce and grudge that this Scepter of his is not hereditarie but he willingly layes hands vpon his seruant to consecrate him for his successor Ioshua was a good man yet he had some sparkes of Enuy for when Eldad and Medad prophesied he stomakt it My Lord Moses forbid them Hee that would not abide two of the Elders of Israel to prophecie how would hee haue allowed his seruant to sit in his throne What an example of meekenesse besides all the rest doth he here see in this last act of his master who without all murmuring resignes his chaire of State to his Page It is all one to a gracious heart whom God will please to aduance Emulation and discontentment are the affections of carnall mindes Humility goes euer with regeneration which teaches a man to thinke what euer honor be put vpon others I haue more then I am worthy of The same God that by the hands of his Angels caried vp the soule of Moses to his glory doth also by the hand of his Angels cary his body down into the velley of Moab to his sepulture Those hands which had taken the Law from him those eyes that had seene his presence those lips that had conferred so oft with him that face that did so shine with the beames of his glory may not be neglected when the soule is gone He that tooke charge of his birth and preseruation in the Reedes takes charge of his cariage out of the world The care of God ceaseth not ouer his owne either in death or after it How iustly do we take care of the comely burials of our friends when God himselfe giues vs this example If the ministery of man had beene vsed in this graue of Moses the place might haue been knowne to the Israelites but God purposely conceales this treasure both from Men and Deuils that so he might both crosse their curiosity and preuent their superstition If God had loued the adoration of his seruant relikes he could neuer haue had a fitter opportunity for this deuotion then in the body of Moses It is folly to place Religion in those things which God hides on purpose from vs It is not the property of the Almighty to restraine vs from good Yet that diuine hand which lockt vp this treasure and kept the key of it brought it forth afterwards glorious In the transfiguration this body which was hid in the valley of Moab appeared in the hill of Tabor that wee may know these bodies of ours are not lost but layd vp and shall as sure bee raised in glory as they are layd downe in corruption We know that when he shall appeare wee shall also appeare with him in Glory Contemplations THE EIGHTH BOOKE Rahab Jordan diuided The siege of Jericho Achan The Gibeonites BY IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER TO THE TRVLY NOBLE AND WORTHILY HONOVRED GENTLEMAN MASTER ROBERT HAY ONE OF THE ATTENDANTS OF HIS MAIESTIES BED-CHAMBER A SINCERE FRIEND OF VERTVE AND LOVER OF LEARNING J. H. WITH APPRECATION OF ALL HAPPINESSE DEDICATES THIS PART OF HIS MEDITATIONS Contemplations THE EIGHTH BOOKE Of RAHAB IOshua was one of those twelue searchers which were sent to view the Land of Canaan yet now he addresses two Spyes for a more particular Suruey Those twelue were onely to enquire of the generall condition of the people and Land these two finde out the best entrance into the next part of the Countrey and into their
Iericho will be won with looking at Or doe they onely come to count how many paces it is about our City If this be their manner of siege we shall haue no great cause to feare the sword of Israel Wicked men thinke God in iest when he is preparing for their iudgement The Almighty hath vvayes and counsels of his owne vtterly vnlike to ours vvhich because our reason cannot reach we are ready to condemne of foolishnesse and impossibilitie With vs there is no way to victory but fighting and the strongest caries the spoyle God can giue victory to the feet as well as to the hands and when he will makes weaknesse no disaduantage What should we doe but follow God through by-wayes and know that he will in spight of nature lead vs to our end All the men of warre must compasse the Citie yet it was not the presence of the great warriours of Israel that threw down the wals of Iericho Those foundations were not so slightly laid as that they could not endure either a looke or a march or a battery It was the Arke of God whose presence demolished the wals of that wicked City The same power that draue backe the waters of Iordan before and afterwards laid Dagon on the floore cast down all those forts The Priests beare on their shoulders that mighty engine of God before which those wals if they had beene of molten brasse could not stand Those spirituall wickednesses yea those gates of hell which to nature are vtterly inuincible by the power of the Word of God which he hath committed to the cariage of his weake seruants are ouerthrowne and triumphed ouer Thy Arke O God hath beene long amongst vs how is it that the wals of our corruptions stand still vnruined It hath gone before vs his Priests haue caried it wee haue not followed it our hearts haue not attended vpon it and therefore how mighty soeuer it is in it selfe yet to vs it hath not been so powerfull as it would Seuen dayes together they walkt this round They made this therefore their Sabbath-dayes iourney and who knowes whether the last and longest walke which brought victory to Israel were not on this day Not long before an Israelite is stoned to death for but gathering a few sticks that day Now all the host of Israel must walke about the wals of a large and populous City and yet doe not violate the day Gods precept is the rule of the iustice and holinesse of all our actions Or was it for that reuenge vpon Gods enemies is an holy worke and such as God vouchsafes to priuiledge with his owne day Or because when we haue vndertaken the exploits of God he will abide no intermission till we haue fulfilled them Hee allowes vs to breathe not to breake off till we haue finished It had been as easie for God to haue giuen this successe to their first dayes walke yea to their first pace or their first sight of Iericho yet he will not giue it vntill the end of their seuen dayes toyle It is the pleasure of God to hold vs both in worke and in expectation And though hee require our continuall indeuours for the subduing of our corruptions during the sixe dayes of our life yet we shall neuer find it perfectly effected till the very euening of our last day In the meane time it must content vs that we are in our walke and that these wals cannot stand when wee come to the measure and number of our perfection A good heart grones vnder the sense of his infirmities faine would be rid of them and striues and prayes but when hee hath all done vntill the end of the seuenth day it cannot be If a stone or two moulder off from these wals in the meane time that is all but the foundations will not be remoued till then When we heare of so great a designe as the miraculous winning of a mighty City who would not looke for some glorious meanes to worke it when we heare that the Arke of God must besiege Iericho who would not looke for some royall equipage But behold â—here seuen Priests must go before it with seuen Trumpets of Rams horns The Israelites had trumpets of siluer which God had appointed for the vse of assembling and dissoluing the Congregation for warre and for peace Now I doe not heare them called for but in stead thereof Trumpets of Rams hornes base for the matter and not loud for sound the shortnesse and equall measure of those instruments could not afford either shrilnesse of noise or variety How meane and homely are those meanes which God commonly vses in the most glorious workes No doubt the Citizens of Iericho answered this dull alarum of theirs from their wals with other instruments of lowder report and more martiall ostentation and the vulgar Israelites thought We haue as cleare and as costly trumpets as theirs yet no man dares offer to sound the better when the worse are commanded If we finde the ordinances of God poore and weake let it content vs that they are of his owne choosing and such as whereby he will so much more honour himselfe as they in themselues are more inglorious Not the outside but the efficacie is it that God cares for No Ramme of iron could haue been so forceable for battery as these Rams horns For when they sounded long and were seconded with the shout of the Israelites all the walls of Iericho fell downe at once They made the Heauen ring with their shout but the ruine of those wals drowned their voice and gaue a pleasant kinde of horrour to the Israelites The earth shooke vnder them with the fall but the hearts of the Inhabitants shooke yet more many of them doubtlesse were slaine with those walles wherein they had trusted A man might see death in the faces of all the rest that remained who now being halfe dead with astonishment expected the other halfe from the sword of their enemies They had now neither meanes nor will to resist for if onely one breach had beene made as it vses in other sieges for the entrance of the enemy perhaps new supplyes of defendants might haue made it vp with their carkasses but now that at once Iericho is turned to a plaine field euery Israelite without resistance might runne to the next booty and the throats of their enemies seemed to inuite their swords to a dispatch If but one Israelite had knockt at the gates of Iericho it might haue been thought their hand had helped to the victory Now that God may haue all the glory without the show of any riuall yea of any meanes they doe but walke and shout and the walls giue way He cannot abide to part with any honour from himselfe As hee doth all things so he would be acknowledged They shout all at once It is the presence of Gods Arke and our conioyned prayers that are effectuall to the beating downe of wickednesse They may not shout till they be
Ioshua that succeeded Moses no lesse in the care of Gods glory then in his gouernment is much deiected with this euent Hee rends his clothes fals on his face casts dust vpon his head and as if he had learned of his Master how to expostulate with God sayes What wilt thou doe to thy mighty Name That Ioshua might see God tooke no pleasure to let the Israelites lye dead vpon the earth before their enemies himselfe is taxed for but lying all day vpon his face before the Arke All his expostulations are answered in one word Get thee vp Israel hath sinned I do not heare God say Lye still and mourne for the sin of Israel It is to no purpose to pray against punishment while the sinne continues And though God loues to be sued to yet he holds our requests vnseasonable till there bee care had of satisfaction When we haue risen and redressed sin then may we fall downe for pardon Victory is in the free hand of God to dispose where hee will and no man can maruell that the dice of Warre run euer with hazard on both sides so as God needed not to haue giuen any other reason of this discomfiture of Israel but his owne pleasure yet Ioshua must now know that Israel which before preuailed for their faith is beaten for their sin When we are crossed in iust and holy quarrels we may well thinke there is some secret euill vnrepented of which God would punish in vs which though we see not yet he so hates that he will rather bee wanting to his owne cause then not reuenge it When we goe about any enterprise of God it is good to see that our hearts be cleere from any pollution of sin and when wee are thwarted in our hopes it is our best course to ransack our selues and to search for some sin hid from vs in our bosome but open to the view of God The Oracle of God which told him a great offence was committed yet reueales not the person It had been as easie for him to haue named the man as the crime Neither doth Ioshua request it but refers that discouery to such a meanes as whereby the offender finding himselfe singled out by the lot might bee most conuinced Achan thought he might haue lyen as close in all that throng of Israel as the wedge of Gold lay in his Tent. The same hope of secresie which moued him to sinne moued him to confidence in his sinne but now when hee saw the lot fall vpon his Tribe hee began to start a little when vpon his family he began to change countenance when vpon his houshold to tremble and feare when vpon his person to be vtterly confounded in himselfe Foolish men thinke to runne away with their priuie sinnes and say Tush no eye shall see me but when they thinke themselues safest God puls them out with shame The man that hath escaped iustice and now is lying downe in death would thinke My shame shall neuer be disclosed but before Men and Angels shall he be brought on the scaffold and find confusion as sure as late What needed any other euidence when God had accused Achan Yet Ioshua will haue the sinne out of his mouth in whose heart it was hatched My sonne I beseech thee giue glory to God Whom God had conuinced as a malefactor Ioshua beseeches as a son Some hot spirit would haue said Thou wretched traitor how hast thou pilfred from thy God and shed the blood of so many Israelites and caused the Host of Israel to shew their backes with dishonour to the Heathen now shall we fetch this sin out of thee with tortures and plague thee with a condigne death But like the Disciple of him whose seruant he was he meekely intreats that which he might haue extorted by violence My son I beseech thee Sweetnesse of compellation is a great helpe towards the good entertainment of an admonition roughnesse and rigor many times hardens those hearts which meekenesse would haue melted to repentance whether we sue or conuince or reproue little good is gotten by bitternesse Detestation of the sin may well stand with fauour to the person and these two not distinguished cause great wrong either in our charity or iustice for either we vncharitably hate the creature of God or vniustly affect the euill of men Subiects are as they are called sonnes to the Magistrate All Israel was not onely of the family but as of the loynes of Ioshua such must be the corrections such the prouisions of Gouernorus as for their children as againe the obedience and loue of subiects must be filiall God had glorified himselfe sufficiently in finding out the wickednesse of Achan neither need he honour from men much lesse from sinners They can dishonour him by their iniquities but what recompence can they giue him for their wrongs yet Ioshua sayes My sonne giue glory to God Israel should now see that the tongue of Achan did iustifie God in his lot The confession of our sins doth no lesse honour God then his glory is blemished by their commission Who would not be glad to redeeme the honour of his Redemer with his owne shame The lot of God and the mild words of Ioshua wonne Achan to accuse himselfe ingenuously impartially a storme perhaps would not haue done that which a Sun-shine had done If Achan had come in vncalled and before any question made out of an honest remorse had brought in this sacrilegious booty and cast himselfe and it at the foot of Ioshua doubtlesse Israel had prospered and his sinne had caried away pardon now he hath gotten thus much thanke that he is not a desperate sinner God will once wring from the conscience of wicked men their owne inditements They haue not more carefully hid their sinne then they shall one day freely proclaime their owne shame Achans confession though it were late yet was it free and full For he doth not onely acknowledge the act but the ground of his sinne I saw and coueted and tooke The eye betrayed the heart and that the hand and now all conspire in the offence If wee list not to flatter our selues this hath beene the order of our crimes Euill is vniforme and beginning at the senses takes the inmost fort of the soule and then armes our own outward forces against vs This shall once be the lasciuious mans song I saw and coueted and tooke This the theeues this the Idolaters this the gluttons drunkards All these receiue their death by the eye But oh foolish Achan with what eyes didst thou looke vpon that spoile which thy fellowes saw and contemned Why couldest thou not before as well as now see shame hid vnder that gay Babylonish garment and an heape of stones couered with those shekels of siluer The ouer-prizing and ouer-desiring of these earthly things caries vs into all mischiefe and hides from vs the sight of Gods iudgements whosoeuer desires the glory of metals or of gay clothes or
my fortitude consume Midian Gideon did not so much doubt before as now hee feared Wee that shall once liue with and be like the Angels in the estate of our impotency thinke we cannot see an Angell and liue Gideon was acknowledged for mighty in valour yet he trembles at the sight of an Angell Peter that durst draw his sword vpon Malchus and all the traine of Iudas yet feares when he thought he had seen a spirit Our naturall courage cannot beare vs out against spirituall obiects This Angell was homely and familiar taking vpon him for a time a resemblance of that flesh whereof he would afterwards take the substance yet euen the valiant Gideon quakes to haue seene him How awefull and glorious is the God of Angels when he will be seene in the state of heauen The Angell that departed for the wonder yet returnes for the comfort of Gideon It is not the wont of God to leaue his children in a maze but he brings them out in the same mercy which led them in and will magnifie his grace in the one no lesse then his power in the other Now Gideon growes acquainted with God and enterchanges pledges of familiaritie He builds an Altar to God and God conferres with him and as he vses where he loues imploys him His first taske must be to destroy the god of the Midianites then the Idolaters themselues Whiles Baals Altar and Groue stood in the hill of Ophrah Israel should in vaine hope to preuaile It is most iust with God that iudgement should continue with the sinne and no lesse mercy if it may remoue after it Wouldst thou faine be rid of any iudgement Inquire what false Altars and groues thou hast in thy heart downe with them first First must Baals Altar bee ruined ere Gods be built both may not stand together The true God will haue no society with Idols neither will allow it vs. I doe not heare him say That Altar and groue which were abused to Baal consecrate now to me but as one whose holy ielousie will abide no worship till there be no idolatry he first commands downe the monuments of superstition and then inioynes his owne seruice yet the wood of Baals groue must be vsed to burne a sacrifice vnto God When it was once cut downe Gods detestation and their danger ceased The good creatures of God that haue been profaned to Idolatry may in a change of their vse be imployed to the holy seruice of their Maker Though some Israelites were penitent vnder this humiliation yet still many of them persisted in their wonted Idolatry The very houshold of Gideons father were still Baalites and his neighbours of Ophrah were in the same sinne yea if his father had been free what did he with Baals groue and Altar He dares not therefore take his fathers seruants though hee tooke his bullocks but commands his owne The Master is best seen in the seruants Gideons seruants amongst the idolatrous retinue of Ioash are religious like their Master yet the misdeuotion of Ioash and the Ophrathites was not obstinate Ioash is easily perswaded by his sonne and easily perswades his neighbours how vnreasonable it is to plead for such a god as cannot speake for himselfe to reuenge his cause that could not defend himselfe Let Baal plead for himselfe One example of a resolute on set in a noted person may doe more good then a thousand seconds in the proceeding of an action Soone are all the Midianites in an vprore to lose their god They need not now bee biâ—den to muster themselues for reuenge He hath no Religion that can suffer an indignity offered to his God GIDEONS Preparation and victory OF all the instruments that God vsed in so great a worke I finde none so weake as Gideon who yet of all others was stiled valiant naturall valour may well stand with spirituall cowardise Before he knew that he spake with a God he might haue iust colours for his distrust but after God had approued his presence and almighty power by fetching fire out of the stone then to call for a watery signe of his promised deliuerance was no other then to powre water vpon the fire of the Spirit The former tryal God gaue vnwished this vpon Gideons choice and intreaty The former miracle was strong enough to carry Gideon thorow his first exploit of ruinating the idolatrous groue and Alter but now when he saw the swarme of the Midianites and Amalekites about his ears he calls for new ayde and not trusting to his Abiezrites and his other thousand of Israel hee runnes to God for a further assurance of victory The refuge was good but the manner of seeking it sauours of distrust There is nothing more easie then to be valiant when no perill appeareth but when euils assaile vs vpon vnequall tearmes it is hard and commendable Not to be dismayed If God had made that proclamation now which afterwards was commanded to be made by Gideon Let the timerous depart I doubt whether Israel had not wanted a Guide yet how willing is the Almighty to satisfie our weake desires What taskes is He content to be set by our infirmity The fleece must be wet and the ground dry the ground must be wet and the fleece dry Both are done that now Gideon may see whether he would make himselfe hard earth or yeelding wooll God could at pleasure distinguish betwixt him and the Midianites and powre downe either mercies or iudgement where he lists and that he was set on worke by that God which can command all the Elements and they obey him Fire Water Earth serue both him and when he will his And now when Gideon had this reciprocall proofe of his insuing successe he goes on as he well may harnessed with resolution and is seen in the head of his troupes and in the face of the Midianites If we cannot make vp the match with God when we haue our owne asking we are worthy to sit out Gideon had but thirty thousand souldiers at his heeles the Midianites couered all the valley like Grashoppers and now whiles the Israelites thinke We are too few God sayes The people are too many If the Israelites must haue looked for victory from their fingers they might well haue said The Midianites are too many for vs but that God whose thoughts and words are vnlike to mens sayes They are too many for me to giue the Midianites into their hands If humane strength were to be opposed there should haue needed an equality but now God meant to giue the victory his care is not how to get it but how to lose or blemish the glory of it gotten How iealous God is of his honour Hee is willing to giue deliuerance to Israel but the praise of the deliuerance he will keepe to himselfe and will shorten the meanes that he may haue the full measure of the glory And if he will not allow lawfull meanes to stand in the light of his honour how will
Elkanah haue wished Peninna barren and Anna fruitfull but if she should haue had both issue and loue she had bin proud and her riuall despised God knowes how to disperse his fauours so that euery one may haue cause both of thankfulnesse and humiliation whiles there is no one that hath all no one but hath some If enuy and contempt were not thus equally tempered some would be ouer hauty and others too miserable But now euery man sees that in himself which is worthy of contempt matter of emulation in others and contrarily sees what to pitty and dislike in the most eminent and what to applaud in himselfe and out of this contrariety arises a sweete meane of contentation The loue of Elkanah is so vnable to free Anna from the wrongs of her riuall that it procures them rather The vnfruitfulnesse of Anna had neuer with so much despight been laid in her dish if her husbands heart had been as barren of loue to her Enuy though it take aduantage of our weaknesses yet is euer raised vpon some grounds of happinesse in them whom it emulates it is euer an ill effect of a good cause If Abels sacrifice had not been accepted and if the acceptation of his sacrifice had not beene a blessing no enuy had followed vpon it There is no euill of another wherein it is fit to reioyce but his enuy and this is worthy of our ioy and thankfulnesse because it shewes vs the price of that good which we had and valued not The malignity of enuy is thus well answered when it is made the euill cause of a good effect to vs when God and our soules may gaine by anothers sin I doe not finde that Anna insulted vpon Peninna for the greater measure of her husbands loue as Peninna did vpon her for her fruitlesnesse Those that are truely gracious know how to receiue the blessings of God without contempt of them that want and haue learned to be thankfull without ouerlinesse Enuy when it is once conceiued in a malicious heart is like fire in billets of Iuniper which they say continues more yeeres then one Euery yeere was Anna thus vexed with her emulous partner and troubled both in her prayers and meale Amidst all their feastings she fed on nothing but her teares Some dispositions are lesse sensible and more carelesse of the despight and iniuries of others and can turne ouer vnkinde vsages with contempt By how much more tender the heart is so much more deeply is it euer affected with discourtesies As waxe receiues and retaines that impression which in the heard clay cannot be seene or as the eye feeles that more which the skin of the eye-lid could not complaine of Yet the husband of Anna as one that knew his duty labours by his loue to comfort her against these discontentments Why weepest thou Am not I better to thee then ten sonnes It is the weakenesse of good natures to giue so much aduantage to an enemy what would malice rather haue then the vexation of them whom it persecutes We cannot better please an aduersary then by hurting our selues This is no other then to humour enuy to serue the turne of those that maligne vs and to draw on that malice whereof we are weary whereas carlesnesse puts ill will out of countenance and makes it with-draw it selfe in a rage as that which doth but shame the author without the hurt of the patient In causlesse wrongs the best remedy is contempt She that could not finde comfort in the louing perswasions of her husband seekes at in her prayers she rises vp hungry from the feast and hies her to the Temple there she power out hers teares and supplications Whatsoeuer the complaint be here is the remedy There is one vniuersall receit for all euils prayer when all helpes fayle vs this remaines and whiles we haue an heart comforts it Here was not more bitternesse in the soule of Anna then feruency she did not onely weepe and pray but vow vnto God If God will giue her a sonne she will giue her sonne to God backe againe Euen nature it selfe had consecrated her sonne to God for he could not but be borne a Leuite But if his birth make him a Leuite her vow shall make him a Nazarite and dedicate his minority to the Tabernacle The way to obtaine any benefit is to deuote it in our hearts to the glory of that God of whom we aske it By this meanes shall God both pleasure his seruant and honour himselfe whereas if the scope of our desires be carnall we may be sure either to fayle of our suit or of a blessing ELY and ANNA OLd Ely sits on a stoole by one of the posts of the Tabernacle Where should the Priests of God be but in the Temple whether for action or for ouer-sight Their very presence keepes Gods House in order and the presence of God keepes their hearts in order It is oft found that those which are themselues conscionable are too forward to the censuring of others Good Ely because he markes the lips of Anna to moue without noyse chides her as drunken and vncharitably misconstrues her denotion It was a weake ground whereon to build so heauy a sentence If he had spoken too loud and incomposedly he might haue had some iust colour for this conceit but now to accuse her silence notwithstanding all the teares which he saw of drunkennesse it was a zealous breach of charity Some spirit would haue been enraged with so rash a censure When anger meets with griefe both turne into fury But this good woman had been iniured to reproches and besides did well see the reproofe arose from misprision and the misprision from zeale and therefore answers meekely as one that had rather satisfie then expostulate Nay my Lord but I am a woman troubled in spirit Ely may now learne charity of Anna If she had bin in that distemper whereof he accused her his iust reproofe had not bin so easily digested Guiltines is commonly clamorous and impatient whereas innocence is silent and carelesse of mis-resports It is naturall vnto to all men to wipe off from their name all aspersions of euill but none doe it with such violence as they which are faulty It is a signe the horse is galled that stirs too much when he is touched She that was censured for drunken censures drunkennesse more deeply then her reprouet Count not thiâ—e handmaid for a daughter of Belial The drunkards stâ—â—e begins in lawlesnesse proceeds in vnprofitablenesse ends in misery and all shut vp it the denomination of this pedegree A sonne of Belial If Anna had bin tainted with this sin she would haue denied it with more fauour and haue disclaimed it with an externiation What if I should haue bin merry with wine yet I might be deuout If I should haue ouerioyed in my sacrifice to God one cup of excesse had not bin so hainous now her freedome is seene in her seuerity Those which
crueltie FJNIS Contemplations VPON THE PRINCIPALL PASSAGES OF THE Holy Storie The fourth Volume By I. H. D. D. LONDON Printed for THO PAVIER MILES FLESHER and Iohn Haviland 1625. Contemplations THE TWELFTH BOOKE Containing The Arke and Dagon The Arkes reuenge and returne The remoue of the Arke The meeting of SAVL and SAMVEL The Jnauguration of SAVL SAMVELS contestation SAVLS sacrifice IONATHANS victorie and SAVLS oath BY IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE MY SINGVLAR GOOD LORD the Lord Hay Baron of Saley One of his Maiesties most honourable Priuy Councell RIGHT HONORABLE VPon how iust reason these my Contemplations goe forth so late after their Fellowes it were needlesse to giue account to your Lordship in whose traine I had the honour since my last to passe both the Sea and the Twede All my priuate studies haue gladly vailed to the publike seruices of my Soueraigne Master No sooner could I recouer the happinesse of my quiet thoughts then J renued this my diuine taske Wherein J cannot but professe to place so much contentment as that J wish not any other measure of my life then it What is this other then the exaltation of ISAACS delight to walke forth into the pleasant fields of the Scriptures and to meditate of nothing vnder heauen Yea what other then IACOBS sweet vision of Angels climbing vp and downe that sacred Ladder which God hath set betweene heauen and earth Yea to rise yet higher what other then an imitation of holy Moyses in his conuersing with God himselfe on the Horeb of both Testaments And if J may call your Lo. forth a little from your great affaires of Court and State to blesse your eyes with this prospect how happy shall you confesse this change of obiects and how vnwillingly shall you obtaine leaue of your thoughts to returne vnto these sublunary imployments Our last Discourse left Gods Arke amongst the Philistims now we returne to see what it doth there and to fetch it thence Wherein your Lo. shall find the reuenges of God neuer so deadly as when he giues most way vnto men The vaine confidence of wickednesse ending in a late repentance The fearfull plagues of a presumptuous sawcinesse with God not preuented with the honesty of good intentions The mercy of God accepting the seruices of an humble faithfulnesse in a meaner dresse From thence you shall see the dangerous issue of an affected innouation although to the better The errors of credulitie and blind affection in the holiest Gouernours guilty of the peoples discontentment The stubborne headdinesse of a multitude that once finds the reynes slacke in their necks not capable of any pause but their owne fall The vntrusty promises of a faire outside and a plausible entrance shutting vp in a wofull disappointment What doe J forestall a Discourse so full of choice your Lo. shall finde euery line vsefull and shall willingly confesse that the Story of God can make a man not lesse wise then good Mine humble thankfulnesse knowes not how to expresse it selfe otherwise then in these kind of presents and in my heartie prayers for the encrease of your honour and happinesse which shall neuer be wanting from Your Lo. sincerely and thankfully deuoted IOS HALL Contemplations THE TWELFTH BOOKE The Arke and Dagon IF men did not mistake God they could not arise to such height of impiety The acts of his iust iudgement are imputed to impotence that God would send his Arke captiue to the Philistims is so construed by them as if hee could not keepe it the wife of Phinehas cryed out that glory was departed from Israel The Philistims dare say in triumph that glory is departed from the God of Israel The Arke was not Israels but Gods this victory reaches higher then to men Dagon had neuer so great a day so many sacrifices as now that he seemes to take the God of Israel prisoner Where should the captiue be bestowed but in the custody of the victor It is not loue but insultation that lodges the Arke close beside Dagon What a spectacle was this to see vncircumcised Philistims laying their prophane hands vpon the Testimony of Gods presence to see the glorious Mercy-seat vnder the roofe of an idoll to see the two Cherubims spreading their wings vnder a false god Oh the deepe and holy wisedome of the Almighty which ouer-reaches all the finite conceits of his creatures who whiles he seemes most to neglect himselfe fetches about most glory to his owne name He winkes and fits still on purpose to see what men would doe and is content to suffer indignity from his creature for a time that he may be euerlastingly magnified in his iustice and power That honour pleaseth God and men best which is raised out of contempt The Arke of God was not vsed to such Porters The Philistims carie it vnto Ashdod that the victory of Dagon may bee more glorious What paines Superstition puts men vnto for the triumph of a false cause And if prophane Philistims can thinke it no toyle to carrie the Arke where they should not what a shame is it for vs if wee doe not gladly attend it where we should How iustly may Gods truth scorne the imparitie of our zeale If the Israelites did put confidence in the Arke can wee maruell that the Philistims did put confidence in that power which as they thought had conquered the Arke The lesse is euer subiect vnto the greater What could they now thinke but that heauen and earth were theirs Who shall stand out against them when the God of Israel hath yeelded Security and presumption attend euer at the threshold of ruine God will let them sleepe in this confidence in the morning they shall fine how vainly they haue dreamed Now they begin to find they haue but gloried in their owne plague and ouerthrowne nothing but their owne peace Dagon hath an house when God hath but a Tabernacle It is no measuring of Religion by outward glory Into this house the proud Philistims come the next morning to congratulate vnto their god so great a captiue such diuine spoiles and in their early deuotions to fall downe before him vnder whom the God of Israel was fallen and loe where they find their god fallen downe on the ground vpon his face before him whom they thought both his prisoner and theirs Their god is forced to doe that which they should haue done voluntarily although God casts downe that dumbe riuall of his for scorne not for adoration Oh ye foolish Philistims could ye thinke that the same house will hold God and Dagon could ye thinke a senselesse stone a fit companion and guardian for the liuing God Had ye laid your Dagon vpon his face prostrate before the Arke yet would not God haue endured the indignity of such a lodging but now that ye presume to set vp your carued stone equall to his Cherubins goe reade your folly in the floore of your Temple and know
prouision and who amongst all the rest of his seuen sonnes shall be pickt out for this seruice but his yongest sonne Dauid whose former and almost worne-out acquaintance in Court and imployment vnder Saul seemed to fit him best for this errand Earely in the morning is Dauid vpon his way yet not so early as to leaue his flocke vnprouided If his fathers cōmand dismisse him yet will he stay till he haue trusted his sheepe with a carefull keeper we cannot be faithfull shepherds if our spirituall charge be lesse deare vnto vs if when necessitie cals vs from our flocks we depute not those which are vigilant and conscionable Ere Dauids speede can bring him to the valley of Elah both the Armies are on foot ready to ioyne Hee takes not this excuse to stay without as a man danted with the horror of warre but leauing his present with his seruant he thrusts himselfe into the thickest of the host and salutes his brethren which were now thinking of nothing but killing or dying when the proud champion of the Philistims comes stalking forth before all the troupes and renewes his insolent challenge against Israel Dauid sees the man and heares his defiance and lookes about him to see what answer would be giuen and when he espies nothing but pale faces backs turned he wonders not so much that one man should dare all Israel as that all Israel should run from one man Euen when they flie from Goliah they talke of the reward that should be giuen to that encounter and victorie which they dare not vndertake so those which haue not grace to beleeue yet can say There is glory laid vp for the faithfull Euer since his anointing was Dauid possessed with Gods Spirit and thereby filled both with courage and wisdome The more strange doth it seeme to him that all Israel should be thus dastardly Those that are themselues eminent in any grace cannot but wonder at the miserable defects of others and the more shame they see in others imperfections the more is their zeale in auoyding those errors in themselues Whiles base hearts are moued by example the want of example is incouragement enough for an heroicall mind Therefore is Dauid ready to vndertake the quarrell because no man else dare doe it His eyes sparkled with holy anger and his heart rose vp to his mouth when he heard this proud challenger Who is this vncircumcised Philistim that he should reuile the host of the liuing God Euen so O Sauiour when all the generations of men ran away affrighted from the powers of death and darknesse thou alone hast vndertaken and confounded them Who should offer to daunt the holy courage of Dauid but his owne brethren The enuious heart of Eliab construes this forwardnesse as his owne disgrace Shall I thinkes hee bee put downe by this puisne shall my fathers yongest sonne dare to attempt that which my stomach will not serue me to aduenture Now therefore hee rates Dauid for his presumption and in stead of answering to the recompence of the victory which others were ready to giue he recompenceth the very inquirie of Dauid with a checke It was for his brethrens sake that Dauid came thither and yet his very iourney is cast vpon him by them for a reproach Wherefore cam'st thou downe hither and when their bitternesse can meete with nothing else to shame him his sheepe are cast in his teeth Is it for thee an idle proud boy to bee medling with our martiall matters doth not yonder Champion looke as if hee were a fit match for thee what mak'st thou of thy selfe or what dost thou think of vs ywis it were fitter for thee to bee looking to thy sheepe then looking at Goliah the Wildernesse would become thee better then the field◠Wherein art thou equall to any man thou seest but in arrogancy and presumption The pastures of Bethlem could not hold thee but thou thoughtst it a goodly matter to see the warres I know thee as if I were in thy bosome This was thy thought There is no glory to bee got among fleeces I will goe seeke it in armes Now are my brethren winning honour in the troupes of Israel whiles I am basely tending on sheepe why should not I be as forward as the best of them This vanitie would make thee straight of a shepherd a souldier and of a souldier a champion get thee home foolish stripling to thy hooke and thy harpe let swords and speares alone to those that know how to vse them It is quarrell enough amongst many to a good action that it is not their owne there is no enemy so ready or so spightfull as the domesticall The hatred of brethren is so much more as their blood is neerer The malice of strangers is simple but of a brother is mixt with enuie The more vnnaturall any quality is the more extreame it is A cold winde from the South is intolerable Dauids first victory is of himselfe next of his brother He ouercomes himselfe in a patient forbearance of his brother he ouercomes the malicious rage of his brother with the mildnesse of his answer If Dauid had wanted spirit hee had not beene troubled with the insultation of a Philistim If he had a spirit to march Goliah how doth hee so calmely receiue the affront of a brother What haue I now done is there not a cause That which would haue stirred the choler of another allayeth his It was a brother that wronged him and that his eldest neither was it time to quarrell with a brother whiles the Philistims swords were drawne and Goliah was challenging O that these two motiues could induce vs to peace If we haue iniurie in our person in our cause it is from brethren and the Philistims looke on I am deceiued if this conquest were lesse glorious then the following He is fit to be Gods Champion that hath learned to be victor of himselfe It is not this sprinkling of cold water that can quench the fire of Dauids zeale but still his courage sends vp flames of desire still he goes on to inquire and to proffer Hee whom the regard of others enuy can dismay shall neuer doe ought worthy of enuy Neuer man vndertooke any exploit of worth and receiued not some discouragement in the way This couragious motion of Dauid was not more scorned by his brother then by the other Israelites applauded The rumour flyes to the eares of the King that there is a yongman desirous to encounter the Gyant Dauid is brought forth Saul when he heard of a Champion that durst goe into the lists with Goliah looked for one as much higher then himselfe as hee was taller then the rest hee expected some sterne face and brawny arme yong and ruddy Dauid is so farre below his thoughts that hee receiues rather contempt then thankes His words were stout his person was weake Saul doth not more like his resolution then distrust his abilitie Thou art not able to goe
thou shalt bee King There is no heart made of flesh that sometime or other relents not euen â—lint and marble will in some weather stand on droppes I cannot thinke these teares and protestations fained Doubtlesse Saul meant as hee said and passed through sensible fittes of good and euill Let no man thinke himselfe the better for good motions the praise and benefite of those Guests is not in the receit but the retention Who that had seene this meeting could but haue thought all had beene sure on Dauids side What can secure vs if not Teares and Praiers and Oathes Doublesse Dauids men which knew themselues obnoxious to Lawes and Creditors beganne to thinke of some new refuge as making account this new peeced league would bee euerlasting they looked when Saul would take Dauid home to the Court and dissolue his Armie and recompence that vniust persecution with iust honour when behold in the loose Saul goes home but Dauid and his men goe vp vnto the hold Wise Dauid knowes Saul not to be more kinde than vntrusty and therefore had rather seeke safety in his hold than in the hold of an hollow and vnsteedie friendship Heere are good words but no securitie which therefore an experienced man giues the hearing but stands the while vpon his owne gard No Charitie bindes vs to a trust of those whom wee haue found faithlesse Crudelitie vpon weake grounds after palpable disappointments is the Daughter of Folly A man that is Weather-wise though hee finde an abatement of the storme yet will not stirre from vnder his shelter whiles hee sees it thicke in the winde Distrust is the iust gaine of vnfaithfulnesse NABAL and ABIGAIL IF innocencie could haue secured from Sauls malice Dauid had not bin persecuted and yet vnder that wicked King aged Samuel dyes in his bed That there might be no place for Enuie the good Prophet had retyred himselfe to the Schooles Yet he that hated Dauid for what hee should be did no lesse hate Samuel for what hee had bin Euen in the midst of Sauls malignitie there remained in his heart impressions of awfulnesse vnto Samuel he feared where he loued not The restraint of God curbeth the rage of his most violent enemies so as they cannot doe their worst As good Husbands doe not put all their Corne to the Ouen but saue some for seede so doth God euer in the worst of persecutions Samuel is dead Dauid banished Saul tyrannizeth Israel hath good cause to mourne it is no maruell if this lamentation be vniuersall There is no Israelite that feeleth not the losse of a Samuel A good Prophet is the common Treasure wherein euery gracious soule hath a share That man hath a dry heart which can part with Gods Prophet without teares Nabal was according to his name foolish yet rich and mighty Earthly possessions are not alwayes accompanied with wit and grace Euen the Line of faithfull Caleb will afford an ill-conditioned Nabal Vertue is not like vnto Lands inheritable All that is traduced with the seede is either euill or not good Let no man bragge with the Iewes that he hath Abram to his father God hath raised vp of this stone a sonne to Caleb Abigail which signifieth her fathers ioy had sorrow enough to be matched with so vnworthy an Husband If her father had meant shee should haue had ioy in herselfe or in her life he had not disposed her to an Husband though rich yet fond and wicked It is like he married her to the wealth not to the man Many a childe is cast away vpon riches Wealth in our matches should be as some graines or scruples in ballance super-added to the gold of vertuous qualities to weigh downe the scales when it is made the substanceÌ„ of the weight and good qualities the appendance there is but one earth poysed with another which wheresoeuer it is done it is a wonder if either the children proue not the Parents sorrow or the Parents theirs Nabals Sheep-shearing was famous Three thousand â—eeces must needes require many hands neither is any thing more plentifull commonly than a Churles Feast What a world was this that the noble Champion and Rescuer of Israel Gods Annointed is driuen to send to a base Carle for victuals It is no measuring of men by the depth of the purse by outward prosperitie Seruants are oft-times set on horse backe whiles Princes goe on foot Our estimation must be led by their inward worth which is not alterable by time nor diminishable with externall conditions One rag of a Dauid is more worth than the Ward-robes of a thousand Nabals Euen the best deseruings may want No man may bee contemned for his necessitie perhaps he may be so much richer in grace as he is poorer in estate neither hath violence or casualtie more impouerished a Dauid than his pouertie hath enriched him He whose folly hath made himselfe miserable is iustly rewarded with neglect but he that suffers for good deserues so much more honour from others as his distresse is more Our compassion or respect must be ruled according to the cause of anothers misery One good turne requires another in some cases not hurting is meritorious Hee that should examine the qualities of Dauids followers must needes grant it worthy of a see that Nabals flockes lay vntouched in Carmel but more that Dauids Souldiers were Nabals Sheepheards yea the keepers of his Sheepheards gaue them a iust interest in that sheep shearing Feast iustly should they haue beene set at the vpper end of the Table That Nabals sheepe were safe hee might thanke his Sheepheards that his Sheepheards were safe he might thanke Dauids Souldiers It is no small benefit that wee receiue in a safe protection well may wee thinke our substance due where wee owe our selues Yet this churlish Nabal doth not onely giue nothing to Dauids Messengers but which is worse than nothing ill words Who is Dauid or Who is the sonne of Ishai There be many seruants now adaies that breake-away from their Masters Dauid asked him bread hee giueth him stones All Israel knew and honoured their Deliuerer yet this Clowne to saue his victuals will needes make him a man either of no merits or ill either an obscure man or a Fugitiue Nothing is more cheape than good words these Nabal might haue giuen and beene neuer the poorer If he had beene resolued to shut his hands in a feare of Sauls reuenge he might haue so tempered his denyall that the repulse might haue beene free from offence But now his foule-mouth doth not onely deny but reuile It should haue bin Nabals glory That his Tribe yeelded such a Successor to the Throne of Israel now in all likelihood his enuie stirs him vp to disgrace that man who surpassed him in honour and vertue more than he was surpassed by him in wealth and ease Many an one speakes faire that meanes ill but when the mouth speakes foule it argues a corrupt heart If with Saint Iames his verball
abasement Heroicall and that the onely way to true glory is not to be ashamed of our lowest humiliation vnto God Well might he promise himselfe honour from those whose contempt she had threatned The hearts of men are not their owne he that made them ouer-rules them and inclines them to an honourable conceit of those that honour their Maker So as holy men haue oft times inward reuerence euen where they haue outward indignities Dauid came to blesse his house Mical brings a curse vpon her selfe Her scornes shall make her childlesse to the day of her death Barrennesse was held in those times none of the least iudgements God doth so reuenge Dauids quarrell vpon Mical that her sudden disgrace shall be recompenced with perpetuall She shall not be held worthy to beare a sonne to him whom she vniustly contemned How iust is it with God to prouide whips for the backe of scorners It is no maruell if those that mocke at goodnesse be plagued with continuall fruitlesnesse MEPHIBOSHETH and ZIBA SO soone as euer Dauid can but breathe himselfe from the publike cares hee casts backe his thoughts to the deare remembrance of his Ionathan Sauls seruant is likely to giue him the best intelligence of Sauls sonnes The question is therefore moued to Ziba Remaineth there yet none of the house of Saul and lest suspition might conceale the remainders of an emulous liue in feare of reuenge intended he addes On whom I may shew the mercy of God for Ionathans sake O friendship worthy of the Monuments of Eternity fit only to requite him whose loue was more than the loue of women Hee doth not say Is there any of the house of Ionathan but of Saul that for his friends sake hee may shew fauour to the Posterity of his Persecutor Ionathans loue could not bee greater than Sauls malice which also suruiued long in his issue from whom Dauid found a busie and stubborne riualitie for the Crowne of Israel yet as one that gladly buried all the hostilitie of Sauls house in Ionathans graue hee askes Is there any man left of Sauls house that I may shew him mercie for Ionathans sake It is true loue that ouerliuing the person of a friend will bee inherited of his seed but to loue the posteritie of an enemie in a friend it is the miracle of friendship The formall amitie of the World is confined to a face or to the possibility of recompence languishing in the disabilitie and dying in the decease of the party affected That loue was euer false that is not euer constant and then most operatiue when it cannot be either knowne or requited To cut off all vnquiet competition for the Kingdome of Israel the prouidence of God had so ordered that there is none left of the house of Saul besides the sonnes of his Concubines saue only young and lame Mephihosheth so young that hee was but fiue yeeres of age when Dauid entred vpon the Gouernment of Israel so lame that if his age had fitted his impotence had made him vnfit for the Throne Mephibosheth was not borne a Cripple it was an heedlesse Nurse that made him so She hearing of the death of Saul and Ionathan made such haste to flee that her young Master was lamed with the fall Yw is there needed no such speed to runne away from Dauid whose loue pursues the hidden sonne of his brother Ionathan How often doth our ignorant mistaking cause vs to runne from our bestfriends and to catch knockes and maimes of them that professe our protection MEPHIBOSHETH could not come otherwise than fearefully into the presence of Dauid whom hee knew so long so spitefully opposed by the house of Saul hee could not bee ignorant that the fashion of the World is to build their owne security vpon the bloud of the opposite faction neither to thinke themselues safe whiles any branch remaines springing out of that root of their emulation Seasonably doth Dauid therefore first expell all those vniust doubts ere hee administer his further cordials Feare not for I will surely shew thee kindnesse for Ionathan thy fathers sake and will restore thee all the fields of Saul thy father and thou shalt eate bread at my table continually Dauid can see neither Sauls bloud nor lame legs in Mephibosheth whiles he sees in him the features of his friend Ionathan how much lesse shall the God of mercies regard our infirmities or the corrupt bloud of our sinfull Progenitors whiles he beholds vs in the face of his Sonne in whom he is well pleased Fauours are wont so much more to affect vs as they are lesse expected by vs Mephibosheth as ouer-ioyed with so comfortable a word and confounded in himselfe at the remembrance of the contrary-deseruings of his Family bowes himselfe to the earth and sayes What is thy seruant that thou shouldst looke vpon such a dead Dog as I am I find no defect of wit though of limmes in Mepihbesheth hee knew himselfe the Grand-childe of the King of Israel the sonne of Ionathan the lawfull heire of both yet in regard of his owne impotencie and the trespasse and reiection of his house hee thus abaseth himselfe vnto Dauid Humiliation is a right vse of Gods affliction What if hee were borne great If the sinne of his Grandfather hath lost his estate and the hand of his Nurse hath deformed and disabled his person hee now forgets what hee was and cals himselfe worse than hee is A Dogge Yet a liuing Dogge is better than a dead Lion there is dignity and comfort in life Mephibosheth is therefore a dead Dogge vnto Dauid It is not for vs to nourish the same spirits in our aduerse estate that wee found in our highest prosperitie What vse haue wee made of Gods hand if wee bee not the lower with ourfall God intends wee should carry our crosse not make a fire of it to warme vs It is no bearing vp our sayles in a tempest Good Dauid cannot dis-esteeme Mephibosheth euer the more for disparaging himselfe hee loues and honours this humilitie in the Sonne of Ionathan There is no more certaine way to glory and aduancement than a lowly deiection of our selues Hee that made himselfe a Dogge and therefore fit onely to lye vnder the table yea a dead Dogge and therefore fit onely for the ditch is raised vp to the table of a King his seat shall bee honourable yea royall his fare delicious his attendance noble How much more will our gracious God lift vp our heads vnto true honour before men and Angels if wee can bee sincerely humbled in his sight If wee miscall our selues in the meanenesse of our conceits to him hee giues vs a new name and sets vs at the Table of his glorie It is contrary with GOD and men if they reckon of vs as wee set our selues hee values vs according to our abasements Like a Prince truely munificent and faithfull Dauid promises and performes at once Ziba Sauls seruant hath the charge giuen him of
disdainefull haluing of his haire and Robes in the person of his deputies The name of Embassadours hath beene euer sacred and by the vniuersall Law of Nations hath caried in it sufficient protection from all publike wrongs neither hath it euer beene violated without a reuenge Oh God what shall wee say to those notorious contempts which are dayly cast vpon thy spirituall Messengers Is it possible thou shouldst not feele them thou shouldst not auenge them Wee are made a gasing stocke to the World to Angels and to men we are despised and trodden downe in the dust Who hath beleeued our report and to whom is the Arme of the Lord reuealed How obstinate are wicked men in their peruerse resolutions These foolish Ammonites had rather hire Syrians to maintaine a Warre against Israel in so foule a quarrell besides the hazard of their owne liues than confesse the errour of their iealous misconstruction It is one of the mad principles of wickednesse that it is a weaknesse to relent and rather to Die than yeeld Euen ill causes once vndertaken must be vpheld although with bloud whereas the gracious heart finding his owne mistaking doth not onely remit of an vngrounded displeasure but studies to be reuenged of it selfe and to giue satisfaction to the offended The mercenarie Syrians are drawne to venture their liues for a fee twentie thousand of them are hired into the field against Israel Fond Pagans that know not the value of a man their bloud cost them nothing they care not to sell it good cheape How can we thinke those men haue Soules that esteeme a little white earth aboue themselues That neuer inquire into the Iustice of the quarrell but the rate of the pay that can rifle for drammes of siluer in the bowels of their owne flesh and either kill or die for a dayes wages Ioab the wise Generall of Israel soone finds where the stength of the battle lay and so marshals his troupes that the choice of his men shall encounter the vantgard of the Syrians His brother Abishai leades the rest against the children of Ammon with this couenant of mutuall assistance If the Syrians be too strong for me then thou shalt helpe mee but if the children of AMMON bee too strong for thee then will I come and helpe thee It is an happy thing when the Captaines of Gods people ioyne together as brethren and lend their hand to the aide of each other against the common aduersary Concord in defence or assault is the way to victorie as contrarily the diuision of the Leaders is the ouerthrow of the Armie Set aside some particular actions Ioab was a worthy Captaine both for wisdome and valour Who could either exhort or resolue better than hee Bee of good courage and let vs play the men for our people and for the Cities of our God and the Lord doe that which seemeth him good It is not either priuate glory or profit that whets his fortitude but the respect to the cause of God and his people That Souldier can neuer answere it to God that strikes not more as a Iusticer than as an enemie Neither doth he content himselfe with his owne courage but hee animates others The tongue of a Commander fights more than his hand it is enough for priuate men to exercise what life and limmes they haue a good Leader must out of his owne abundance put life and spirits into all others If a Lyon leade sheepe into the field there is hope of victorie Lastly when he hath done his best hee resolues to depend vpon God for the issue not trusting to his sword or his bow but to the prouidence of the Almightie for successe as a man religiously awfull and awfully confident whiles there should be no want in their owne indeauours he knew well that the race was not to the swift nor the battle to the strong therefore hee lookes vp aboue the hils whence commeth his saluation All valour is cowardise to that which is built vpon Religion I maruell not to see Ioab victorious while hee is thus godly The Syrians flee before him like flockes of sheepe the Ammonites follow them The two sonnes of Zeruiah haue nothing to doe but to pursue and execute The throates of the Amonites are cut for cutting the Beards and Coates of the Israelitish messengers Neither doth this reuenge end in the field Rabba the royall Citie of Ammon is strongly beleagured by Ioab The Citie of waters after wel-neere a yeares siege yeeldeth the rest can no longer hold out Now Ioab as one that desireth more to approue himselfe a loyall and carefull subiect than a happy Generall sends to his Master Dauid that he should come personally and encampe against the Citie and take it Lest saith he I take it and it be called after my name Oh noble and imitable fidelitie of a dutifull Seruant that preferres his Lord to himselfe and is so farre from stealing honour from his Masters deserts that he willingly remits of his owne to adde vnto his The Warre was not his hee was only imployed by his Souereigne The same person that was wronged in the Ambassadours reuengeth by his Souldiers The prayse of the act shall like Fountaine Water returne to the Sea whence it Originally came To seeke a mans owne glory is not glory Alas how many are there who being sent to sue for God wooe for themselues Oh God it is a fearefull thing to rob thee of that which is dearest to thee Glory which as thou wilt not giue to any Creature so much lesse wilt thou endure that any Creature should filtch it from thee and giue it to himselfe Haue thou the honour of all our actions who giuest a being to our actions and vs and in both hath most iustly regarded thine owne prayse DAVID with BATHSHEBA and VRIAH WIth what vnwillingnesse with what feare doe I still looke vpon the miscarriage of the man after Gods owne heart O holy Prophet who can promise himselfe alwayes to stand when he sees thee falne and maymed in the fall Who can assure himselfe of an immunitie from the foulest sinnes when hee see thee offending so haynously so bloudily Let prophane eyes behold thee contentedly as a patterne as an excuse of sinning I shall neuer looke at thee but through teares as a wofull spectacle of humane infirmitie Whiles Ioab and all Israel were busie in the Warre against Ammon in the siege of Rabbah Satan findes time to lay siege to the secure heart of Dauid Who euer found Dauid thus tempted thus foyled in the dayes of his buzie Warres Now only doe I see the King of Israel rising from his bed in the euening The time was when he rose vp in the morning to his early deuotions when he brake his nightly rest with publike cares with the businesse of State all that while he was innocent he was holy but now that he wallowes in the bed of idlenesse hee is fit to inuite a tentation The industrious man hath
to other ends than their owne This Edict went not so much out from Augustus as from the Court of Heauen What did Caesar know Ioseph and Mary His charge was vniuersall to a world of subiects through all the Roman Empire God intended this Cension onely for the blessed Virgin and her Sonne that Christ might bee borne where he should Caesar meant to fill his Coffers God meant to fulfill his Prophesies and so to fulfill them that those whom it concerned might not feele the accomplishment If God had directly commanded the Virgin to goe vp to Bethleem shee had seene the intention and exspected the issue but that wise Moderatour of all things that workes his will in vs loues so to doe it as may be least with our foresight and acquaintance and would haue vs fall vnder his Decrees vnawares that we may so much the more adore the depths of his Prouidence Euery Creature walkes blind-fold onely he that dwels in light sees whither they goe DOVBTLES blessed Mary meant to haue beene deliuered of her diuine burden at home and little thought of changing the place of Conception for another of her Birth That house was honored by the Angell yea by the ouer-shaddowing of the Holy Ghost none could equally satisfie her hopes or desires It was fit that hee which made choice of the Wombe wherein his Sonne should bee conceiued should make choice of the place where his Sonne should bee borne As the worke is all his so will he alone contriue all the circumstances to his owne ends O the infinite Wisdome of God in casting all his Designes There needes no other proofe of Christ than Caesar and Bethleem and of Caesars than Augustus his Gouernment his Edict pleades the truth of the Messias His Gouernment now was the deepe peace of all the World vnder that quiet Scepter which made way for him who was the Prince of Peace If Wars be a signe of the time of his second comming Peace was a signe of his first His Edict now was the Scepter departed from Iuda It was the time for Shilo to come No power was left in the Iewes but to obey Augustus is the Emperor of the World vnder him Herod is the King of Iudea Cyrenius is President of Syria Iurie hath nothing of her owne For Herod if he were a King yet hee was no Iew and if hee had bin a Iew yet he was no otherwise a King than tributary and titular The Edict came out from Augustus was executed by Cyrenius Herod is no actor in this seruice Gaine and glory are the ends of this taxation each man profest himselfe a subiect and payd for the priuiledge of his seruitude Now their very heads were not their owne but must bee payed for to the head of a forreine State They which before stood vpon the termes of their immunitie stoop at the last The proud suggestions of Iudas the Galilean might shed their bloud and swell their stomacks but could not case their yoke neither was it the meaning of God that holinesse if they had bin as they pretended should shelter them from subiection A Tribute is imposed vpon Gods free people This act of bondage brings them libertie Now when they seemed most neglected of God they are blessed with a Redeemer when they are most pressed with forreine Souereignty God sends them a King of their owne to whom Caesar himselfe must bee a subiect The goodnes of our God picks out the most needfull times of our reliefe and comfort Our extremities giue him the most glory Whither must Ioseph Mary come to be taxed but vnto Bethleē Dauids Citie The very place proues their descent Hee that succeeded Dauid in his Throne must succeed him in the place of his Birth so cleerly was Bethleem designed to this honour by the Prophets that euen the Priests and the Scribes could point Herod vnto it and assured him the King of the Iewes could bee no where else borne Bethleem iustly the house of bread the bread that came downe from Heauen is there giuen to the World whence should wee haue the bread of life but from the house of bread O holy Dauid was this the Well of Bethleem whereof thou didst so thirst to drinke of old when thou saydst O that one would giue me drinke of the water of the Well of Bethleem Surely that other water when it was brought thee by thy Worthies thou powredst it on the ground and wouldst not drinke of it This was that liuing Water for which thy soule longed whereof thou saidst else-where As the Hart brayeth after the water-brooks so longeth my soule after thee O God My soule thirsteth for God for the liuing God It was no lesse than foure daies iourney from Nazareth to Bethleem How iust an excuse might the blessed Virgin haue pleaded for her absence What woman did euer vndertake such a iournie so neerelier deliuery and doubtlesse Ioseph which was now taught of God to loue and honour her was loth to draw forth a deare Wife in so vnweildy a case into so manifest hazard But the charge was peremptory the obedience exemplary The desire of an inoffensiue obseruance euen of Heathenish authority disgests all difficulties Wee may not take easie occasions to withdraw our obedience to supreme commands yea how didst thou O Sauiour by whom Augustus reigned in the wombe of thy Mother yeeld this homage to Augustus The first lesson that euer thy example taught vs was obedience After many steps are Ioseph and Mary come to Bethleem The plight wherein she was would not allow any speed and the forced leisure of the iournie causeth disappointment the end was worse than the way there was no rest in the way there was no roome in the Inne It could not bee but that there were many of the kindred of Ioseph and Mary at that time in Bethleem For both there were their Ancestours borne if not themselues and thither came vp all the Cousins of their bloud yet there and then doth the holy Virgin want roome to lay either her head or her burthen If the house of Dauid had not lost all mercy good nature a Daughter of Dauid could not so neere the time of her trauell haue bin destitute of lodging in the City of Dauid Little did the Bethleemites thinke what a guest they refused Else they would gladly haue opened their doores to him which was able to open the gates of heauen to them Now their in hospitality is punishment enough to it selfe They haue lost the honour and happinesse of being host to their God Euen still O blessed Sauiour thou standest at our doores and knockest Euery motion of thy good Spirit tells vs thou art there Now thou commest in thy owne name and there thou standest whiles thy head is full of dew and thy lockes wet with the drops of the night If we suffer carnall desires and worldly thoughts to take vp the lodging of our heart and reuell within vs whiles thou waytest vpon our
resistance If wee were not in a way to doe good we should finde no rubs Satan hath no cause to molest his owne and that whiles they goe about his owne seruice He desires nothing more than to make vs smooth paths to sinne but when we would turne our feet to holinesse he blocks vp the way with tentations Who can wonder enough at the sawcinesse of that bold spirit that dares to set vpon the Sonne of the euerliuing God who can wonder enough at thy meeknesse and patience O Sauiour that wouldst be tempted He wanted not malice and presumption to assault thee thou wantedst not humility to endure those assaults I should stand amazed at this voluntary dispensation of thine but that I see the susception of our humane nature laies thee open to this condition It is necessarily incident to manhood to be liable to tentations Thou wouldest not haue put on flesh if thou hadst meant vtterly to put off this consequence of our infirmity If the state of innocence could haue beene any defence against euill motions the first Adam had not beene tempted much lesse the second It is not the presenting of tentations that can hurt vs but their entertainment Ill counsell is the fault of the Giuer not of the Refuser We cannot forbid lewd eyes to looke in at our windowes we may shut our doores against their entrance It is no lesse our praise to haue resisted than Satans blame to suggest euill Yea O blessed Sauiour how glorious was it for thee how happy for vs that thou were tempted Had not Satan tempted thee how shouldest thou haue ouercome Without blowes there can be no victory no triumph How had thy power beene manifested if no aduersary had tried thee The first Adam was tempted and vanquished the second Adam to repay and repaire that foile doth vanquish in being tempted Now haue we not a Sauiour and High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but such an one as was in all things tempted in like sort yet without sinne how boldly therefore may we goe vnto the Throne of grace that we may receiue mercy and finde grace of helpe in time of need Yea this Duell was for vs Now we see by this conflict of our Almighty Champion what manner of Aduersary we haue how he fights how he is resisted how ouercomne Now our very temptation affords vs comfort in that we see the dearer we are vnto God the more obnoxious we are to this triall neither can we be discouraged by the hainousnesse of those euils whereto wee are moued since wee see the Sonne of God solicited to infidelity couetousnesse idolatry How glorious therefore was it for thee O Sauiour how happy for vs that thou were tempted Where then wast thou tempted O blessed Iesu or whither wentest thou to meet with our great aduersary I doe not see thee led into the market-place or any other part of the city or thy home-sted of Nazareth but into the vast wildernesse the habitation of beasts a place that carrieth in it both horror and opportunity why wouldst thou thus retire thy selfe from men but as confident Champions are wont to giue aduantage of ground or weapon to their Antagonist that the glory of their victory may be the greater So wouldest thou O Sauiour in this conflict with our common enemy yeeld him his owne termes for circumstances that thine honour and his foile may be the more Solitarinesse is no small helpe to the speed of a tentation Woe to him that is alone for if he fall there is not a second to lift him vp Those that out of an affectation of holinesse seeke for solitude in rocks and caues of the deserts doe no other than run into the mouth of the danger of tentation whiles they thinke to auoid it It was enough for thee to whose diuine power the gates of hell were weaknesse thus to challenge the Prince of darknesse Our care must be alwaies to eschew all occasions of spirituall danger and what we may to get vs out of the reach of tentations But O the depth of the Wisdome of God! How camest thou O Sauiour to be thus tempted That Spirit whereby thou wast conceiued as man and which was one with thee and the Father as God led thee into the wildernesse to bee tempted of Satan Whiles thou taughtest vs to pray to thy Father Leade vs not temptation thou meantest to instruct vs that if the same Spirit led vs not into this perilous way we goe not into it Wee haue still the same conduct Let the path bee what it will how can wee miscarry in the hand of a Father Now may wee say to Satan as thou didst vnto Pilate Thou couldst haue no power ouer me except it were giuen thee from aboue The Spirit led thee it did not driue thee here was a sweet inuitation no compulsion of violence So absolutely conformable was thy will to thy Deity as if both thy natures had but one volition In this first draught of thy bitter potion thy soule said in a reall subiection Not may will but thy will be done We imitate thee O Sauiour though we cannot reach to thee All thine are led by thy Spirit Oh teach vs to forget that we haue wils of our owne The Spirit led thee thine inuincibie strength did not animate thee into this combat vncalled What do we weaklings so far presume vpon our abilities or successe as that we dare thrust our selues vpon temptations vnbidden vnwarranted Who can pitty the shipwracke of those Marriners which will needes put forth and hoise sailes in a tempest Forty dayes did our Sauiour spend in the wildernesse fasting and solitary all which time was worne out in temptation how euer the last brunt because it was most violent is onely expressed Now could not the aduersary complaine of disaduantage whiles he had the full scope both of time and place to doe his worst And why did it please thee O Sauiour to fast forty dayes and forty nights vnlesse as Moses fasted forty dayes at the deliuery of the Law and Elias at the restitution of the Law So thou thoughtest fit at the accomplishment of the Law and the promulgation of the Gospel to fulfil the time of both these Types of thine Wherein thou intendest our wonder not our imitation Not our imitation of the time though of the act Here were no faulty desires of the flesh in thee to be tamed no possibility of a freer more easie assent of the soule to God that could bee affected of thee who wast perfectly vnited vnto God but as for vs thou wouldst suffer death so for vs thou wouldst suffer hunger that we might learne by fasting to prepare our selues for tentations In fasting so long thou intendest the manifestation of thy power in fasting no longer the truth of thy man-hood Moses Elias through the miraculous sustentation of God fasted so long without any question made of the truth of their bodies So long
was wine enough for a meale though not for a feast and if there were not wine enough there was enough water yet the holy Virgin complaines of the want of wine and is troubled with the very lacke of superfluitie The bountie of our God reaches not to our life onely but to our contentment neither hath hee thought good to allow vs onely the bread of sufficiency but sometimes of pleasure One while that is but necessary which some other time were superfluous It is a scrupulous iniustice to scant our selues where God hath beene liberall To whom should wee complaine of any want but to the Maker and Giuer of all things The blessed Virgin knew to whom shee sued Shee had good reason to know the diuine nature and power of her Sonne Perhaps the Bride-groome was not so needy but if not by his purse yet by his credit hee might haue supplied that want or it were hard if some of the neighbour-ghests had they beene duely sollicited might not haue furnished him with so much wine as might suffice for the last seruice of a dinner but blessed Mary knew a nearer way shee did not thinke best to lade at the shallow Channell but runnes rather to the Well-head where shee may dip and fill the Firkins at once with ease It may bee shee saw that the trayne of Christ which vnbidden followed vnto that feast and vnexspectedly added to the number of the ghests might helpe forward that defect and therefore shee iustly sollicites her Sonne IESVS for a supply Whether wee want Bread or Water or Wine necessaries or comforts whither should wee runne O Sauiour but to that infinite munificence of thine which neither denyeth nor vpbraideth any thing Wee cannot want wee cannot abound but from thee Giue vs what thou wilt so thou giue vs contentment with what thou giuest But what is this I heare A sharpe answer to the suite of a Mother Oh woman what haue I to doe with thee He whose sweet mildnesse and mercy neuer sent away any suppliant discontented doth he onely frowne vpon her that bare him He that commands vs to honour Father and Mother doth he disdayne her whose flesh hee tooke God forbid Loue and duetie doth not exempt Parents from due admonition Shee sollicited Christ as a Mother he answers her as a Woman If shee were the Mother of his flesh his Deitie was eternall Shee might not so remember her selfe to be a Mother that shee should forget she was a Woman nor so looke vpon him as a Sonne that shee should not regard him as a God He was so obedient to her as a Mother that withall she must obey him as her God That part which he tooke from her shall obserue her Shee must obserue that Nature which came from aboue and made her both a Woman and a Mother Matter of miracle concerned the Godhead onely Supernaturall things were aboue the sphere of fleshly relation If now the blessed Virgin will be prescribing either time or forme vnto diuine acts O Woman What haue I to doe with thee my houre is not come In all bodily actions his stile was O Mother In spirituall and heauenly O Woman Neither is it for vs in the holy affaires of God to know any faces yea if we haue known Christ heretofore according to the flesh henceforth know wee him so no more O blessed Virgin if in that heauenly glory wherein thou art thou canst take notice of these earthly things with what indignation doest thou looke vpon the presumptuous superstition of vaine men whose suites make thee more than a Solicitor of diuine fauours Thine humanities is not lost in thy Motherhood nor in thy Glory The respects of Nature reach not so high as heauen It is farre from thee to abide that honour which is stolne from thy Redeemer There is a marriage whereto wee are inuited yea wherein wee are already interessed not as the Ghests onely but as the Bride in which there shall bee no want of the wine of gladnesse It is maruell if in these earthly banquets there bee not some lacke In thy presence O Sauiour there is fulnesse of ioy and at thy right hand are pleasures for euermore Blessed are they that are called to the marriage-supper of the Lambe Euen in that rough answer doth the blessed Virgin discry cause of hope If his houre were not yet come it was therefore comming when the expectation of the ghests and the necessitie of the occasion had made fit roome for the miracle it shall come forth and challenge their wonder Faithfully therefore and obseruantly doth shee turne her speech from her Sonne to the Wayters Whatsoeuer hee saith vnto you doe it How well doth it beseeme the Mother of Christ to agree with his Father in heauen whose voice from heauen said This is my well beloued Sonne heare him Shee that said of her selfe Be it vnto me according to thy Word saies vnto others Whatsoeuer be saith to you doe it This is the way to haue miracles wrought in vs obedience to his Word The power of Christ did not stand vpon their officiousnesse hee could haue wrought wonders in spite of them but their peruerse refusall of his commands might haue made them vncapable of the fauour of a miraculous action He that can when he will conuince the obstinate will not grace the disobedient Hee that could worke without vs or against vs will not worke for vs but by vs. This very poore house was furnished with many and large vessels for outward purication As if sinne had dwelt vpon the skin that superstitious people sought holinesse in frequent washings Euen this rinsing fouled them with the vncleanenesse of a traditionall will-worship It is the soule which needs scowring and nothing can wash that but the bloud which they desperately wished vpon themselues and their children for guilt not for expiation Purge thou vs O Lord with hyssop and we shall be cleane wash vs and we shall be whiter than snow The Wayters could not but thinke strange of so vnseasonable a command Fill the water pots It is wine that we want what doe we goe to fetch water Doth this holy man meane thus to quench our feast and coole our stomachs If there bee no remedie we could haue sought this supply vnbidden yet so farre hath the charge of Christs Mother preuailed that in stead of carrying flagons of wine to the table they goe to fetch pailes-full of water from the Cisternes It is no pleading of vnlikelyhoods against the command of an Almightie power Hee that could haue created wine immediately in those vessels will rather turne water into wine In all the course of his miracles I doe neuer finde him making ought of nothing all his great workes are grounded vpon former existences hee multiplied the bread he changed the water he restored the withered limmes he raysed the dead and still wrought vpon that which was and did not make that which was not What doth he in the ordinarie way of
sinnes to informe our brethren How rife is this Dumbe Deuill euerywhere whiles hee stops the mouthes of Christians from these vsefull and necessarie duties For what end hath man those two priuiledges aboue his fellow creatures Reason and Speech but that as by the one he may conceiue of the great workes of his Maker which the rest cannot so by the other hee may expresse what hee conceiues to the honor of the Creator both of them and himselfe And why are all other creatures said to praise God and bidden to praise him but because they doe it by the apprehension by the expression of man If the heauens declare the glory of God how doe they it but to the eies and by the tongue of that man for whom they were made It is no small honor whereof the enuious spirit shall rob his Maker if he 〈◊〉 close vp the mouth of his onely rationall and vocall creature and turne the best of his workemanship into a dumbe Idoll that hath a mouth and speakes not Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Praise is not more necessary then complaint praise of God then complaint of ourselues whether to God or men The onely amends we can make to God what we haue not had the grace to auoid sinne is to confesse the sinne wee haue not auoided This is the sponge that wipes out all the blots and blurs of our liues If wee confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and iust to forgiue vs our sins and to cleanse vs from all vnrighteousnesse That cunning man-slayer knowes there is no way to purge the sicke soule but vpward by casting out the vicious humor wherewith it is clogged and therefore holds the lips close that the heart may not dis-burden it selfe by so wholesome euacuation When I kept silence my bones consumed For day and night thy band O Lord was heauy vpon me my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer O let me confesse against my selfe my wickednesse vnto thee that thou maist forgiue the punishment of my sinne We haue a tongue for God when wee praise him for our selues when wee pray and confesse for our brethren when we speake the truth for their information which if we hold backe in vnrighteousnesse we yeeld vnto that dumbe Deuill where doe we not see that accursed spirit Hee is on the Bench when the mute or partiall Iudge speakes not for truth and innocence He is in the pulpit when the Prophets of God smother or halue or adulterate the message of their master Hee is at the barre when irreligious Iurors dare lend an oath to feare to hope to gaine Hee is in the market when godlesse chapmen for their peny sell the truth and their soule He is in the common conuersation of men when the tongue belies the heart flatters the guilty balketh reproofes euen in the foulest crimes O thou who only art stronger then that strong one cast him out of the hearts and mouthes of men It is time for thee Lord to worke for they haue destroyed thy Law That it might well appeare this impediment was not naturall so soone as the man is freed from the spirit his tongue is free to his speech The effects of spirits as they are wrought so they cease at once If the Sonne of God doe but remoue our spirituall possession we shall presently breake forth into the praise of God into the confession of our vilenesse into the profession of truth But what strange variety do I see in the spectators of this miracle some wondring others censuring a third sort tempting a fourth applauding There was neuer man or action but was subiect to variety of constructions What man could bee so holy as he that was God What act could bee more worthy then the dispossession of an euill spirit yet this man this act passeth these differences of interpretation What can we doe to vndergoe but one opinion If we giue almes and fast some will magnifie our charity and deuotion others will taxe our hypocrisie If wee giue not some will condemne our hard-heartednesse others will allow our care of iustice if wee preach plainly to some it will sauour of a carelesse slubbering to others of a mortified sincerity Elaborately some will tax our affectation others will applaud our diligence in dressing the delicate viands of God What maruell is it if it bee thus with our imperfection when it fared not otherwise with him that was purity and righteousnesse it selfe The austere fore-runner of Christ came neither eating nor drinking they say He hath a Deuill The sonne of man came eating and drinking they say This man is a glutton a friend of Publicans and sinners and here one of his holy acts caries away at once wonder censure doubt celebration There is no way safe for a man but to square his actions by the right rule of iustice of charitie and then let the world haue leaue to spend their glosses at pleasure It was an heroicall resolution of the chosen vessell I passe very little to be iudged of you or of mans day I maruell not if the people maruelled for here were foure wonders in one The blinde saw the deafe heard the dumbe spake the demoniacke is deliuered Wonder was due to so rare and powerfull a worke and if not this nothing We can cast away admiration vpon the poore deuices or actiuities of men how much more vpon the extraordinary workes of omnipotency Who so knowes the frame of Heauen and earth shall not much be affected with the imperfect effects of fraile humanity but shall with no lesse rauishment of soule acknowledge the miraculous workes of the same Almighty hand Neither is the spirituall eiection worthy of any meaner intertainment Raritie and difficultie are wont to cause wonder There are many things which haue wonder in their worth and leese it in their frequence there are some which haue it in their strangenesse and leese it in their facilitie Both meet in this To see men haunted yea possessed with a dumbe Deuill is so frequent that it is a iust wonder to finde a man free but to finde the dumbe spirit cast out of a man and to heare him praising God confessing his sinnes teaching others the sweet experiments of mercy deserues iust admiration If the Cynick sought in the market for a man amongst men well may we seeke amongst men for a conuert Neither is the difficulty lesse then the rarenesse The strong man hath the possession all passages are blockt vp all helpes barred by the trechery of our nature If any soule be rescued from these spirituall wickednesses it is the praise of him that doth wonders alone But whom doe I see wondring The multiude The vnlearned beholders follow that act with wonder which the learned Scribes entertaine with obloquy God hath reuealed those things to babes which he hath hid from the wise and prudent With what scorne did those great Rabbins speake of these sonnes of the earth This
diuine wee cannot better know what we are indeed then by what we would be Elijah acknowledges the difficultie and promises the grant of so great a request suspended yet vpon the condition of Elishaes eye-sight If thou see me when I am taken from thee it shall be so vnto thee but if not it shall not be What are the eyes to the furniture of the soule What power is there in those visiue beames to draw downe a double portion of Elijahs Spirit God doth not alwaies look at efficacy merit in the conditions of our actions but at the freedome of his own appointments The eye was onely to bee imployed as the seruant of the heart that the desires might bee so much more intended with the sight Vehemence is the way to speed both in earth and in Heauen If but the eye-lids of Elisha fall if his thoughts flacken his hopes are dashed There must bee fixednesse and vigilance in those that desire double graces Elijah was going on and talking when the Charet of heauen came to fetch him Surely had not that conference been needfull and diuine it had giuen way to meditation and Elijah had been taken vp rather from his knees then from his feet There can be no better posture or state for the messenger of our dissolution to finde vs in then in a diligent prosecution of our calling The busie attendance of our holy vocation is no lesse pleasing to God then an immediate deuotion Happy is the seruant whom the master when he comes shall finde so doing Oh the singular glory of Elijah What mortall creature euer had this honour to bee visibly fetched by the Angels of God to his heauen Euery soule of the elect is attended and caried to blessednesse by those inuisible messengers but what flesh and blood was euer graced with such a conuoy There are three bodily Inhabitants of Heauen Henoch Elijah our Sauiour Christ The first before the Law the second vnder the Law the third vnder the Gospell All three in a seuerall forme of translation Our blessed Sauiour raised himselfe to and aboue the heauens by his own immediate power he ascended as the Sonne they as seruants hee as God they as creatures Elijah ascended by the visible ministerie of Angels Henoch insensibly Wherefore O God hast thou done thus but to giue vs a taste of what shall be to let vs see that heauen was neuer shut to the faithfull to giue vs assurance of the future glorification of this mortall and corruptible part Euen thus O Sauiour when thou shalt descend from heauen with a shout with the voice of an Archangell and with the trumpe of God we that are aliue remaine shall bee caught vp together with the raised bodies of thy Saints into the clouds to meet thee in the aire to dwell with thee in glory Many formes haue those celestiall Spirits taken to themselues in their apparitions to men but of all other most often hath the Almighty made his messengers a flame of fire neuer more properly then here How had the Spirit of God kindled the hot fires of zeale in the brest of Elijah How had this Prophet thrice commanded fire from heauen to earth How fitly now at last do these Seraphicall fires cary him from earth to heauen What doe wee see in this rapture of Elijah but violence and terrour whirlewinde and fire two of those fearfull representations which the Prophet had in the Rocke of Horeb Neuer any man entred into glory with ease Euen the most fauourable change hath some equiualency to a naturall dissolution Although doubtlesse to Elijah this fire had a lightsomnesse and resplendance not terrour this whirlewinde had speed not violence Thus hast thou O Sauiour bidden vs when the Elements shall be dissolued and the heauens shall be flaming about our eares to lift vp our heads with ioy because our redemption draweth nigh Come death come fire come whirlewinde they are worthy to bee welcome that shall carie vs to immortalitie This arreption was sudden yet Elisha sees both the Charet and the horses and the ascent and cries to his now changed Master betweene heauen and earth My father my father the charet of Israel and the horsemen thereof Shaphat of Abel-meholab hath yeelded this title to Elijah the naturall father of Elisha to the spirituall neither of them may bee neglected but after the yoake oâ— oxen killed at the farewell wee heare of no more greetings no more bewailings of his bodily parentâ— and now that Elijah is taken from him hee cries out like a distressed Orphane My father my father and when he hath lost the sight of him he rends his cloathes in pieces according to the fashion of the most passionate mourners That Elisha sees his master halfe-way in heauen cannot take away the sorrow of his losse The departure of a faithfull Prophet of God is worthy of our lamentation Neither is it priuate affection that must sway our griefe but respects to the publike Elisha sayes not onely My father but the charet and horsemen of Israel That we haue forgone a father should not so much trouble vs as that Israel hath lost his guard Certainly the view of this heauenly charet and horses that came for Elijah puts Elisha in minde of that charet and horsemen which Elijah was to Israel These were Gods charet Elijah was theirs Gods charet and theirs are vpon the same wheeles mounted into heauen No forces are so strong as the spirituall the prayers of an Elijah are more powerfull then all the Armies of flesh The first thing that this Seer discernes after the separation of his Master is the nakednesse of Israel in his losse If wee muster Souldiers and leese zealous Prophets it is but a wofull exchange Elijahs Mantle fals from him in the rising there was no vse of that whither hee was going there was whence he was taken Elisha iustly takes vp this deare monument of his glorified master A good supply for his rent garments This was it which in presage of his future right Elijah inuested him withall vpon the first sight when he was ploughing with the twelue yoke of oxen now it fals from heauen to his possession I doe not fee him adore so precious a relique I see him take it vp and cast it about him Pensiue and masterlesse doth hee now come backe to the bankes of Iordan whose streame hee must passe in his returne to the Schooles of the Prophets Ere while he saw what way that riuer gaue to the Mantle of Elijah hee knew that power was not in the cloth but in the spirit of him that wore it to try therefore whether hee were no lesse the heire of that spirit then of that garment hee tooke the mantle of Elijah and smote the waters and said Where is the Lord God of Elijah Elisha doth not expostulate and challenge but pray As if hee said Lord God it was thy promise to mee by my departed master that if I should see him in
vid. Kings and Princes How it pleaseth the people to heare the gouernors taxed 1920 Corrupt gouernours lose the comfort of their owne breast 921 A praying gouernour ibid. No small happinesse to an estate to haue their gouernors chosen by worthinesse 941 Gouernours must not respect their owne ends in publike actions 984 Grace It will grow p. 8. How chained 136 Patience is a good proofe of grace 913 The folly of them that refuse Gods graces because they are found in ill men 1000 It is iust with God that those that want grace should want wit too 1044 Grace is not tyed either to number or meanes 1050 Grace is by gift and not by inheritance 1052 An vnmannerly vngodlinesse not to say grace at meat 1055 Nothing but grace can make vs to make vse of others iudgements 1058 A speciall token of a gracious heart 1100 The graces of God how they should attract our Loue. 1109 Grace makes no differences of sexes 1160 Greatnesse Not respected of any but of man 1 There is an affable familiarity that becomes greatnesse 1055 Dishonestie growes bold when it is countenanced by greatnesse 1138 Setled greatnesse cannot endure change or partnership 1171 Guides A Christian must in all his wayes haue three guides First Truth Secondly Wisedome Thirdly Charitie 137 It is a great confirmation to any people to see God to bee their guide 883 No better guide then God in his Word Sacraments 948 949 Guiltinesse what feare there is in it 909 It needs no Prophet to assure vs of punishment 1035 Euery thing affrights the guilty 1171 H HAlfe an halfe Christian liues most miserably 62 Hanun Of him and Dauids Ambassadors 1133 Happinesse How to bee happy in despight of all the world 52 Who is happy enough 58 A happy mans Character 181 Wherein it is not 201 c. Wherein it is 209 The suddennesse of mans happinesse 515 A good heart cannot endure to be happy alone 867 Hardnesse or hardning How to keepe from it 329 Many hardned by the Word 836 Harlot Her deadly danger prettily described 1007 Hast Of making hast to bee good p. 2 Iust iealousie of being ouer hastily holy 33 Hatred Betweene the Christian and the world 61 62 Hearing a note for bearers that come for eloquence 62 An enducement to heare often 149 Heart How small how great 6 The heart tongues correspondence 38 A true signe of a false hart is to be nice in small matters and contrarie in great 147 How to keepe from hardnesse of heart 329 The heart hath many names 502 Deceitfull in euery faculty ibid. A mans inward disposition presageth his euent 948 A good heart can frame it selfe to all conditions 1080 Saul the very picture of a false heart 1087 The foulest heart doth oft enioy good motions 1089 No heart but sometimes will relent 1101 Our heart compared to a City enclosed 1243 Heauen its pleasure prettily described 5 811 Heauen compared to an hill 10 The way to heauen foule and thornie 37 Hell is not more obscure in comparison of the earth then the Earth in respect of Heauen 66 Heauenly and earthly things represented vnto vs by the two lights of Heauen the Sun and the Moone 68 the different degrees of heauens glory 326 Heauens ioyes prettily expressed 467 468 Heauen double Gloriae Ecclesiae 529 The three Heauens notably described 811 812 Neuer any enterd heauen with ease 1371 Heeles what the iniquity of ones heeles is 1101 Henry A lamentation for prince Henry 63 Heraldry its antiquity 443 Hereticks How farre t is lawfull to haue conuerse with them 330 Herod of his trouble about Christs birth 1171 His feare dissembled 1172 Of him the Infants 1176 His slaughter of the Infants 1178. Holy dayes how they are obserued in the Church of England 586 Holinesse Fearfully abusâ—d by the Pope 445 A double holinesse one for vse another for vertue 445 446 Our shame in the want of holinesse and a sharpe reproofe for it 446 Of whom it is reiected ibid. Who so holy as sinnes not example in Miriam and Aaron against Moses 914 Holinesse not tyed to any profession 1010 The Throne and the Pulpit chiefly call for holinesse 1060 Holy duties how regarded of the wicked 1066 No man brags so much of holinesse as hee that hath it not 1075 A little honesty worth much illumination 1320 No temptation so dangerous as that which comes vnder the vale of holinesse ibid. Honest or honesty its character 174 Honest actions neuer shame their doers 1110 Honor How honor and charge are of an inseparable connexion 48 An Epistle of true honor 278 They that are most vnworthy of it are in hottest chase for it 985 Honor is heauy wheÌ„ it comes on the best termes 1057 Honor will shew the man 1086 Hope It is not more necessary for men to bee cheeted with hopes then to be feared with dangers 1051 The description of an hopelesse man 1100 Hosts God stiled The God of Hosts an hundred and thirtie times by the Prophets with the vse thereof 531 Housholder His properties 239 Humiliation It is a right vse of affliction 1132 T is the way to glory ibid. Humilitie how God accepts of it 145 The character of an humble man 175 Humilitie with the contrarie vice 224 Humility is both a signe of following glory and the way vnto it 977 Humility is euer the way to honor 1026 True humility finds out the worst of himselfe 1207 Hunger Sweet comforts to the hungry soule 65 66 Husband how hee must cary himselfe 239 Hypocrite or Hypocrisie reasons why it is a very madnesse to be an hypocrite 4 A worldling is an hypocrite 6 The Hypocrites Character 185 A worthy caution for an hypocrite 416 Prettily described in the profession of holinesse 446 Hypocrites how contrary to Moses in the vailing his face 910 Hypocrisie gets this that it may doe euill vnsuspected 936 No meanes hath so inriched hell as beautifull faces 937 Hypocrits haue good tongues 1048 Hypocrites onely rest in formalities 1063 An Hypocrite wil sooner find out another mans sinne then his owne 1066 The folly and impudency of Hypocrysie descryed 1075. Saul the very character of hypocrisie 1067 1087 Hypocrites partial in their detestaâ—ions 1121 A special note of an hypocrite euen to make vse of God for his owne purposes 1121 Wicked Hypocrites care not how they play with God so they may mocke men 1150 What an idlenesse it is in Hypocrites to hope that they shall dance in a 〈◊〉 vnseene of heauen 1325 I IAel and Sisera 973 Of Iaels courtesie to Sisera 974 Iaels expostulations about Sisera's death ibid. Iacob The contemplation of Iacob and Esau 843 Idlenes It is very troublesome 34 The Idol man is the deuils Cushion 54 55. God neuer graceth the idle with visions 870 Idlenesse what it does 1137 Idols and Idolatry Things abused to it may bee imployed to Gods seruice 978 no trusting the honestie of an Idolater 1011 The obstinacie of Idolatry 1045 Ieptha 991
honor cannot be innocent Well might Ioshua haue proceeded to the execution of him whom God and his owne mouth accused but as one that thought no euidence could be too strong in a case that was capitall he sends to see whether there was as much truth in the confession as there was falshood in the stealth Magistrates and Iudges must pace slowly and sure in the punishment of offenders Presumptions are not ground enough for the sentence of death no not in some cases the confessions of the guilty It is no warrant for the Law to wrong a man that he hath before wronged himselfe There is lesse ill in sparing an offender then in punishing the innocent Who would not haue expected since the confession of Achan was ingenuous and his pillage still found entire that his life should haue beene pardoned But here was Confesse and die he had beene too long sicke of this disease to be recouered Had his confession beene speedy and free it had saued him How dangerous it is to suffer sin to lye fretting into the soule which if it were washt off betimes with our repentance could not kill vs. In mortall offences the course of humane iustice is not stayd by our penitence It is well for our soules that we haue repented but the lawes of men take not notice of our sorrow I know not whether the death or the teares of a malefactor be a better sight The censures of the Church are wip't off with weeping not the penalties of lawes Neither is Achan alone called forth to death but all his family all his substance The actor alone doth not smart with sacriledge all that concernes him is enwrapped in the iudgement Those that defile their hands with holy goods are enemies to their owne flesh and blood Gods first reuenges are so much the more fearefull because they must be exemplary Of the Gibeonites THe newes of Israels victory had flowne ouer all the Mountaines Valleys of Canaan and yet those Heathenish Kings and people are mustered together against them They might haue seene themselues in Iericho and Ai and haue well perceiued it was not an arme of flesh that they must resist yet they gather their forces and say Tush we shall speed better It is madnesse in a man not to be warned but to run vpon the point of those iudgments wherewith he sees others miscary and not to beleeue till he cannot recouer Our assent is purchased too late when we haue ouerstayed preuention and trust to that experience which wee cannot liue to redeeme Onely the Hiuites are wiser then their fellowes and will rather yeeld liue Their intelligence was not diuerse from the rest all had equally heard of the miraculous conduct and successe of Israel but their resolution was diuerse As Rahab saued her Family in the midst of Iericho so these foure cities preserued themselues in the midst of Canaan and both of them by beleeuing what God would doe The efficacy of Gods maruellous workes is not in the acts themselues but in our apprehension some are ouer come with those motiues which others haue contemned for weake Had these Gibeonites ioyned with the forces of all their neighbours they had perished in their common slaughter If they had not gone away by themselues death had met them It may haue more pleasure it cannot haue so much safety to follow the multitude If examples may lead vs the greatest part shuts out God vpon earth and is excluded from God else where Some few poore â—iuites yeeld to the Church of God and escape the condemnation of the world It is very like their neighbors flouted at this base submission of the Gibeonites and out of their termes of honour scorned to beg life of an enemy whiles they were out of the compasse of mercy but when the bodies of these proud Iebusites and Perizzites lay strewed vpon the earth and the Gibeonites suruiued whether was more worthy of scorne and insultation If the Gibeonites had stayed till Israel had besieged their Cities their yeeldance had been fruitlesse now they make an early peace and are preserued There is no wisdome in staying till a iudgement come home to vs the only way to auoid it is to meet it halfe way There is the same remedy of warre and of danger To prouoke an enemy in his owne borders is the best stay of inuasion and to sollicit God betimes in a manifest danger is the best antidote for death I commend their wisdome in seeking peace I doe not commend their falshood in the manner of seeking it who can looke for any better of Pagans But as the faith of Rahab is so rewarded that her lye is not punished so the fraud of these Gibeonites is not an equal match of their beliefe since the name of the Lord God of Israel brought them to this suit of peace Nothing is found fitter to deceiue Gods people then a counterfeit copy of age Here are old sacks old bottles old shooes old garments old bread The Israelites that had worne one suit forty yeares seemed new clad in comparison of them It is no new policie that Satan would beguile vs with a vaine colour of antiquity clothing falshood in rags Errors are neuer the elder for their patching Corruption can doe the same that time would doe we may make age as well as suffer it These Gibeonites did teare their bottles and shooes and clothes and made them naught that they might seeme old so doe the false patrons of new errors If we be caught with this Gibeonitish stratagem it is a signe we haue not consulted with God The sentence of death was gone out against all the inhabitants of Canaan These Hiuites acknowledge the truth and iudgements of God and yet seeke to escape by a league with Israel The generall denunciations of the vengeance of God enwrap all sinners Yet may we not despaire of mercy If the secret counsell of the Almightie had not designed these men to life Ioshua could not haue beene deceiued with their league In the generality there is no hope Let vs come in old rags of our vilenesse to the true Ioshua and make our truce with him we may liue yea we shall liue Some of the Israelites suspect the fraud and notwithstanding all their old garments and prouisions can say It may be thou dwellest amongst vs. If Ioshua had continued this doubt the Gibeonites had torne their bottles in vaine In cases and persons vnknowne it is safe not to be too credulous Charity it selfe will allow suspition where wee haue seene no cause to trust If these Hiuites had not put on new faces with their old clothes they had surely changed countenance when they heard this argument of the Israelites It may bee thou dwellest amongst vs how then can I make a league with thee They had perhaps hoped their submission would not haue been refused wheresoeuer they had dwelt but lest their neighbourhood might be a preiudice they come disguised