me thus imperfectly happy before my time that when my time shall be no more I may be perfectly happy with thee in all Eternity XCII Upon the sight of an Harlot carted WIth what noise and tumult and zeal of solemn Justice is this sin punished The Streets are not more full of beholders then clamors Every one strives to expresse his detestation of the fact by some token of revenge one casts Mire another Water another rotten Egges upon the miserable offender neither indeed is she worthy of lesse but in the mean time no man looks home to himself It is no uncharity to say that too many insult in this just Punishment who have deserved more Alas we men value sins by the outward Scandall but the Wise and Holy God against whom onely our sins are done esteems them according to the intrinsecal Iniquity of them and according to the secret violation of his Will and Justice thus those Sins which are slight to us are to him hainous We ignorants would have rung David's Adultery with Basons but as for his numbring of the people we should have past it over as venial the wise Justice of the Almighty found more wickedness in this which we should scarce have accused Doubtlesse there is more mischief in a secret Infidelity which the World either cannot know or cares not to censure then in the foulest Adultery Publick sins have more Shame private may have more Guilt If the world cannot charge me of those it is enough that I can charge my Soul of worse Let others rejoice in these publick Executions let me pity the sins of others and be humbled under the sense of my own XCIII Upon the smell of a Rose SMelling is one of the meanest and least usefull of the Senses yet there is none of the Five that receives or gives so exquisite a contentment as it Methinks there is no earthly thing that yields so perfect a pleasure to any Sense as the odour of the first Rose doth to the Sent. It is the Wisdome and Bounty of the Creator so to order it that those Senses which have more affinity with the body and with that earth whereof it is made should receive their delight and contentation by those things which are bred of the earth but those which are more sprightfull and have more affinity with the Soul should be reserved for the perfection of their pleasure to another world There and then only shall my Sight make my Soul eternally blessed XCIV Upon a cancelled Bond. WHiles this Obligation was in force I was in servitude to my parchment my Bond was double to a Payment to a Penalty now that is discharged what is it better then a wast scroll regarded for nothing but the witness of its own voidance and nullity No otherwise is it with the severe Law of my Creator Out of Christ it stands in full force and bindes me over either to perfect Obedience which I cannot possibly perform or to exquisite torment and eternall Death which I am never able to indure but now that my Saviour hath fastened it cancelled to his Cross in respect of the rigour and malediction of it I look upon it as the monument of my past danger and bondage I know by it how much was owed by me how much was payed for me The direction of it is everlasting the obligation by it unto death is frustrate I am free from Curse who never can be free from Obedience O Saviour take thou Glory and give me Peace XCV Upon the report of a great losse by Sea THe Earth and the Water are both of them great givers and both great takers As they give matter and sustentation to all Sublunary creatures so they take all back again insatiably devouring at last the fruits of their own wombs Yet of the two the Earth is both more beneficial and lesse cruell for as that yields us the most generall maintenance and wealth and supportation so it doth not lightly take ought from us but that which we resign over to it and which naturally falls back unto it Whereas the Water as it affords but a small part of our livelihood and some few knacks of ornament so it is apt violently to snatch away both us and ours and to bereave that which it never gave it yields us no precious Metalls and yet in an instant fetches away millions And yet notwithstanding all the hard measure we receive from it how many do we daily see that might have firm ground under them who yet will be trusting to the mercy of the Sea Yea how many that have hardly crawled out from a desperate shipwrack will yet be trying the fidelity of that unsure and untrusty Element O God how venturous we are where we have reason to distrust how incredulously fearfull where we have cause to be confident Who ever relied upon thy gracious Providence and sure Promises O Lord and hath miscarried Yet here we pull in our Faith and make excuses for our Diffidence And if Peter have tried those waves to be no other then solid pavement under his feet whiles his Soul trod confidently yet when a billow and a winde agree to threaten him his Faith flags and he begins to sink O Lord teach me to doubt where I am sure to finde nothing but uncertainty and to be assuredly confident where there can be no possibility of any cause of doubting XCVI Upon sight of a bright Skie full of Stars I Cannot blame Empedocles if he professed a desire to live upon earth only that he might behold the face of the Heavens surely if there were no other this were a sufficient errand for a mans being here below to see and observe these goodly Spangles of Light above our heads their places their quantities their motions But the employment of a Christian is far more noble and excellent Heaven is open to him and he can look beyond the veil and see further above those Stars then it is thither and there discern those Glories that may answer so rich a pavement Upon the clear sight whereof I cannot but wonder if the chosen Vessel desired to leave the earth in so happy an exchange O God I blesse thine Infiniteness for what I see with these bodily eyes but if thou shalt but draw the curtain and let me by the eye of Faith see the inside of that thy Glorious frame I shall need no other Happiness here My Soul cannot be capable of more favour then Sight here and Fruition hereafter XCVII Upon the rumours of Wars GOod Lord what a shambles is Christendome become of late How are men killed like flies and blood poured out like water Surely the cruelty and ambition of the Great have an heavy reckoning to make for so many thousand Souls I condemn not just Arms those are as necessary as the unjust are hatefull even Michael and his Angels fight and the style of God is the Lord of Hoasts But wo be to the man by whom the offence
head-tire of the world Surely as outwardly we see in this Castle of the Body the flag of vanity hang'd out most conspicuously in feathers perukes wires locks frizzles powders and such other trash so the inward disguise of this part is no lesse certain no lesse obvious to wise and holy eyes And what is that but fancies mis-opinions mis-judgment all whether vain thoughts Psal 94. 11. or evil thoughts Esa 59. 7. To this head refer novelties of device Heresies capricious superstitious conceits whereof the instances would have no end And these errors of the Minde are either in false Principles or false Conclusions and both whether in matter of Speculation or Practice It is a world to see what false Maximes the world laies down to it self all which are as so many grounds of disguises of this great and gracelesse head I do not tell you that the fool hath said there is no God or hath pent up that God in the circle of the Heavens or whatever other imagination the very impudence of the world is ashamed to justifie as even in outward Pride there are certain pudenda mysteria which vain Dames use but hide I speak of received and current Axioms which the world takes for granted and fears not to aver such as these We must doe according to custome If it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ill weed wel rooted we may not pull it up Wrongs may not be offered they may be returned There can be no better Justice then retaliation The Lye must be answered with a blow the Challenge with a combat Our Honour must be tendred whatever becomes of our Soul Reason must be done in drinking though without reason We may lye for an advantage We may swear upon provocation We may make the best of our own Each man for himself Youth must have a swindge It is good sleeping in a whole skin Religion must be tuned to reasons of State and a thousand of this kind And from these false Premisses are raised pernicious Conclusions of resolution to the Soul What should I speak of profane and wilde thoughts of sensuall and beastly thoughts of cruell and bloody thoughts These are the fashions of the world whereto we may not fashion our selves remembring that of wise Solomon The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 15. 26. These dresses perhaps seem not uncomely to carnall eyes but God tells us how he likes them they are as naught as old he spits at them in a just detestation and will spit at us for them Say not now therefore Thought is free No it is so farre from that as that it may be unpardonable as Simon Peter intimates to Simon Magus Acts 8. 22. Away then with all the false positions and misconclusions all the fantasticall or wicked thoughts of the world It is filthy let it be filthy still Let not us fashion our Heads like unto the world Now not onely the whole Head in common but every part every power of sense in this Head hath a fashion of its own that we must not follow in the world Look first at the Eyes The Eyes of the world have a four-fold evil cast that we may not imitate the adulterous the covetous the proud the envious The adulterous roves and looks round about the covetous looks downward the proud looks a oft the envious looks asquint The first are eyes full of Adulteries 2 Pet. 2. 14. every glance whereof is an act of beastlinesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour Mat. 5. 28. the very sight is a kind of constupration The same word in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both the apple of the eye and a virgin I may not now discusse the reason Sure I am many an eye proves a bawd to the Soul and I may safely say Virginity is first lost in the eye The ancient Philosophers before Aristotle that held the Sight to be by sending out of beams imagined the Eye to be of a fiery nature wherein they were the rather confirmed for that they found that if the Eye take a blow fire seems to sparkle out of it But certainly how waterish soever better experience hath found the substance of the Eye it is spiritually fiery fiery both actively and passively Passively so as that it is inflamed by every wanton beame actively so as that it sets the whole heart on fire with the inordinate flames of concupiscence What should a Christian doe with a burning-glasse in his head that unites pernicious beams for the firing of the heart I mean a beastly and fornicating eye Ezec. 6. 9. Out with it if it thus offend thee as thou lookst to escape the fire of hell For this flame like that unnaturall one of Sodome shall burn downward and never leave till it come to the bottome of that infernall Tophet Make covenants with your eyes O ye Christians as Job did and when ye have done hold them close to your covenants once made and if they will needs wilfully break take the forfeit to the utmost How much better were it for a man to be blind then to see his own damnation Thus fashion not your eye to the Uncleannesse of the world The Covetous follows Even this is a lust of the eye too 1 Joh. 2. 16. Libido aeris as Ambrose calls it As the eye in its own nature is covetous in that it is not satisfied with seeing Eccles 1. 8. so the eye of the covetous hath a more particular insatiablenesse Non satiatur oculus divitiis The eye is not satisfied with riches Eccles 4. 8. And yet these riches can goe no further then his eye the owner hath nothing but their sight 5. 11. Hence wise Solomon parallels Hell and destruction with the eye neither are satisfiable Prov. 27. 20. He that is a true glutton of the world may fill his belly his eye never For it is in these desires as in Drunkennesse his drought increaseth with his draughts and the more he hath the lesse he thinks he hath and the more he would have This disease is popular and as the Prophet tells us à minimo ad maximum Jer. 6. 13. The world could not be so wicked if it had not this cast of the eye for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 love of money is the root of all evil 1 Tim. 6. 10. From hence come Simonies in the Spiritualty Sacriledge in the Laity immoderate fees in Lawyers unreasonable prices in Merchants exactions in Officers oppressions in Landlords incroachments in neighbourhood falshood in servants and lastly cozenages in all sorts But woe to him that increaseth that which is not his and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay saith Abacuc 2. 6. Was there ever a more perfect conviction of a vice This desired metall is not his first and then if it were his it is but densissimum lutum thick clay it may load him it cannot ease him Away therefore with those two greedy daughters of the
Justice is Peace Fore-prophesied to be the Prince of Peace Esay 9. 6. the government is upon his shoulder saith that Evangelical Seer yea which of the Prophets is silent of this Style Constituted Behold I have set my King upon Sion Psal 2. 6. Acknowledged by the Sages Where is be that is born King of the Jews We have seen his star Mat. 2. 2. Usher'd in by the Angel Gabriel The Lord shall give him the throne of his Father David Luke 1. 32. Anointed he is Christus Domini and Christus Dominus anointed with the oyle of gladness above his fellows Proclaimed Behold thy King cometh to thee saith Zachary Hosanna Blessed be the Kingdome that comes in the name of the Lord said the Children in the streets Enthronized Thy throne O God is for ever and the scepter of thy Kingdome is a right scepter Honoured with due homage The Kings of the earth shall bring presents to thee saith the Psalmist And yet this King thus Presigured Fore-prophesied Constituted Acknowledged Usher'd in Anointed Proclaimed Enthronized Adored is cast off with a Nolumus hunc No King but Caesar And were they not well served think we Did or could ever any eye pity them Because they say Christ is not our King but Caesar therefore Christ shall plague them by Caesar that very Roman Government which they honoured in a corrivality and opposition to Christ shall revenge the quarrel of Christ in the utter subversion of these unthankful Rebels Oh foolish people and unjust do ye thus requite the Lord Did he empty himself of his Celestial Glory and put on weak Manhood and all the symptoms of wretched Mortality and do ye despise him for this Mercy Is he so vile to you because he was so vile for you Did his Love make him humble that his Humility should make him contemptible Did he chuse you out of all the kingdomes of the earth and do ye wilfully reject him Hear therefore ye despisers and tremble hear the just doom of him who will be your Judge if he shall not be your Saviour Those mine enemies that would not I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me Luk. 19. 27. Lord it is done as thou hast commanded and yet there is room Do we think that Christ hath no Rebels but Jews Would to God we sinners of the Gentiles had not said Disrumpamus vincula Let us break his bonds and cast his cords from us What are his bonds but his Laws his cords but Religious institutions These flie about mens ears like rotten tow binding none but the impotent The bounds of his Kingdome are the ends of the earth It is an hard word yet I must say it Oh that there were not more Traitors in the world then Subjects Tell not me what mens Tongues say their Lives say loud enough Nolumus hunc Christ is no King for us Obedience is the true touch-stone of Loyalty not Protestations not outward Cringes not disbursement of Tribute We have all solemnly sworn allegeance to the God of Heaven we are ready to bow at the dear name of Jesus we stick not perhaps to give obedientiam bursalem as Gerson cals it to God but when it comes once to the deniall of our selves to the mortifying of our corruptions to the strangling of the children of our own accursed wombs to the offering up our bodies and Souls as a reasonable and lively sacrifice hîc Rhodus hîc saltus Kings rule by their Laws Be not deceived if slips of weakness marre not our Fealty certainly continuance in wilful sins cannot stand with our Subjection Quomodo legis How readest thou then as our Saviour asks What saies thy Law-giver in Sinai Thou shalt have no other Gods but me If now thou rear up in thy bosome altars to the Astaroth of Honour to the Tammuz of Lust to the Mammon of Wealth thou hast defied Christ for thy King God saies Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain If now thine unhallowed tongue will not be beaten out of the hellish track of Oaths Blasphemies prophane Scoffs thou hast defied Christ God sayes Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath day If now thou shalt spend it altogether upon thy self or else thinkest with that wise Heathen thou dost septimam oetatis partem perdere thou defiest Christ God saies Thou shalt not commit adultery If now like an enraged stallion thou neighest after every object of impure Lust thou hast defied Christ God saies Non in comessationibus ebrietate Not in surfeiting and drunkenness If now we shall pour our health and our reason down our throats and shall sacrifice our Souls to our bellies what do we say but Nolumus hunc But O foolish Rebels that we are do we think thus to shake off the yoak of Christ In spight of men and devils he will be their King who do most grin and gnash at his Soveraignty Feel O ye wilful sinners if ye will not learn that as he hath a golden Scepter Virgam directionis Psal 45. 6. so he hath also an iron Scepter Psal 2. 9. Virgam furoris Esay 10. 5. Beauty and Bands Zach. 11. 10 14. If ye will not bow under the first yea must break under the second He shall break you in pieces like a Potters vessel to mammocks to dust Ye shall find that the Prince of darkness can no more avoid his own torment then he can cease from yours and every knee not onely in Heaven and in earth but under the earth too shall mal-grè bow to the name of that Jesus whom they have scornfully rejected with Nolumus hunc Christ is no King to us But I perswade my self better things of you all that hear me this day There is none of you I hope but would be glad to strew his garments his olive-boughs yea his myrtles and lawrels yea crown and scepter under the feet of Christ and cry Hosanna altissimo Oh then if you be in earnest take the Psalmists counsel Osculamini filium Give him the kiss of Homage of Obedience Let me have leave to say that this charge is there given to the great Princes and Rulers of the earth they who honour others with a kiss of their hand must honour themselves with the humble kiss of his No Power can exempt from this sweet Subjection Ecce servus tuns Behold I am thy servant faith David yea and vilior ero I will be yet more vile for the Lord. Tremble before his footstool O ye Great ones that bindeth Kings with chains and Nobles with fetters of iron Psal 149. 8. Your very Height inforces your Obedience the detrectation where of hath no other but Potentes potenter punientur Mighty ones shall be mightily tormented As an Angel of God so is my Lord the king as that wise Tekoan said Do ye not see how awful how submiss the Angels of Heaven are Before his throne they hide their faces with their wings and from his throne at his command
come in and offer to rule amongst them though stronger they abide not the colour It was Edomitish blood that made Herod so hateful though otherwise of no small merit Now Caesar though he were their King actually in regard of power yet they held him no better then an Intruder in regard of right For at first here was no more but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a partnership and league of love betwixt the Romans and Jews as 1 Maccab. 8. 20. but after when Pompey had vanquish'd Hyrcanus and Aristobulus now Judaea was glad to turn tributary and of a friend became a vassal as ye see in the taxation of Augustus Luk. 2. 1. and so continued with no small regret Caesar therefore was to them a Pagan for Religion a Tyrant for Usurpation at the best an alien from the Commonwealth of Israel and therefore as they imagined not capable of being the head of Israel This of the Romans is taken for that regnum Gentium the Kingdome of the Gentiles Hagg. 2. 22. by an Antonomasie which was therefore so much more hated as it was more prevalent and imperious And ye know their fearful suggestion Venient Romani the Romans will come Joh. 11. 48. It was observed of old by Hierome and since by Galatinus and others indeed who could look beside it that the Thalmud and the ancient Rabbins wheresoever they find the name of Edom or Idumaea in the Old Testament there they think straight Rome understood and this was with them that Onus Duma in the Prophet Esay A misprision that arises as Jerome guesses aright by occasion of the letters of Duma and Roma for the Hebrew R and D are so like that they can hardly be distinguished and the same letter in the Hebrew forms both O and U. Hence they gave out Caesar for an Idumaean and branded all that Nation with the curses of Edom. Absurdly as we well know for Edom or Esau was Isaac's Son whereas we Europeans came of Japhet But this shews their good will both to Caesar and his Country no Nation under Heaven was more odious to them against whom they heartily praied in their sense Remember O Lord the children of Edom Psal 137. 7. Yet here Regem habemus Caesarem Caesar is our King Neither was this the note of the chief Priests onely which had learn'd to flatter by art but of the hollow multitude who had said vers 12. Caesar's friend As if all were now grown fond of that Soveraignty which they hated This is enough to let our Caesar see that fair tongues are not alwaies true In the Psalm which our late Augustus of ever-Blessed Memory chose for the Anniversaries of his deliverance both from the Cowries and the Powder Psal 18. ye find this clause vers 45. strange children shall dissemble with me which in our last Translation runs Strangers shall submit themselves to me Marvel not at the difference the Hebrews take the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for both either mentientur or humiliabuntur to signifie either curtefie or craft wherefore but to shew us that estranged hearts whiles they submit do but dissemble and none more submiss then the falsest some whereof whiles with deep protestations of fidelity they were writing quodlibetical invectives against the perfidiousness of some busiospirits of their own Faction we have seen fall foul upon a convicted Treason It was not for nothing that under the picture of that lame Souldier which at last hath shouldred into the Calender was written Cavete vobis Principes Look to your selves ye Great Ones Believe Actions believe not Words If those that refuse to profess Allegeance must needs be unsound would to God they were all sound that swear it Even Judas could say Hail Master and these colloguing Jews Regem habemus Caesarem We have Caesar for our King Do ye not mark how this note is changed The chief Priests said here Non habemus Regem nisi Caesarem We have no King but Caesar Now there is an High-Priest that says Non habemus Regem Caesarem yea Caesar is his Esculer or his Lacky The exemption of the Spiritualty from Caesar the subjection of Caesar to the head of the Spiritualty are points that would have been as strange to the chief Priests of those times as they are familiar to ours But O Souls not unworthy of a proud insultation that thus willingly abase their Crowns to a tyrannous Mitre It was too good a word this for Jews Regem habemus we have a King That which they held their misery was more happiness then they could deserve to be Subjects The very name of a King carries protection order peace For Rex judicio c. The King by judgement establisheth the Land saith Solomon Prov. 29. 4. Who knows not that Judg. 17. 6. In those days there was no King in Israel and what of that Every one did that which was right in his own eyes Anarchy is lawless dissolute confused What other is the King then the Head of the body the Eye in the head the Ball in that eye Lucernam aptavi uncto meo I have prepared a light for mine anointed Psal 132. 17. without which the whole State must needs like a blinded Polyphemus reel and stagger and grovel If Solomon note it as a wonder in the Locusts That they have no King and yet go forth by bands S. John notes it in the infernal Locusts that they have a King and his name is Abaddon Revel 9. 11. Not to speak of Heaven or Earth then even Hell it self stands not without a Government the very region of Confusion consists not without so much Order Take this away Earth would be Hell and what would Hell be There are Nations I doubt not that may say Dedisti Regem in ira Thou hast given us a King in thine anger Hos 13. 11. But for us we may say ut ros super herbam His favour is as the dew upon the grass Prov. 19. 12. and shall justly shut up with old David Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath thus replenished our Throne as our eyes see it this day 1 Kings 1. 48. And if we do in the joy of our hearts say Habemus Regem why should not he with equal reflection of joyful heart say Habemus Subditos Tribute Honour Fear Prayers Love Life is not too dear for our Caesar This is enough for the Affirmation Caesar is our King the Negation follows We have no King but Caesar The negative as it is universal excluding all so it specially singles out Christ whom Pilate had lately nam'd for their King None therefore not this Jesus A Rebellious protestation and no better then Blasphemie in the mouth of Jews of Priests For could they be ignorant of the Kingdome of the Messiah yea of this Messiah Was not this King of the Jews Fore-figured by Melchisedec King of Salem sedec we know is Justice salem is Peace the fruit of his