either the eaten or the eaters flesh from corruption Goe now vaine Paracelsian and extract for men the quintessence nay the soules of perishing beasts and yet shall man be like the beast that perisheth Let that luxurious heathen feed his fishes with the flesh of men that they againe may feed mans flesh let all the troops and heards of nature lay downe their life at his kitching doore and sacrifice their fatnesse for his health yet shall not thousands of Rams nor ten thousand of Oxen the blood of Buls nor the Sheepe on a thousand mountaines with all their lives redeeme one day of his Si non perit et expelltur hic cibus saith Saint Basil perimus nos citius If the meat wee take in should not perish and corrupt by our concoction our selves must perish more speedily Labour not then for the meat that perisheth if it be for no other reason yet because it perisheth But enough of that meat that was the first but now there remaines a second course Everlasting Life for which I may presume every religious appetite does hunger In that other indeed are many varieties here but one dish but yet like the Mannah able to represent nay be to the pallat whatsoever the soule shall lust for But before we admit you to this we must needs examine a while how you have behaved your selves with that and whether your stomacke be not too full with it For whosoever eateth the meat and drinketh the drinke even that perisheth unworthily is in great danger to be denyed this other To make therefore our application more methodicall we must needs thus addresse our censure first on them who sinne against the Negative by not labouring at all and secondly on those who entrench too farre upon the Affirmative in labouring too much and that with their eyes and cares fixt upon this Object Meat nay and under this specification of perishing meat And first me thinkes it s even necessary to invocate the whole quire of holy Prophets Apostles Fathers and Interpretors againe to cleare this parcell of our Saviours precept Labour not from warranting this our spreading idlenesse Labour not why the whole world is a gaming or a sleeping and even Saint Paul in the pulpit were not able to waken their drowsie consciences having first bin lull'd by this soft voyce of Labour not Why 't has given the truanting world a desired play-day 't has fetch 't them from the Brick-kilnes of Aegypt and now like vagrants in the desart providence owes them a sustenance and you shall find all their Tribes hanging this motto at their Escutchions Labour not You shall observe them to out-Epicure the foole in the Gospell and before they have their garners fill'd or laid up treasures for many yeares to sing their requiems Eat and drinke and take thine ease this precept is their happy portion Labour not So that certainely if this precept were presented to the suffrages of men to confirme it as a law and to set a penalty on their heads that needs would labor such Courts of Censure would scarcely in an age find one offender but every one would most zealously endevour to keepe his hands from labour And I am afraid our invection may here be as pertinent as in any Citty of the world this being an hive which swarmes with innumerable drones which come hither to sucke the honey and fatnesse of the land which in this place flowes and all they labour for is to thrust their stings into the more thriving and laborious sort It is farre beyond my young discovery and I thanke God my experience in evill to find out the innumerable waies which idlenesse has here invented to maintaine it selfe but my informations are infallible that sloth hath now to support it selfe set up if not a Trade yet a mysterie and it wil one day be a wonder that it's banner is not display'd with the solemnity of the rest for I am sure that all your twelve have not a more numerous company than that of idlenesse And the Masters or first of these idle companions are those who may well be accounted a Company by themselves for they are such whom the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has called Good Companions Good Companions good for what to suffocate the time with smoke and vapours to drownd the drying cares with a deluge of drinke the tedious time afflicts and persecutes them they cannot be rid of it till such as these shall drive it away This indeed is the onely company which as an Idoll set up Idlenesse and professe it and spend their whole estate on purpose to spend the time and of precious howres of which onely a covetousnesse is lawfull they are most desperately prodigall And those dayes workes they thinke the best imploy'd whereon they have without wearinesse done nothing Except this be to labour with the Belides in hell ever to be filling Danaidum dolium bottomlesse vessels ever to bee measuring in drinke at their mouthes by whole saile and still retailing of it againe by vomiting If this be to labour to have the liquor worke and be more busie in their brains than themselves are in their Shops and affaires If this be to labour to swill their lungs till they soake them to spunges to make their veynes which should administer blood and spirits become hydropicall base and abject Water-bearers If this be to labour to invent scurrilous libels and with the dregs of wit and their liquor bespot their apparell and temperate neighbors If this be to labour to propagate unworthy quarrels to seeke for wounds without a cause to flush their complexion to the drunkards ruby to make this blush on their face like the bush at the doore a signe that good wine usually dwels there if all this be to labour then these are never idle Certainly all their toyle might seeme to be to build Castles of smoke in the ayre they may be said to dwell in the middle region amongst smoke and moister vapors and themselves commonly perish as meteors Nay why may we not say that they dwell in our American Iles whither they have transplanted their affections and as others have gone from amongst us God knowes upon what grounds to purchase that earth so these send to purchase the basest part of that earth the very weeds of it nay and the basest part of that weed the very smoke that arises from it Nor is this all but a second sinne of Idlenesse namely Wantonnesse is necessarily stumbled on by this for the Poets no question were not lesse significant than witty who alwayes made the Satyrs attendants on Bacchus lasciviousnesse and petulancy being the birth of their frothy cups as Venus was fain'd of the froth of the Sea and those who spend their time and themselves on this vice I dare say are idely given and you may be sure they labour not for Labour is the onely antidote against the poysons of lust and therefore this Cities providence was very
not wast they had heard but that the eating should make the remainder exceed its first proportion this had not sense stretch'd it out might justly have exceeded their faith Certaine it is by the event of the story that this miracle being well digested had a stronger operation in them than any that they had seene before and now their pamper'd bellies could prompt them to a devout sedition and they durst in despight of Caesars power attempt to make Christ their King Their carnall wisdome easily might suggest him a fit Generall for a conquering army who could so cheaply and so suddenly victuall his hungry Campe. But Christ who knew his kingdome of another world slights these poore ambitions neverthelesse to declinethe violence of popularity having given his Disciples the watch-word to saile over the Sea himselfe glides first from the people then on the waters after them Hot was the multitude in their pursuit and the first opportunity imbarque themselves and follow and being now landed they find their yesterdayes steward arriv'd before them which strange celerity makes their first salutation this question Rabbi quando huc venisti Master when camest thou hither But Christ discern'd full well which way their stomacke stood that over all this water they did but follow the bait which they yesterday tasted of that no other god than their bellies brought them thus farre to sacrifice he therefore neglecting their curious question shapes an answer fitter for their affections than their demands will not tell them when he came but why themselves came thither Vers 26 Not because they saw the miracles but because they did eat of the loaves and were filled Thus first he daunts them and what they might thinke hee would applaud for piety he condemnes for gluttony he was able to anatomize their intentions and found those goads which prick'd them forward to be in their stomacke nor their braine to fill their bellies with the bread of miracles not their soules with the Manna of his Doctrine And when hee had cool'd their fervency with this reproofe prepared their appetites with this sowre reprehension then gives he them my Text as a more wholesome bit to chew on and thus addresses it Labour not c. The scope of which words import thus much as if Scope he had said Poore and beguiled men whom the greedy hopes of a fill'd belly could flatter into all this industry Was this the cause why from towne to desart from desart to sea from sea to land your untired limbs could follow me What went you out into the wildernesse to see a reed shaken with the wind of miracles or rather whether he could furnish a table in the desart But what went you out into the wildernesse to see The sonne of man cloath'd in the soft rayments of mercy and righteousnesse or rather whether hee could satisfie the hungry with bread But what went you out to see A Prophet or rather a Purveyour Was all this toyle to satisfie your vnderstandings or your appetites to feed your minds or your bellies I know 't was the wind of carnall appetite inspir'd your sailes this way it was the sought-for loaves brought you to this Market But since the limbs of your industry are so strong and laborious make me your over-seer and they shall be imploy'd in amore worthy labour not for those melting morsels as fading as the taste those apples of Sodom which dye betwixt the hand and the mouth that meat that fades even before your pots wax hot with thornes which brings an angry destruction even whilest the Quailes are yet in your mouthes that meat which is more perishing than the creatures whence 't was digg'd that dying meat which makes your throat its sepulcher is scarcely long-liv'd enough for digestion But for a meat which breeds eternall blood in your veynes the bread of soules whose equall temper crambs to no diseases but fils each part with spirit and life and enables your stomacks to digest eternitie Pant and breathe after this long-winded food pile up all the loose minutes of your labours for this purchase of perpetuity in the sweat of your brow eat this bread of everlasting rest if you have any breath sinewes orlimbes Labour not for the meat c. My Text me thinkes is a map of Paradise and in it Paral. you shall finde both commanded and forbidden fruit onely thus they differ the forbidden fruit there stood in the midst here in the entry of the garden the tree of life there not tasted of is here an offered dish the tree of good and evill wholly there forbidden here distinguisht according to its fruits the good to be pursued the other to be neglected there the fruit it selfe forbidden here onely the labouring for that fruit there after the eating labour followed as a curse here to rest from that labour is both a precept and a blessing thus againe they meet and agree that both the forbidden meats perish the eaters with themselves and both deprive the soule of the desired tree of life So that thus holds both the paralell and the antithesis There If thou presumest to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evill that act shall damne thee from the tree of life from which an Angell of God shall stave thee arm'd by the Lord of hoasts Here Fly that perishing meat and thou shalt crambe thy selfe with food of everlasting life which the Sonne of man shall give thee whom God the Father hath seal'd the Angell of the Covenant In the words then are to bee discovered these foure Divisioâ—n parts 1. Praeceptum 2. Praecepti Proemium 3. Proemii Dispensatorem 4. Dispensatoris Potestatem 1. A Preceptâ— Labour not for the meat that c. 2. The Reward of the Precept Everlasting life 3. The Dispensour of the Reward Which the Sonne of man c. 4. The Power of the Dispensour Whom God the Father hath c. The Precept here is double Preceptum non faciens and Preceptum faciens 1. Negative 2. Affirmative 1. Labour not for c. 2. But labour for c. And in each of these Precepts there is 1. an Act 2. a Specified Object In the Negative the Act Labour not the Object for the meat that perisheth In the Affirmative the Act But labour the Obiect for the meat that endureth c. and both of these objects carry along a specification as a reason inforcing the object In the Negative the inconvenience of the Obiect must deterre us it is specified by Perishing In the Affirmative the conveniencie of the Obiect must allure us being specifi'd by meat which endures to everlasting life Therefore labour not for c. The reward of both precepts is the specified object 2. of the second Everlasting Life in which there is 1 the substance Life 2 the perpetuity Everlasting life In the Dispenser of the reward two things are considerable 3. 1. The person dispensing The Sonne of man 2. The
LABOUR FORBIDDEN AND Commanded A SERMON PREACHED AT St. PAVLS CHURCH SEPTEMBER 28. 1634. By EDVVARD RAINBOVVE Fellow of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge Praecaâ—eamus ne aut labor irritus sine effectu sit aut effectus labore indignus aequè enim ex his tristitia sequitur si aut non successit aut successus pudet Sen. LONDON Printed for Nicholas Vavasour and are to be sold at his Shop at the Inner-Temple neare the Church 1635. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL SIR IOHN WRAY Knight and Baronet and to his truly generous Brother EDVVARD WRAY of Rycot Esq Lovers and Incouragers of Learning and Piety IF the attentive eye may bee as gainefull to the understanding as the listning eare if the fugatious words which escape the eares pursuit by that may bee arrested to the doome of judgement if it can scruple at Errata when the eares credulity sums up with approbation then may I discharge my selfe and frustrate censure of an apologie for exposing to a more deliberate review of the eye what posted by the laborynths of the eare with lesse delay I must confesse in those forward births of Pamphlets the usuall brats of pregnant impudence nothing uses to be more legible than Ignorance inspir'd by Ambition where the itch of publike prostitution breakes forth into the very Frontispice and those Characters which the Author fancies to be glorious on the front the Reader deemes stigmaticall Although my private resolutions to the contrary have stoop'd to some assaults and made my weaknesse now as publike as the rest yet this must be my confidence that some of my judicious friends have promised to share of the censure if not as causes yet as provocations to the delinquency If in the subiect there be any thing satyricall the patronage to which I have commended it dare read without any conscious starting at invection Their observations may throw it at the guilty world and this shall truly number them in the pancity of the guiltlesse Innocency is no superecilious Patron nor expects the manners of an Apologie from those that intrude into its protection Neverthelesse I was compell'd to invocate yours for if I have gained any thing from obscurity the light of your incouragements have led me to it and as the Colledge whereof I am a member so my owne private duty shall ever prompt me to ranke your name amongst the chiefest of my Benefactors and indevour to make nothing more publike excepting Gods glory in the good of his Church then your vertues and that I am Yours in my devoutest prayes and Observance EDVV. RAINBOVVE Mag. Coll. Novem. 15. 1634. Labour forbidden And Commanded JOHN 6. 27. Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life which the Sonne of man shall give unto you for him hath God the Father sealed MAn is borne to labour as the sparkes flye upwards with the pangs of labour and paine his mother delivers this burthen to the world and that receives him not as an indulgent father but a censorious taskemaster and as if he beganne not life but an Apprentiship he breakes his fast with teares cryes aloud e're dinner and if he live till night 't is much if sickly grones be not some parcell of his breath Our necessities like niggardly step-dames locke so fast the cupboords of refreshment from us that none but the key of labour can open them this being their peremptory law He that will not ioyle must not eat But meat being made the end of our toyle gives more alacritie to endure it and the hopes of that sweeten the bitternesse of this let Apelles paint the grapes by the boy and the birds shall be more enticed by them than affrighted by him those goodly grapes lessen the stature of those Anakims which with-hold them pictures those Gyants with a milder countenance and if we heare of a land that flowes with milke and honey Jordans streame is easily strided over if our famisht appetites heare of meat they feare no Colloquintida but now shake hands with Labour are friends with Industry can hardly be compell'd to rest they will not listen to the call of ease their bellies have no eares till this sad morsell fill their mouthes O man of God there is death in the pot and we have labour'd all this while for meat that perisheth Slacke then your sailes saith the voyce of my Text pursue those gilded baits no further nor pull those fugitives into your walls which will betray you to the worms but arme your labour with an holy violence assault the kingdome of heaven re-enter Paradise the Angell now has sheath'd his flaming sword the tree of Life's unguarded Labour no more for the meat c. The occasion of these words take briefly thus When Occasion our Saviour was told of Herods cruelty against Saint Iohn the Baptist and of the inquisition which hee made after himselfe as in a doubtfull amazement fearing him to be redivivum Iohannem Iohn risen from the dead and albeit his Omniscience was conscious that Herods plots and his determin'd end could not be cotemporaries neverthelesse not relying upon the arme of miraculous preservation with the wind of this rumor he sailes over the Sea of Galilce on purpose as the three first Evangelists harmoniously agree to getout of Herods Iurisdiction and although his first abode was in the desart yet the eager multitude now greedy in pursuit of miracles trace him out Christ being found answers their expectation by dispensing of his two-fold cures generally with his Doctrine upon their soules and when particular maladies cryed for ayd his mercie had miracles for their bodies The day posts on and is likely to attaine a period before he can remember to end his dayes worke of mercie when his Disciples though not more feeling of mans frailty than himselfe yet now perchance after his lengthned Sermon more sensible of their owne thus admonish him The place is desart the Towne 's remote the day'â— farre spent the people weary and if they hunger victuals are not plentifull in the desart therefore send them away But Christ who had power to broach the rockes and give them drinke to turne the fruitlesse desarts into kitchins even replenisht with Manna for bread and Quailes for meat had likewise at this time compassion enough to fill their bowels and the companies being sat downe now not more hungring after the meat than the miracle that could provide it found that two fishes with five loaves and Christs blessing were enough to fill five thousand and when that was done as if each Spawne had now beene hastned into a perfect Fish to overflow into twelve baskets of fragments As if each word he spoke had become a feeding morsell themselves might now have witness'd with him against the Divell that man lives not by bread alone but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God That the oyle in the Cruise did not faile and meale in the barrell did
manner of his dispensation will give The power of the Dispenser tells us likewise of two 4. things 1. who is the Author of this dispensatory power God the Father 2. the manner of his authorization hath sealed the dispensor the Sonne of man the Author of his dispensatory power God the Father the manner of his dispensation will give the manner of his authorization hath sealed Labour not for the meat c. Did we heare of Labour and no Everlasting Life or of Everlasting Life and no Sonne of man to give it or of the Sonne of Man to give it and not of God the Father to scale him for that purpose wee might hide our heads in our bosome or labour to slip our neckes out of the yoke Harsh commands when the eye cannot looke over the burthen to the reward doubtfull reward where the giver is not knowne suspected giver whose abilities are not manifest But here the precept may be more plâ—asant being sweetned with a Reward the Reward ascertain'd being assign'd its Giver the Giver inabled being thereto authorized Labour not then c. And thus me thinkes my Text may afford a large field of discourse and after this paines I have taken in the tillage and opening of it your apprehensions may enter into it as into a plentifull harvest if this first word be not a Scare-crow to some Labour Nor yet can I see any reason why the Labourers should be few the increase being so certaine and so precious that whosoevers labour shall carry away but one sheafe and husband it aright may knead thereof even bread of Life therefore to handle these parts in method I intend first to joyne the precept with the Negative particle secondly them both with the Object and thirdly all of them with the Specification And if wee beginne with the parts in order the two first words of my Text seeme to tye up our hands and to save us a labour thus beginning the negative Precept Labour not Labour not Why what can the dainty pallat of flesh and blood rellish with more delight May not the greatest part of this company averre with the young man in the Gospell if this be all the precept All this have I observed up from my youth not to labour nay even for the meat which perisheth much lesse for the other and perchance may be glad to have got so favourable a shelter for their idlenesse as this porch of my Text Labour not But if wee attend the words not the Act of labouring but the following Object is here by this negation deprest The Originall reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Labour not Saint Hierome whom almost all antiquity followes Operamini non worke not The Syriacke Translation Ne operemini doe not worke yet all of them fastning the Negation to the Object not the Act and therefore some later Interpretors make a Comma at the word Labour as if wee must read it thus Labour but not for the meat c. perchance out of a diligent cautile left the duty of labouring should from this place seeme rather to be forbidden than commanded But none that I ever heard of urg'd this place as a lurking hole for sluggishnesse in the generall or a manumission from all kind of labour but yet I may well conjecture that many in their practise have lived as if this Text gave some convenience to a cessation from bodily labour for necessary food and rayment which they call meat that perisheth that the practice of many hath laid them open to this accusation we may collect because many of the learned Interpretors and ancient Fathers who have written upon this place amongst whom Saint Chrysostome especially have beene very laborious in invection against such and in vindicating this Text from giving any connivence to their Lazinesse and therefore to overthrow all such pretences some have diversly expounded and limited the Act Labour some the following Object Meat that perisheth some the Negative particle Hugo Cardinalis would have to bee meant by the object Meat that perisheth Mala opera evill workes because they are the kirnels and causes of all mans perishing So that man is not pluckt away from all labour and working by this precept but onely from the works of darkenesse But those that expound the object more largely yet understand the Act more strictly that although labour for bodily meanes be here forbidden yet not all kind of labour but as Rupertus after Saint Basil Saint Augustine and others expounds it Nimiam sollicitudinem prohibet operationem iubet 't is too much sollicitude and anxiety which is forbidden to labour too eagerly not to labour at all for Pigritari as another has it idlenesse is maximè cibus periens the meat that soonest perisheth the bread of floth is soonest mouldy and corrupt And Bonaventure's joynt exposition of the Act with the Object is agreeable Operari cibum qui perit est affici secularibus To labour for the meat that perisheth saith he is to be too much taken and affected with secular affaires and he addes Quam vis in usu operis quandoque sit temporalitas tamen in intentione semper debet esse aeternitas though in the act of our labours sometimes we place temporality yet ought we alwayes before our intentions to set aeternity Nay some there are who yet straighten the act more narrowly and will not have this negative precept any generall rule but limited by the like occasions as it was here Now when the people had opportunity to receive from Christ the bread of life they lingred againe after the five loaves to have more of the meat that perisheth which when Musculus thought on he thus inferres Non praescribit normavi generaliter omnibus sed nimium et intempestivum ventris studium ubi occasio spiritualis cibi effertur abjiciendum esse That this precept is not intended by Christ as a rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be at all times observed but here hec teaches that the unseasonable care of filling the belly is to bee laid aside when we are invited to spirituall banquets that Martha's incumbrings were therefore culpable because then shee had the choyce of the better part that the marrying of wives the buying of oxen and earthly purchases are onely then to be left aside when our soules are invited to heavenly feasts But Cardinall Tollets rule if there were any takes away all the difficulty of this place by limiting the negative particle for saith he particula non saepe in Scripturis non negat sed solicitudinem excludit the negative particle does not alwayes deny but excludes a solitarinesse of interpretation as if it had beene said Labour but not only or not chiefly for the meat that perisheth but also c. And we have amongst many others one pregnant example of this Ioh. 12. 44. Hee that beleeveth on mee beleeveth not on me but on him that sent mee Hee that beleeveth on me beleeveth not on me how can
in their owne unalterable Kallenders nor is it mans power to make the soules feasts moveable to be serving ourselves when we should be serving of God is to turne day into night to make the armour of God a worke of darknesse The Sunne and Starres the worlds great Clocks and and witnesses of time have taught our Dials to measure out God's by inches and mans by ells hee that would pilfer from that is too ingratefull to live a spanne of life Shall we doubt to give him his fulnesse of time who hath both invested us with time and made us capable of Eternity When hee 's lessoning our soules shall we be crambing our bodies or rather leave the best Junkets of the body to gaine one morsell for the soule Whilst that is feeding on the bread of Life Labour not for the meat that perisheth And this is both the Specification of the Object Perishing Meat and the reason inforcing this negative precept why we must not labour for it because it perisheth But before we enter into this were it no tworth the labor to enquire why our meat should be called Perishing Certainly as it is mans meat his food and sustenance 't is that commune vinculum which knits and marries the soule to the body shall it be then the cause of their divorce When man perisheth surfetting indeed may be a cause but meat seemes to be a Catholique Antidote against all malignant poysons and enemies of natures continuance Is it not Meat which armes our perishing flesh against the powers of death and dispatches new supplies to nature when the former spirits beginne to faile Does not the tender suckling seeme apprehensive of this truth which knowes the dugge that feeds it before the mother that brought it forth Being cannot continue without sustenance and shall the Author of our continuance be likewise the cause of our perishing Shall that which inlarges the epitomy of infancy and sets it forth into those early editions of growth and stature that which spins the thread of life to such a length be likewise the knife to cut it off If honey be meat dip but the tip of Ionathans rod and besides the continuance of life it may adde a victorious courage to his limbs Drinke taken but from the brooke in the way may make the languishing soule lift up his head Even poyson having taken acquaintance with the pallat of Mithridate as meat could now sooner nourish than destroy The flying spirits with the tast of meat recoyle to their tabernacle and famisht bodies even dropping into their earthly principles receive this doome from food Returne ye sonnes of Adam then how can meat be perishing To make meat perishing were to metamorphise bread into stones fishes into Scorpious honey into gall even food into poyson how then can meat be perishing Are not two Sparrowes sold for a farthing and shall we buy our owne destruction and set a price on those petulant creatures that come within us to undoe us Arise Peter kill and eat were the words of the vision but if this were true these words might well have follow'd such creatures as will rise in thy stomacke kill and devoure thy selfe 'T is true indeed our fathers eat Mannah in the wildernesse and are dead and perisht but was the Mannah the cause of their perishing And have wee not read how David when he was an hungred went in and eat the Shew-bread and regaind more vigour and was further from perishing by the eating of it Man lives not by bread alone saith our Saviour whence we may gather that bread is a partiall cause of his life shall we then thinke that little leaven unleavens mans whole lumpe that those treacherous graines prove Amalekites and Iebusites thornes in our eyes and prickes in our sides or seed us into putrifaction How then must we doe to joyne this epithite of perishing with meat Neverthelesse if we attend the doubt will not be very intricate why our Saviour should make use both of the metaphor of meat and the specification perishing the former both befitting the present occasion meat being that which they now sought for likewise most able to beare the whole latitude of the signification for all outward necessities and for the latter although as 't is food it cannot be said to be causally perishing yet in regard of its substance it is both perishing in it selfe and likewise by accident proves as commonly the cause of mans perishing as of his sustenance Ever since the eating of that forbidden fruit a curse having cloven to our meats and as Gods grace makes them nourishable so that primitive malediction makes them perishable as they proved sowre grapes to our first parents so they have continued to set our teeth on edge and sinne necessarily accompanying their enjoyment corruption and death the sting of sinne must needs ensue and therefore we may well prosecute the specification as a reason to flye the object and so to inforce the negative Precept Labour not for the meat which perisheth or as now I am to handle it in genere causae because it perisheth For why should wee struggle and strive to attaine that which being attain'd will not abide the use So childishly to spend our breath for bubbles and hunger for meat which cannot stay to satisfie Shall we like foolish Merchants compasse sea and land for a purchase which will not last the bringing home Shall our paines reape the soonest decaying fruit or shall our desires long for that which is shortest of continuance Doe we not desire to invest our bodies with rayment of the longest weare and marke the highest prized stustes with such lying names as may boast of their durable continuance Is it not a perpetuity which Nature aymes at and has she not cloth'd the weeds and mildest of her creatures with most perishing garments The vanishing smoake and vapours the languishing clouds which roule themselves into their owne hasty consumptions the short-lived meteors and all the children of the melting ayre fill the same day in their Kalender with their birth and death whereas the purer heavens involve themselves in their endlesse orbs the lively Sunne and Stars those Iewels of Natures garment shine in an everlasting constancy of glory nor can all the Arithmeticke of time subtract from their native vigour but each new day sends them forth as Gyants ready to runne their course Why then is it the more perishing part of nature which wee ayme at and build our senses on the slippery sands when there are rockes so neare Amidst an whole Paradise of fruit onely the tree of Life is never tasted Wee sowe within our selves the seed of our owne corruption and choose such meats for the belly as will make God destroy both it and them our meat is receiv'd into us as fiery hulks into a Navy which ruine themselves and those that admit them Accepimus peritura perituri mortals feed on mortals nor can Natures salt turne season into Eternity preserve
livery of other mens leisures Let this shirking generation be cast out as Christ would have the Divels by Prayer and Fasting Devotion and Hunger their most feared enemies and when they want their penny-worths of newes let their very apparell pay for their Ordinary Let the very Constables and Marshals of the City be the undertakers to draine and scoure this fenny and viciously over-growne this untill'd unfruitfull ground O let not those gardens of our selves be over-growne with the weeds of sloth let not customary sluggishnesse make us unweeldy for any thing but gossipings and to be the tradition of tales and reports let not us bee that unfallowed ground where the Divell may sowe his tares or standing pools which ever end in stinch and corruption but let us gird up our loynes and though it be the last howre of the day yet adventure into the field and labour But yet not too fast nor too eagerly for this falls into as dangerous an extremity on the other side and when you have digg'd as deepe as you can and follow'd the game as farre as t is possible you prove but th'unprofible servants of your unlimited desires and all for which you tugge thus diligently shall perish Fore-see your heaps of silver sunke to the center from whence it came your houses bury'd in the ruins of your Cellars your wardrobes intomb'd in the bellies of contemptible Moths your pamper'd carkasses baits for the wormes then say here 's meat that perisheth All those things that swell thine heart and hoist thy mind above the memory of mortality which barricado'd with barres of Iron snatch'd with the servile lives of others defended with thine owne for which the furrowes of the Sea were smooth'd with blood the walls of Cities shaken the leagues of affinity friendship and blood have beene so often broken are now no longer thine they were but lent or if they were thine owne they 're perishing Goe now vaine man and spread thy Factors through all Languages fetch both the Indies to thy capacious Cellars make all the Kings of the Nations thy debtors pile up thine house with obligatory parchment umbra's and fancies empty shadowes of wealth and substance farme out th' usurious time sanguivolentae indies duplicentur centesimae and let each day redouble thine hundreds blesse thy speculations with the volumes of thy riches and survay the Maps of thy purchas'd Territories Pride thy selfe at the sight of thy great Babilons which thou hast built for thine honour and now when thou commest to eat the fruit of thy labours to use that felicity which all this while thou hast but serv'd know and consider that it and thou thy selfe shalt perish O then let us turne the eyes of our appetites and the limbs of our labour after that meat which indure's to Everlasting Life that Manna that came downe from heaven and carries man up thither that Angels food which luxury ne're look'd at bread made and composed of th' immortall seed of the Word Lord give us evermore this bread Let the froward appetites of worldlings thirst after their broken Cisterns leave those that never felt the sweets of Canaan to breath after Aegypts Onions and Leekes letearthly pottage be those Esau's birth-right surfet poore prodigals with your Swinish huskes Lord give us evermore this bread Turne O the stormes of our earthly tuggings into a calme bee still O you waves of over-flowing desires Say unto God Thou art my Rocke my heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed there Fly away O thou Sea of pleasure and be thou driven backe thou swelling Jordan of pride Skip away ye mountaines of Ambition like Rams and ye little hils of Riches like Lambs Tremble O earth of care at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Iacob Let the Spirit and the Bride say Come and let him that heareth say Come and let him that is athirst say Come and whosoever will let him take of this water of life freely And come O Son of man and with that meat make men the Sonnes of God O blessed Father scale to us the love of thy Sonne which is our life and sanctifie that living meat O holy Spirit Now to that Sonne of man that gives and God the Father that seales and God the Holy Ghost that sanctifies to the unspeakable glory of Everlasting Life Ascribed be all praise dominion life and glory In secula seculerum Amen FINIS