refraine from no wickednesse because the feare of God was not in that place so we may no lesse irrefragably inferre where we see a trade of prevalent wickednesse there can be no feare of God Wo is me what shall I say of this last age but the same that I must say of mine owne As this decrepit body therefore by reason of the unequall temper of humors and the defect of radicall moysture and heat cannot but be a sewer of all diseases So it is so it will be with the decayed old age of this great body of the world through want of the feare of the ever-living God Rivers of waters O God shall run downe mine eyes because men keep not thy law But what do I suggest to the obdured hearts of wilfull sinners the sweet and gracious remedies of a loving feare This preservative is for children sturdy rebells must expect other receits A frown is an heavy punishment to a dutifull sonne scourges and scorpions are but enough for a rebellious vassall I must lay before such an hell of vengeance and show them the horrible Topheth prepared of old even that bottomlesse pit of perdition and tell them of rivers of brimstone of a worm ever gnawing of everlasting burnings of weeping wailing and gnashing when the terrible Iudge of the world shall come in flaming fire rendring vengeance to them that know not God and obey him not And certainly if the sinner had not an Infidell in his bosome the expectation of so direfull a condition to be inflicted and continued upon him unto all eternity without possibility of any intermission or of any remission were enough to make him run made with feare only unbeleefe keeps him from a frantick despaire and a sudden leap into his hell And if the custome and deceit of sinne have wrought an utter senselesnesse in those brawny hearts I must leave them over to the wofull sense of what they will not feare yea to the too late feare of what they shall not bee able either to beare or avoid Certainly the time will come when they shall be swallowed up with a dreadfull confusion and shall no more be able not to feare than not to bee Oftentimes even in the midst of all their secure jollity God writes bitter things against them such as make their knees to knock together their lips to tremble their teeth to chatter their hands to shake their hearts to faile within them for the anguish of their soules Were they as insensate as the earth it selfe Touch the mountaines and they shall smoke saith the Psalmist The mountaines saw thee and they trembled saith Habbacuc But if their feare be respited it is little for their ease it doth but forbeare a little that it may overwhelme them at once for ever Woe is mee for them In how heavy and deplorable case are they and feele it not They lie under the fierce wrath of the Almighty and complaine of nothing but ease The mountains quake at him and the hils melt and the earth is burnt at his presence Who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fiercenesse of his anger his fury is poured out like fire and the rockes are thrown downe by him saith the Prophet Nahum Yet oh what a griefe it is to see that so dreadfull a power should carry away no more feare from us wretched men yea even from those that are ready to feare where no feare is Paines of body frownes of the great restraint of liberty losse of goods who is it that feares not But alas to avoid these men feare not to venture upon the displeasure of him whose anger is death and who is able to cast body and soule into hell fire So wee have seene fond children that to avoid a bug-beare have runne into fire or water So we have seen a starting jade that suddenly flying from a shadow hath cast himselfe into a ditch We can but mourne in secret for those that have no teares to spend upon themselves and tremble for them that will needs gnash If those that are filthy will be filthy still If secure men will set up a trade of sinning every good heart will take up Nehemiahs resolution But so did not J because of the feare of the Lord and the practice of holy Habacuc I trembled in my selfe that I might rest in the day of trouble It is wise Solomons good experiment which hee loved to repeat By the feare of the Lord men depart from evill for they say one to another as the Tremelian version hath it in Malachy The Lord hearkeneth and heareth and how dare they how can they doe amisse in that presence For as the Saints say after the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lambe Great and marvellous are thy workes Lord God Almighty Iust and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints who shall not feare thee and glorifie thy Name for thou onely art holy SECT XII SHortly then that wee may put these two together which are not willing to be severed Whosoever is duely affected with a true filiall feare of the Almighty cannot by allurements be drawne to doe that which may offend so sweet a mercy cannot by any difficulties bee discouraged from doing that which may bee pleasing to so gracious a majesty The Magistrate that feares God dares not cannot be partiall to any wickednesse dares not cannot bee harsh to innocence managing that sword wherewith hee is intrusted so as God himselfe if he were upon earth would doe it for the glory of his owne just mercie The Messenger of God that feares him on whose errand hee goes dares not cannot either smother his message or exceed it he will he must lift up his voice like a trumpet and tell Israel of her sinnes and Iudah of her transgressions not fearing faces not sparing offences The ordinary Christian that feares God dares not cannot but make conscience of all his wayes he dares not defraud or lie for an advantage he dares not sweare falsely for a world hee dares not prostitute his body to whatsoever filthinesse he dares not oppresse his inferiours he dares not turn away his owne face from the poore much lesse dares hee grind theirs in one word he dares rather dy than sinne And contrarily what blockes soever nature layes in his way since his God calls him forth to this combat he cannot but bid battell to his owne rebellious corruptions and offer a deadly violence to his evill and corrupt affections and enter the lists with all the powers of darknesse resisting unto bloud and willingly bleeding that he may overcome Who now would not be in love with this feare O feare the Lord yee his Saints hee that feares him shall lacke nothing The Sunne of righteousnesse shall arise unto him with healing in his wings In the meane time the secret of the Lord is with him The Angells of the Lord are ever
revenge and crowne him What a pleasing walk did the three children find in Nebuchadnezzars Fornace whiles the Sonne of God made up the fourth What Bath was so suppling and delightfull as the rack of Theodorus the Martyr whiles Gods Angel wip't and refreshed his distended joynts With what confidence and resolution did the Father of the faithfull break thorow all troubles and tentations when he heard God say Feare not Abraham I am thy sheild and thy exceeding great reward Certainly all feare and discouragement arises from a conceit of our owne weaknesse and an adversaries power and advantage take away these two and the mind of man remaines undanted and both these vanish at the sight of the Invisible For what weaknesse can we apprehend when God is our strength or what adversary can we feare when the Almighty is with us Good Ezekiah was never so much scarred with all the bravings of Rabshakeh as when he said Am I come up hither without the Lord Had God taken part against his degenerated people what could the arme of flesh have availed for their defence As contrarily when hee strikes in what can the gates of hell do Is it multitude that can give us courage as Elisha's servant said there are more with us than against us It is strength behold the weaknesse of God is stronger than men than divels How justly do we contemne all visible powers when we see the Invisible when we see him not empty handed but standing ready with a crowne of glory to reward our conquest Vincenti dabitur Are we therfore persecuted for professing the truth of the Gospell and cast into a dark and desolate dungeon where no glimmering of light is allowed to look in upon us where we are so farre from being suffered to see our friends that we cannot see so much as the face of our Keeper Lo even there and thence we may yet see the Invisible and in spight of malice in his light wee can see light Do we lie groaning upon the painfull bed of our sicknesse closing our curtaines about us to keep out the light which now growes offensive to our sight yea doth death begin to seize upon our eyes and to dim and thicken our sight so as now we cannot discerne our dearest friends that stand ready to close them for us yet even then may we most cleerly see the Invisible and that sight is able to cheere us up against all the pangs and terrours of death and to make us triumph even in dying SECT X. LAstly what other doth this vision of God but enter us into our heaven Blessed are the pure in heart saith our Saviour upon the Mount for they shall see God Lo he that only can give blessednesse hath promised it to the pure and he that best knowes wherin blessednesse consists tells us it is in the seeing of God The blessed Spirits above both Angels and soules of the departed Saints see him cleerly without any vaile drawne over their glorified eyes we wretched Pilgrims here on earth must see him as wee may there is too much clay in our eyes and too many and to grosse vapors of ignorance and infidelity betwixt us and him for a full and perfect vision Yet even here we see him truly though not cleerly and the stronger our faith is the clearer is our sight and the clearer our sight is the greater is our measure of blessednesse Neither is it a meere presence or a bare simple vision which doth either inchoate or perfect our happinesse we find there was a day when the Sonnes of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them and the wickeds eyes shall see him whom they have peirced we see so much of God in the way of our blisse as we enjoy I know not how the eye in these spirituall objects betwixt which and us there is a gracious relation hath a certaine kind of applicatory faculty which in these materiall things it wanteth O taste and see saith the Psalmist how sweet the Lord is as if our sight were more inwardly apprehensive of heavenly pleasures than our most sensible gustation In these bodily objects either there is no operation upon the sense or to no purpose The eye is never the warmer for seeing a fire a farre off nor the colder for beholding yce we are no whit the richer for seeing heapes of treasure nor the fairer for viewing anothers beauty But such a powerfull and glorious influence there is of God into our spirituall senses that we cannot see him by the eye of our faith here and not be the happier we cannot see him above by the eye of our separated soules and not be perfectly glorious and the one of these doth necessarily make way for the other for what is grace here but glory begun and what is glory above but grace perfected Whosoever therfore here hath pitcht the eye of his faith upon the Invisible doth but continue his prospect when he comes to heaven the place is changed the object is the same the act more compleat As then we do ever look to have our eyes blessed with the perpetuall vision of God in the highest heavens let us acquaint them before hand with the constant and continuall sight of him in this vale of mortality SECT XI NO sooner have our eyes beene thus lifted up above the hills to the sight of the Invisible than they must be instantly cast downe and turned inwards to see our owne wretchednesse how weak and poore we are how fraile how vaine and momentany how destitute of all good how obnoxious to all sinne and misery Contrarieties make all things better discerned And surely however it be cōmonly seene that the neernesse of the object is an hindrance to the sight yet here the more closely we behold our owne condition the more cleerly we shall discerne and the more fully shall we be convinced of this unpleasing truth It is not for us to look back like the heires of some decayed house at what we were whoever was the better for a past happinesse Alas what are we now miserable dust and ashes earth at the best at the worst hell Our being is vanity our substance corruption our life is but a blast our flesh wormes-meat our beginning impotent above all creatures even wormes can crawle forward so soone as they are so cannot we our continuance short and troublesome our end grievous who can assure himselfe of one minute of time of one dramme of contentment But woe is me other creatures are fraile too none but man is sinfull our soule is not more excellent than this tainture of it is odious and deadly our composition laies us open to mortality but our sinne exposes us to the eternall wrath of God and the issue of it eternall damnation The grave waits for us as men hell as sinners Beasts compare with us in our being in our sinning Devils insult over us And now since the spring
as inhabiting our bosomes we cannot but give all faire and venerable respects to those houses which he hath taken up for his own worship and presence SECT IX NEither lastly can Gods very Messengers though partners of our owne infirmities escape some sensible reflections of our feare It was the rule of the Iewes that the very Prince of the people if hee would consult Gods Oracle out of reverence to that divine pectorall must reverently stand before that Priest who at other times was bound to give lowly obedience to his Soveraigne Lord. What Great Alexander did to the Iewish high Priest who knowes not Neither hath the practises of the godly Emperours in the Christian Church through all successions of Ages savored of lesse regard Even the late Caesar Ferdinand in the sight of our English not long before his end together with his Empresse received an Episcopall benediction publickly upon their knees Away with that insolent pompe of kissing of toes which Iustus Lipsius justly called once foule and servile fit for a Caligula or Maximinus the younger or a Dioclesian Away with the proud horsing on shoulders or treading on necks or the lackeying of Princes It was a moderate word of Cardinall Zabarell concerning his great Master So is he to be honoured that he be not adored Surely when religion was at the best great Peeres thought it no scorne to kisse the venerable hands of their spirituall fathers and did not grudge them eminent titles of honour It was but a simple port that Elijah carryed in the world who after that astonishing wonder of fetching downe fire and water from heaven thought it no abasement to be Ahabs lackey from Carmel to Iezreel yet Obadiah who was high Steward to the King of Israel even that day could fall on his face to him and say Art thou that my Lord Elijah Not much greater was the state of those Christian Bishops who began now to breathe from the bloudy persecutions of the heathen Emperours yet with what dearenesse did that gracious Constantine in whom this Iland is proud to challenge no small share kisse those scarres which they had received for the name of Christ with what titles did he dignifie them as one that saw Christ in their faces and meant in their persons to honour his Saviour And indeed there is so close and indissoluble a relation betwixt Christ and his Messengers that their mutuall interest can never be severed What Prince doth not hold himselfe concerned in the honors or affronts that are done to his Ambassadors Those keyes which God hath committed to our hands lock us so fast to him that no power in earth or hell can separate us but still that word must stand fast in heaven He that despiseth you despiseth me In vaine shall they therefore pretend to feare God that contemne and disgrace their spirituall governours There is a certain plant which our Herbalists call herbam impiam or wicked Cudweed whose younger branches still yeeld flowers to over-top the elder Such weeds grow too rife abroad It is an ill soyle that produceth them I am sure that where the heart is manured and seasoned with a true feare of the Almighty there cannot be but an awfull regard to our spirituall Pastors well are those two charges conjoyned Feare God and honour his Preists SECT X. HItherto having considered that part of holy Feare which consisting in an inward adoration of God expresseth it selfe in the awfull respects to his Name Word Services House Messengers we descend to that other part which consists in our humble subjection and selfe-resignatito his good pleasure in all things whether to order or correct The suffering part is the harder It was a gracious resolution of old Eli Jt is the Lord let him doe whatsoever hee will Surely that man though he were but an ill Father to his worse sonnes yet he was a good sonne to his Father in heaven for nothing but a true filiall awe could make the heart thus pliant that represents our selves to us as the clay and our God to us as the potter and therefore showes us how unjustly we should repine at any forme or use that is by his hand put upon us I could envy that word which is said to have falne from the mouth of Francis of Assisse in his great extremity I thank thee O Lord God for all my paine and I beseech thee if thou think good to adde unto it an hundred fold more Neither was it much different from that which I have read as reported of Pope Adrian but I am sure was spoken by a worthy divine within my time and knowledge of the Vniversity of Cambridge whose labours are of much note and use in the Church of God Master Perkins who when he lay in his last and killing torment of the stone hearing the by-standers to pray for a mitigation of his paine willed them not to pray for an ease of his complaint but for an increase of his patience These speeches cannot proceed but from subdued and meek and mortified soules more intentive upon the glory of their Maker than their owne peace and relaxation And certainly the heart thus seasoned cannot but bee equally tempered to all conditions as humbly acknowledging the same hand both in good evill And therfore even frying in Phalaris his Bull as the Philosopher said of a wise man will be able to say Quà m suave Was it true of that heathen Martyr Socrates that as in his lifetime he was not wont to change his countenance upon any alteration of events so when hee should come to drink his Hemlock as Plato reports it no difference could be descryed either in his hand or face no palenesse in his face no trembling in his hand but a stedfast and fearlesse taking of that fatall cup as if it differed not from the wine of his meals Even this resolution was no other than an effect of the acknowledgment of that one God for which he suffered If so I cannot lesse magnifie that man for his temper than the Oracle did for his wisdome but I can doe no lesse than blesse and admire the known courage and patience of those Christian Martyrs who out of a loving feare of him that only can save and cast both bodies and soules in hell despised shame paine death and manfully insulted upon their persecutors Blessed Ignatius could professe to challenge and provoke the furious Lyons to his dilaniation Blessed Cyprian could pray that the Tyrant would not repent of the purpose of dooming him to death and that other holy Bishop when his hand was threatned to be cut off could say Seca ambas Cut of both It is not for me to transcribe volumes of Martyrologies All that holy army of conquering Saints began their victories in an humble awe of him whose they were and cheerfully triumphed over irons and racks and gibbets and wheeles and fires out of a meek and