death so deiected when hee feeleth sicknesse and so desparate when he feeleth the pangs of death nor that euery Balaam would faine die the death of the righteous Henceforth I will enuie none but a good man I will pittie nothing so much as the prosperitie of the wicked 40 Not to bee afflicted is a signe of weaknesse For therefore God imposeth no more on mee because hee sees I can beare no more God will not make choice of a weake Champion When I am stronger I will looke for more and when I sustaine more it shall more comfort me that God findes me strong than it shall grieue me to be pressed with an heauie affliction 41 That the wicked haue peace in themselues is no wonder they are as sure as Tentation can make them No Prince makes warre with his owne subiects The godly are still enemies therefore they must looke to bee assaulted both by stratagems and violence Nothing shall more ioy me than my inward quietnesse A iust warre is a thousand times more happy than an ill-conditioned peace 42 Goodnesse is so powerfull that it can make things simply euill namely our sinnes good to vs not good in nature but good in the euent good when they are done not good to be done Sinne is so powerfull that it can turne the holiest ordinances of God into it selfe but herein our sinne goes beyond our goodnesse That sinne defiles a man or action otherwise good but all the goodnesse of the world cannot iustifie one sinne as the holy flesh in the skirt makes not the bread holy that toucheth it but the vncleane touching an holy thing defileth it I will loath euery euill for it owne sake I will doe good but not trust to it 43 Fooles measure good actions by the euent after they are done Wise men before-hand by iudgement vpon the rules of reason and faith Let mee doe well let God take charge of the successe If it be well accepted it is well if not my thanke is with God 44 He was neuer good man that amends not For if hee were good he must needs desire to bee better Grace is so sweet that who euer tasts of it must needs long after more and if hee desire it he will endeuour it and if he doe but endeuour God will crowne it with successe Gods familie admitteth of no Dwarfes which are vnthriuing and stand at a stay but men of measures What euer become of my bodie or my estate I will euer labour to finde somewhat added to the stature of my soule 45 Pride is the most dangerous of all sinnes For both it is most insinuatiue hauing crept into Heauen and Paradise and most dangerous where it is For where all other Tentations are about euill this alone is conuersant onely about good things and one dram of it poisons many measures of grace I will not bee more afraid of doing good things amisse than of being proud when I haue well performed them 46 Not onely commission makes a sinne A man is guiltie of all those sinnes he hateth not If I cannot auoid all yet I will hate all 47 Preiudice is so great an enemie to truth that it makes the minde vncapable of it In matters of faith I will first lay a sure ground and then beleeue though I cannot argue holding the conclusion in spight of the premisses but in other lesse matters I will not so forestall my minde with resolution as that I will not bee willing to bee better informed Neither will I say in my selfe I will hold it therefore it shall bee truth but this is truth therefore I will hold it I will not striue for victorie but for truth 48 Drunkennesse and Couetousnesse doe much resemble one another For the more a man drinkes the more hee thirsteth and the more hee hath still the more hee coueteth And for their effects besides other both of them haue the power of transforming a man into a beast and of all other beasts into a Swine The former is euident to sense the other though more obscure is no more questionable The couetous man in two things plainly resembleth a Swine That hee euer roots in the earth not so much as looking towards heauen That hee neuer doth good till his death In desiring my rule shall bee necessitie of nature or estate In hauing I will account that my good which doth me good 49 I acknowledge no master of Requests in Heauen but one Christ my Mediator I know I cannot bee so happie as not to need him nor so miserable that hee should contemne mee I will alwaies aske and that of none but where I am sure to speed but where there is so much store that when I haue had the most I shall leaue no lesse behinde Though numberlesse drops bee in the Sea yet if one bee taken out of it it hath so much the lesse though insensible but God because hee is infinite can admit of no diminution Therefore are men niggardly because the more they giue the lesse they haue but thou Lord maiest giue what thou wilt without abatement of thy store Good praiers neuer came weeping home I am sure I shall receiue either what I aske or what I should aske 50 I see that a fit bootie many times makes a theefe and many would bee proud if they had but the common causes of their neighbours I account this none of the least fauours of God That the world goes no better forward with me For I feare if my estate were better to the world it might be worse to God As it is an happy necessity that inforceth to good so is that next happy that hinders from euill 51 It is the basest loue of all others that is for a benefit for herein we loue not another so much as our selues Though there were no HEAVEN O Lord I would loue thee Now there is one I will esteeme it I will desire it yet still I will loue thee for thy goodnesse sake Thy selfe is reward enough though thou broughtest no more 52 I see men point the field and desperatly ieopard their liues as prodigall of their bloud in the reuenge of a disgracefull word against themselues while they can bee content to heare God pulled out of Heauen with blasphemy and not feele so much as a rising of their bloud Which argues our cold loue to God and our ouer-feruent affection to our selues In mine owne wrongs I will hold patience laudable but in Gods iniuries impious 53 It is an hard thing to speake well but it is harder to be well silent so as it may bee free from suspicion of affection or sullennesse or ignorance else loquacity and not silence would be a note of wisdome Herein I will not care how little but how well He said well for this Not that which is much is well but that which is well is much 54 There is nothing more odious than fruitlesse old age Now for that no tree beares fruit in Autume vnlesse it blossome
from whatsoeuer may offend that maiestie we rest vpon and aboue this of true and canonicall obedience to God without all care of difficultie and in spight of all contradictions of nature Not out of the confidence of our owne power impotent men who are we that we should either vow or performe But as he said Giue what thou bidst and bid what thou wilt Hence the courage of Moses durst venture his hand to take vp the crawling hissing Serpent Hence Peter durst walk vpon the pauement of the waues Hence that heroicall spirit of Luther a man made of metall fit for so great a worke durst resolue and professe to enter into that fore-warned Citie though there had bin as many Deuils in their streets as tiles on their houses Both these vowes as wee once solemnly made by others so for our peace we must renew in our selues Thus the experienced minde both knowing that it hath met with a good friend and withall what the price of a friend is cannot but be carefull to retaine him warie of displeasing and therefore to cut off all dangers of variance voluntarily takes a double oath of allegeance of it selfe to God which neither benefit shall induce vs to breake if we might gaine a world nor feare vrge vs thereto though we must lose our selues The wauering heart that finds continuall combats in it selfe betwixt Pleasure and Conscience so equally matched that neither gets the day is not yet capable of peace and whether euer ouercommeth is troubled both with resistance and victorie Barren Rebecca found more case than when her twins struggled in her wombe If Iacob had beene there alone she had not complained of that painfull contention One while Pleasure holds the Fort and conscience assaults it which when it hath entred at last by strong hand after many batteries of iudgements denounced ere long Pleasure either corrupts the watch or by some cunning stratagem findes way to recouer her first hold So one part is euer attempting and euer resisting Betwixt both the heart cannot haue peace because it resolues not For while the soule is held in suspence it cannot enioy the pleasure it vseth because it is halfe taken vp with feare onely a strong and resolute repulse of pleasure is truly pleasant for therein the Conscience filling vs with heauenly delight maketh sweet triumphs in it selfe as being now the Lord of his owne dominions and knowing what to trust to No man knowes the pleasure of this thought I haue done well but he that hath felt it and he that hath felt it contemnes all pleasure to it It is a false slander raised on Christianitie that it maketh men dumpish and melancholicke for therefore are we heauie because we are not enough Christians We haue religion enough to mislike pleasures not enough to ouercome them But if we be once conquerors ouer our selues and haue deuoted our selues wholly to God there can be nothing but heauenly mirth in the soule Loe here yee Philosophers the true musicke of Heauen which the good heart continually heareth and answers it in the iust measures of ioy Others may talke of mirth as a thing they haue heard of or vainely fancied onely the Christian feeles it and in comparison thereof scorneth the idle ribaldish and scurrilous mirth of the prophane SECT XXIV ANd this resolution which we call for 2. Rule for our actions must not onely exclude manifestly euill actions but also doubting and suspension of minde in actions suspected and questionable wherein the iudgement must euer giue confident determination one way For this Tranquillitie consisteth in a steadinesse of the minde and how can that vessell which is beaten vpon by contrary waues and winds and tottereth to either part be said to keepe a steadie course Resolution is the onely mother of securitie For instance I see that Vsury which was wont to be condemned for no better than a Legall theft hath now obtained with many the reputation of an honest Trade and is both vsed by many and by some defended It is pittie that a bad practice should finde any learned or religious Patron The summe of my patrimony lieth dead by me sealed vp in the bagge of my Father my thriftier friends aduise mee to this easie and sure improuement Their counsell and my gaine preuaile my yeerely summes come in with no cost but of time wax parchment my estate likes it well better than my conscience which tells me still he doubts my trade is too easie to be honest Yet I continue my illiberall course not without some scruple and contradiction so as my feare of offence hinders the ioy of my profit and the pleasure of my gaine hartens me against the feare of iniustice I would be rich with ease and yet I would not be vncharitable I would not bee vniust All the while I liue in vnquiet doubts and distraction Others are not so much entangled in my bonds as I in my owne At last that I may be both iust and quiet I conclude to referre this case wholly to the sentence of my inward Iudge the Conscience the Aduocates Gaine and Iustice plead on either part at this barre with doubtfull successe Gaine informes the Iudge of a new and nice distinction of toothlesse and biting Interest and brings presidents of particular cases of Vsury so farre from any breach of charitie or iustice that both parts therein confesse themselues aduantaged Iustice pleads euen the most toothlesse vsury to haue sharpe gums and findes in the most harmelesse and profitable practice of it an insensible wrong to the common body besides the infinite wracks of priuate estates The weake Iudge suspends in such probable allegations and demurreth as being ouercome of both and of neither part and leaues me yet no whit more quiet no whit lesse vncertaine I suspend my practice accordingly being sure it is good not to doe what I am not sure is good to be done and now Gaine sollicits me as much as Iustice did before Betwixt both I liue troublesomely nor euer shall doe other till in a resolute detestation I haue whipped this euill Merchant out of the Temple of my heart This rigour is my peace Before I could not be well either full or fasting Vncertaintie is much paine euen in a more tolerable action Neither is it I thinke easie to determine whether it be worse to doe a lawfull act with doubting or an euill with resolution since that which in it selfe is good is made euill to me by my doubt and what is in nature euill is in this one point not euill to me that I doe it vpon a verdict of a Conscience so now my iudgement offends in not following the truth I offend not in that I follow my iudgment Wherein if the most wise God had left vs to roue onely according to the aime of our owne coniectures it should haue beene lesse faulty to be Scepticks in our actions and either not to iudge at all or to iudge amisse
harsh which also holds no lesse in the actiuities of the hand And if it happen that one man be qualified with skill of diuers trades and practise this varietie you shall seldome finde such one thriuing in his estate with spirituall gifts it is otherwise which are so chained together that who excels in one hath some eminencie in more yea in all Looke vpon faith shee is attended with a Beuie of Graces Hee that beleeues cannot but haue hope if hope patience Hee that beleeues and hopes must needs finde ioy in God if ioy loue of God hee that loues God cannot but loue his brother his loue to God breeds pietie and care to please sorrow for offending feare to offend his loue to men fidelitie and Christian beneficence Vices are seldome single but vertues goe euer in troupes they goe so thicke that sometimes some are hid in the crowd which yet are but appeare not They may bee shut out from sight they cannot be seuered 8 The Heauen euer moues and yet is the place of our rest Earth euer rests and yet is the place of our trouble Outward motion can be no enemie to inward rest as outward rest may well stand with inward vnquietnesse 9 None liue so ill but they content themselues in somewhat Euen the begger likes the smell of his dish It is a rare euill that hath not something to sweeten it either in sense or in hope Otherwise men would grow desperate mutinous enuious of others weary of themselues The better that thing is wherein we place our comfort the happier wee liue and the more we loue good things the better they are to vs. The worldlings comfort though it be good to him because hee loues it yet because it is not absolutely and eternally good it failes him wherein the Christian hath iust aduantage of him while he hath all the same causes of ioy refined and exalted besides more and higher which the other knowes not of the worldling laughs more but the Christian is more delighted These two are easily seuered Thou seest a goodly picture or an heape of thy gold thou laughest not yet thy delight is more than in a iest that shaketh thy spleene As griefe so ioy is not lesse when it is least expressed 10 I haue seene the worst natures and most depraued minds not affecting all sinnes but still some they haue condemned in others and abhorred in themselues One exclaimes on couetousnesse yet he can too well abide riotous good fellowship Another inueighs against drunkennesse and excesse not caring how cruell hee bee in vsurie and oppression One cannot endure a rough and quarrelous disposition yet giues himselfe ouer to vncleane and lasciuious courses Another hates all wrongs saue wrong to God One is a ciuill Atheist another a religious Vsurer a third an honest Drunkard a fourth an vnchaste Iusticer a fift a chaste Quarreller I know not whether euery Deuill excell in all sinnes I am sure some of them haue denomination from some sinnes more speciall Let no man applaud himselfe for those sinnes he wanteth but condemne himselfe rather for that sinne he hath Thou censurest another mans sinne hee thine God curseth both 11 Gold is the heauiest of all metals It is no wonder that the rich man is vsually carried downeward to his place It is hard for the soule clogged with many weights to ascend to heauen It must be a strong and nimble soule that can carrie vp it selfe and such a load yet Adam and Noah flew vp thither with the double Monarchie of the world the Patriarkes with much wealth many holy Kings with massie Crownes and Scepters The burden of couetous desires is more heauie to an emptie soule than much treasure to the full Our affections giue poize or lightnesse to earthly things Either abate of thy load if thou finde it too pressing whether by hauing lesse or louing lesse or adde to thy strength and actiuitie that thou maiest yet ascend It is more commendable by how much more hard to climbe into heauen with a burden 12 A Christian in all his waies must haue three guides Truth Charitie Wisdome Truth to goe before him Charitie and Wisdome on either hand If any of the three bee absent he walkes amisse I haue seene some doe hurt by following a truth vncharitably And others while they would salue vp an errour with loue haue failed in their wisdome and offended against iustice A charitable vntruth and an vncharitable truth and an vnwise menaging of truth or loue are all to be carefully auoided of him that would goe with a right foot in the narrow way 13 God brought man forth at first not into a wildernesse but a Garden yet then hee expected the best seruice of him I neuer finde that hee delights in the miserie but in the prosperitie of his seruants Cheerefulnesse pleases him better than a deiected and dull heauinesse of heart If wee can be good with pleasure hee grudgeth not our ioy If not it is best to stint our selues not for that these comforts are not good but because our hearts are euill faulting not their nature but our vse and corruption 14 The homeliest seruice that we doe in an honest calling though it be but to plow or digge if done in obedience and conscience of Gods commandement is crowned with an ample reward whereas the best workes for their kinde preaching praying offering Euangelicall sacrifices if without respect of Gods iniunction and glory are loaded with curses God loueth aduerbs and cares not how good but how well 15 The golden infancie of some hath proceeded to a brazen youth and ended in a leaden age All humane maturities haue their period onely grace hath none I durst neuer lay too much hope on the forward beginnings of wit and memorie which haue beene applauded in children I know they could but attaine their vigor and that if sooner no whit the better for the earlier is their perfection of wisdome the longer shall be their witlesse age Seasonablenesse is the best in all these things which haue their ripenesse and decay We can neuer hope too much of the timely blossomes of grace whose spring is perpetuall and whose haruest begins with our end 16 A man must giue thanks for somewhat which he may not pray for It hath beene said of Courtiers that they must receiue iniuries and giue thanks God cannot wrong his but he will crosse them those crosses are beneficiall all benefits challenge thanks yet I haue read that Gods children haue with condition prayed against them neuer for them In good things wee pray both for them and their good vse in euill for their good vse not themselues yet we must giue thanks for both For there is no euill of paine which God doth not nothing that God doth is not good no good thing but is worthy of thanks 17 One halfe of the world knowes not how the other liues and therefore the better sort pittie not the distressed and the miserable enuie not
conscience ye finde nothing and all this by the legier-de-maine of the heart Thus Achan hath hid his wedge and now he dares stand out to a lot Thus Salomons Harlot hath wip't her mouth and it was not she Thus Saul will lie-out his sacrilege vntill the very beasts out-bleat and out-bellow him Thus the swearer sweares and when hee hath done sweares that he swore not Thus the vncleane fornicator bribes off his sinne and his shame and now makes challenges to the world of his honesty It cannot be spoken how peeuishly witty the heart of man is this way neither doubt I but this wilinesse is some of the poyson that the subtile serpent infected vs with in that fatall morsell They were three cunning shifts which the Scripture recordeth of three women as that sex hath beene euer noted for more sudden pregnancie of wit Rachel Rahab and the good wife of Bahurim The first hiding the Teraphim with a modest seat the second the spies with flaxe-stalkes and the third Dauids scouts with corne spred ouer the Well but these are nothing to the deuices that nature hath wont to vse for the cloaking of sinne God made man vpright saith Salomon but he sought many inuentions Is Adam challenged for sinne Behold all on the sudden it is passed from his hand to Gods The woman that thou gauest me Is Saul challenged for a couetous and disobedient remissenesse the sinne is straight passed from the field to the Altar I saued the fattest for a Sacrifice to the Lord thy God So the one begins his sin in God and the other ends it in him Is Dauid bewitched with lust to abuse the Wife the Husband must be sent home drunke to hide it or if not that to his long home in a pretended fauour of his valour Is a griping Vsurer disposed to put his money together to breed a monster he hath a thousand quirks to cozen both law and conscience Is a Simoniacall Patron disposed to make a good match of his peoples soules it shall be no bargaine but a gift he hath a liuing to giue but an horse to sell And sure I thinke in this wise age of the world Vsurers and Simonists striue who shall finde the wittiest way to hell What should I speake of the secret frauds in contracts booties in matches subornation of instruments hiring of oathes feeing of officers equiuocations of answers and ten thousand other tricks that the heart of man hath deuised for the conueiances of sin in all which it too well approues it selfe incomparably deceitfull The false semblance of the heart is yet worse for the former is most-what for the smothering of euill this is for the iustifying of euill or the disgrace of good In these two doth this act of falshood chiefly consist in making euill good or good euill For the first The naturall man knowes well how filthy all his brood is and therefore will not let them come forth but disguised with the colours and dresses of good so as now euery one of natures birds is a Swan Pride is handsomnesse desperate fury valour lauishnesse is noble munificence drunkennesse ciuility flattery complement murderous reuenge iustice the Curtizan is bona foemina the Sorcerer a wise man the oppressor a good husband Absolom will goe pay his vowes Herod will worship the Babe For the second such is the enuy of nature that where shee sees a better face than her owne shee is ready to scratch it or cast dirt in it and therefore knowing that all vertue hath a natiue beauty in it she labours to deforme it by the foulest imputations Would the Israelites be deuout they are idle Doth Dauid daunce for ioy before the Arke he is a foole in a Morris Doth Saint Paul discourse of his heauenly Vision too much learning hath made him mad Doe the Disciples miraculously speake all the tongues of Babel They are ful of new wine Doe they preach Christs kingdome they are seditious The resurrection they are bablers Is a man conscionable he is an Hypocrite Is he conformable he is vnconscionable Is he plaine dealing hee is rudely vnciuill Is he wisely insinuatiue he is a flatterer In short such is the wicked craft of the heart that it would let vs see nothing in it owne forme but faine would shew vs euill faire that we might be inamored of it and vertue vgly that we might abhorre it and as it doth for the way so doth it for the end hiding from vs the glory of heauen that is laid vp for ouer-commers and shewing vs nothing but the pleasant closure of wickednesse making vs beleeue that hell is a palace and heauen a dungeon that so we might be in loue with death and thus both in cunning conueyance and false semblance The heart of man is deceitfull aboue all things Ye haue seene the fashion of this deceit cast now your eies vpon the subiect And whom doth it then deceiue It doth deceiue others it can deceiue it selfe it would deceiue Satan yea God himselfe Others first How many doe we take for honest and sound Christians who yet are but errant hypocrites These Apes of Satan haue learned to transforme themselues into Angels of light The heart bids the eies looke vpward to heauen when they are full of adultery It bids the hands to raise vp themselues towards their Maker when they are full of bloud It bids the tongue wagge holily when there is nothing in the bosome but Atheous profanenesse It bids the knee to bow like a Camell when the heart is stiffe as an Elephant yea if need be it can bid a teare fall from the eie or an almes or iust action fall from the hand and all to gâ—ll the world with a good opinion In all which false chapmen and horse-coursers doe not more ordinarily deceiue their buyers in shops and faires than we doe one another in our conuersation Yea so crafty is the heart that it can deceiue it selfe By ouer-weening his owne powers as the proud man by vnder-valuing his graces as the modest by mis-taking his estate as the ignorant How many hearts doe thus grossely beguile themselues The first thinkes hee is rich and fine when hee is beggerly and naked so did the Angell of Laodicea The second is poore in his owne spirit when hee is rich of Gods spirit The third thinkes that he is a great fauourite of heauen when he is rather branded for an out-cast that hee is truly noble when he is a slaue to that which is baser than the worst of Gods creatures sinne Let the proud and ignorant worldling therefore know that though others may mocke him with applauses yet that all the world cannot make him so much a foole as his owne heart Yea so cunning is the heart that it thinkes to goe beyond the deuill himselfe I can thinks it swallow his bait and yet auoid his hooke I can sinne and liue I can repent of sinning and defeat my punishment by repenting I can runne vpon
should fall enough to fill so many hundred thousand mouthes and mawes A miracle in the composition That it is sweet like hony-cakes round like Corianders transparent as dew A miracle in the qualitie That it melted by one heat by another hardened A miracle in the difference of the fall That as if it knew times and would reach them as well as feed them it fell double in the euen of the Sabbath and on the Sabbath fell not A miracle in the putrefaction and preseruation That it was full of wormes when it was kept beyond the due houre for distrust full of sweetnesse when it was kept a day longer for religion Yea many Ages in the Arke for a monument of the power and mercy of the Giuer A miracle in the continuance and ceasing That this showre of bread followed their Campe in all their remoueals till they came to taste of the bread of Canaan and then withdrew it selfe as if it should haue said Ye need no miracles now ye haue meanes They had the Types we haue the substance In this wildernesse of the World the true Manna is rained vpon the tents of our hearts Hee that sent the Manna was the Manna which he sent He hath said I am the Manna that came downe from heauen Behold their whole meales were sacramentall Euery morsell they did eate was spirituall We eate still of their Manna still he comes downe from heauen Hee hath substance enough for worlds of soules yet onely is to be found in the lists of the true Church He hath more sweetnesse then the hony and the hony-combe Happy are we if we can find him so sweet as he is The same hand that rained Manna vpon their tents could haue rained it into their mouths or laps God loues we should take paines for our spirituall food Little would it haue auailed them that the Manna lay about their tents if they had not gone forth and gathered it beaten it bak't it Let saluation be neuer so plentifull if wee bring it not home and make it ours by faith we are no whit the better If the worke done and meanes vsed had beene enough to giue life no Israelite had dyed Their bellies were full of that bread whereof one crumme giues life yet they dyed many of them in displeasure As in naturall so in spirituall things wee may not trust to meanes The carcasse of the Sacrament cannot giue life but the soule of it which is the thing represented I see each man gather and take his iust measure out of the common heape We must be industrious and helpefull each to other but when we haue done Christ is not partiall If our sanctification differ yet our iustification is equall in all He that gaue a Gomer to each could haue giuen an Ephah As easily could hee haue rained downe enough for a moneth or a yeare at once as for a day God delights to haue vs liue in a continual dependance vpon his prouidence and each day renue the acts of our faith and thankfullnesse But what a couetous Israelite was that which in a foolish distrust would be sparing the charges of God and reseruing that for morning which he should haue spent vpon his supper He shall know that euen the bread that came downe from heauen can corrupt The Manna was from aboue the wormes and stinke from his diffidence Nothing is so soueraigne which being peruerted may not annoy instead of benefiting vs. Yet I see some difference betweene the true typicall Manna God neuer meant that the shadow and the body should agree in all things The outward Manna reserued was poison the spirituall Manna is to vs as it was to the Arke not good vnlesse it be kept perpetually If we keepe it it shall keepe vs from putrefaction The outward Manna fell not at all on the Sabbath The spirituall Manna tho it ballâ—â—s no day yet it fals double on Gods day and if we gather it not then we famish In that true Sabbath of our glorious rest we shall for euer feed of that Manna which we haue gathered in this euen of our life Of the Rocke of Rephidim BEfore Israel thirsted and was satisfied after that they hungred and were filled now they thirst againe They haue bread and meat but want drink It is a maruell if God doe not euermore hold vs short of something because he would keepe vs still in exercise Wee should forget at whose cost we liue if we wanted nothing Still God obserues a vicissitude of euill and good and the same euils that we haue passed returne vpon vs in their courses Crosses are not of the nature of those diseases which they say a man can haue but once Their first seisure doth but make way for their re-entry None but our last enemie comes once for all and I know not if that for euen in liuing we dye daily So must we take our leaues of all afflictions that we reserue a lodging for them and expect their returne All Israel murmured when they wanted bread meat water and yet all Israel departed from the wildernesse of Sin to Rephidim at Gods command The very worst men will obey God in something none but the good in all Hee is rarely desperate that makes an vniuersall opposition to God It is an vnsound praise that is giuen a man for one good action It may bee safely said of the very Deuils themselues that they doe something well They know and beleeue and tremble If we follow God and murmur it is all one as if we had stayd behind Those distrust his prouidence in their necessity that are ready to follow his guidance in their welfare It is an harder matter to endure an extreame want then to obey an hard commandement Sufferings are greater tryals then actions How many haue we seene ieopard their liues with cheerfull resolution which cannot endure in cold blood to lose a limbe with patience But God will haue his throughly tryed he puts them to both and if we cannot endure both to follow him from Sin and to thirst in Rephidim we are not found Israelites God led them on purpose to this drie Rephidim He could as well haue conducted them to another Elim to conuenient waterings Or hee that giues the waters of all their channels could as well haue deriued them to meet Israel But God doth purposely cary them to thirst Is it not for necessity that we fare ill but out of choyce It were all one with God to giue vs health as sicknesse abundance as pouerty The treasurie of his riches hath more store then his creature can be capable of we should not complaine if it were not good for vs to want This should haue beene a contentment able to quench any thirst God hath led vs hither If Moses out of ignorance had misguided vs or we chanceably falne vpon these dry desarts though this were no remedy of our griefe yet it might be some ground of our complaint But now the
though grieuous yet might be remote therefore for a present hansell of vengeance she is dismissed with the sad tidings of the death of her sonne When thy feet enter into the Citie the child shall dye It is heauy newes for a mother that shee must leese her sonne but worse yet that shee may not see him In these cases of our finall departures our presence giues some mitigation to our griefe might shee but haue closed the eyes and haue receiued the last breath of her dying sonne the losse had bin more tolerable I know not how our personall farewell eases our heart euen whiles it increases our passion but now she shall no more see nor bee seene of her Abijah She shall no sooner be in the City then hee shall bee out of the world Yet more to perfect her sorrow shee heares that in him alone there is found some good the rest of her issue are gracelesse she must leese the good and hold the gracelesse he shall die to afflict her they shall liue to afflict her Yet what a mixture is here of seueritie and fauour in one act fauour to the sonne seueritie to the father Seueritie to the father that hee must leese such a sonne fauour to the sonne that he shall be taken from such a father Ieroboam is wicked and therefore he shall not enioy an Abijah Abijah hath some good things therefore hee shall be remoued from the danger of the deprauation of Ieroboam Sometimes God strikes in fauour but more often forbeares out of seueritie The best are fittest for heauen the earth is fittest for the worst this is the region of sinne and misery that of immortalitie It is no argument of dis-fauour to be taken early from a well-led life as not of approbation to age in sinne As the soule of Abijah is fauoured in the remouall so is his body with a buriall he shall haue alone both teares and tombe all the rest of his brethren shall haue no graue but dogs and fowles no sorrow but for their life Though the carkasse be insensible of any position yet honest Sepulture is a blessing It is fit the body should bee duely respected on earth whose soule is glorious in heauen ASA THe two houses of Iuda and Israel grow vp now together in an ambitious riuality this splitted plant branches out so seuerally as if it had forgotten that euer it was ioyned in the root The throne of Dauid oft changeth the possessors and more complaineth of their iniquity then their remoue Abijam inherits the sins of his father Rehoboam no lesse then his Crowne and so spends his three yeares as if had been no whit of kinne to his grandfathers vertues It is no newes that grace is not traduced whiles vice is Therefore is his reigne short because it was wicked It was a sad case when both the Kings of Iudah and Israel though enemies yet conspired in sinne Rehoboam like his father Salomon began graciously but fell to Idolatry as he followed his father so his sonne so his people followed him Oh what a face of a Church was here when Israel worshipped Ieroboams calues when Iudah built them high places and Images and groues on euery high Hill and vnder euery greene tree On both hands GOD is forsaken his Temple neglected his worship adulterate and this not for some short brunt but during the succession of two Kings For after the first three yeares Rehoboam changed his fathers Religion as his shields from gold to brasse the rest of his seuenteene yeares were ledde in impietie His sonne Abijam trod in the same mierie steps and Iudah with them both If there were any doubtlesse there were some faithfull hearts yet remaining in both Kingdomes during these heauy times what a corrosiue it must needs haue been to them to see so deplored and miserable a deprauation There was no visible Church vpon earth but here and this what a one Oh God how low doest thou sometimes suffer thine owne flocke to bee driuen What wofull wanes and eclipses hast thou ordained for this heauenly body Yet at last an Asa shall arise from the loynes from the graue of Abijam hee shall reâ—iue Dauid and reforme Iudah The gloomie times of corruption shall not last alwayes The light of truth and peace shall at length breake out and blesse the sad hearts of the righteous It is a wonder how Asa should bee good of the seed of Abijam of the soyle of Maachah both wicked both Idolatrous God would haue vs see that grace is from heauen neither needes the helps of these earthly conueyances Should not the children of good parents sometimes be euill and the children of euill parents good vertue would seeme naturall and the giuer would leese his thankes Thus we haue seene a faire flower spring out of dung and a well-fruited tree rise out of a fowre stocke Education hath no lesse power to corrupt then nature It is therefore the iust praise of Asa that being trained vp vnder an Idolatrous Maachah he maintained his piety As contrarily it is a shame for those that haue beene bred vp in the precepts and examples of vertue and godlinesse to fall off to lewnesse or superstition There are foure principall monuments of Asaes vertue as so many rich stones in his Diadem He tooke away Sodomie and Idols out of Iudah Who cannot wonder more that he found them there then that he remoued them What a strange incongruity is this Sodom in Ierusalem Idols in Iudah Surely debauched profession proues desperate Admit the Idols ye cannot doubt of the Sodomy If they haue changed the glory of the vncorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible man and to birds and foure-footed beasts and creeping things it is no maruell if God giue them vp to vncleannesse through the lusts of their owne hearts to dishonour their own bodies betweene themselues If they changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and serued the creature more then the Creator who is blessed for euer no maruell if God giue them to vile affections to change the naturall vse into that which is against nature burning in lust one towards another men with men working that which is vnseemely Contrarily admit the Sodomy yee cannot doubt of the Idols Vnnaturall beastlinesse in manners is punished iustly with a sottish dotage in religion bodily pollution with spirituall How should the soule care to bee chaste that keepes a stewes in the body Asa begins with the banishment of both scouring Iudah of this double vncleannesse In vaine should he haue hoped to restore God to his Kingdome whiles these abominations inhabited it It is iustly the maine care of worthy and religious Princes to cleare their Coasts of the foulest sinnes Oh the vnpartiall zeale of Asa There were Idols that challenged a prerogatiue of fauour the Idols that his father had made all these he defaces the name of a father cannot protect an Idoll The duty to his Parent cannot winne him
whiles our hearts are euill The Cruse and the Salt must bee their owne The act must bee his the power Gods He cast the Salt into the spring and said Thus saith the Lord I haue healed these waters there shall not be from thence any more death or barrennesse Farre was it from Elisha to challenge ought to himselfe Before when hee should diuide the waters of Iordan he did not say Where is the power of Elisha but Where is the Lord God of Elijah and now when hee should cure the waters of Iericho hee saies not Thus saies Elisha but thus saith the Lord I haue healed these waters How carefull is the man of God that no part of Gods glory should sticke to his owne fingers Iericho shall know to whom they owe the blessing that they may duely returne the thankes Elisha professes he can doe no more of himselfe then that Salt then that Cruse onely God shall worke by him by it and what euer that almighty hand vndertakes cannot faile yea is already done neither doth he say I will heale but I haue healed Euen so O God if thou cast into the fountaine of our hearts but one Cruse-full of the Salt of thy Spirit we are whole no thought can passe betweene the receit and the remedy As the generall visitor of the Schooles of the Prophets Elisha passeth from Iericho to that other Colledge at Bethel Bethel was a place of strange composition there was at once the golden Calfe of Ieroboam and the Schoole of God True religion and Idolatry found a free harbour within those wals I do not maruell that Gods Prophets would plant there there was the most need of their presence where they found the spring head of corruption Physitians are of most vse where diseases abound As he was going vp by the way there came forth little children out of the City and mocked him and said to him Goe vp thou bald-head Goe vp thou bald-head Euen the very boyes of Bethel haue learned to scoffe at a Prophet The spight of their Idolatrous parents is easily propagated Children are such as their institution Infancy is led altogether by imitation it hath neither words nor actions but infused by others If it haue good or ill language it is but borrowed and the shame or thanke is due to those that lent it What was it that these ill-taught children vpbraided to the Prophet but a sleight naturall defect not worthy the name of a blemish the want of a little haire at the best a comely excrement no part of the body Had there been deformity in that smoothnesse of the head which some great wits haue honoured with praises a faultlesse and remedilesse eye-sore had beene no fit matter for a taunt How small occasions will be taken to disgrace a Prophet If they could haue said ought worse Elisha had not heard of this God had crowned that head with honor which the Bethelitish children loaded with scorne Who would haue thought the rude termes of waggish boyes worthy of any thing but neglect Elisha lookes at them with seuere browes and like the heire of him that cald downe fire vpon the two Captaines and their fifties curses them in the name of the Lord Two shee-Beares out of the wood hasten to bee his executioners and teare two and forty of them in peeces O fearefull example of diuine Iustice This was not the reuenge of an angry Prophet it was the punishment of a righteous Iudge God and his Seer lookt through these children at the Parents at all Israel he would punish the parents mis-nurturing their children to the contemptuous vsage of a Prophet with the death of those children which they had mis-taught Hee would teach Israel what it was to mis-use a Prophet And if hee would not endure these contumelies vnreuenged in the mouthes of children what vengeance was enough for aged persecutors Doubtlesse some of the children escaped to tell the newes of their fellowes what lamentation doe wee thinke there was in the streets of Bethel how did the distressed mothers wring their hands for this woefull orbation And now when they came forth to fetch the remnants of their owne flesh what a sad spectacle it was to finde the fields strawed with those mangled carkasses It is an vnprofitable sorrow that followes a iudgement Had these parents beene as carefull to traine vp their children in good discipline and to correct their disorders as they are now passionate in bemoaning their losse this slaughter had neuer beene In vaine doe we looke for good of those children whose education we haue neglected In vaine do we grieue for those miscariages which our care might haue preuented Elisha knew the successe yet doth he not balke the City of Bethel Doe wee not wonder that the furious impatience of those parents whom the curse of Elisha robbed of their children did not breake forth to some malicious practice against the Prophet Would wee not thinke the Prophet might misdoubt some hard measure from those exasperated Citizens There lay his way hee followes God without feare of men as well knowing that either they durst not or they could not act violence They knew there were Beares in the wood and fires in heauen and if their malice would haue ventured aboue their courage they could haue no more power ouer Elisha in the streets then those hungry beasts had in the way Whither dare not a Prophet go when God cals him Hauing visited the schooles of the Prophets Elisha retires to mount Carmel after some holy solitarinesse returnes to the City of Samaria He can neuer be a profitable Seer that is either alwaies or neuer alone Carmel shall fit him for Samaria contemplation for action That mother City of Israel must needs afford him most worke Yet is the Throne of Ahaziah succeeded by a brother lesse ill then himselfe then the parents of both Ahabs impiety hath not a perfect heire of Iehoram That son of his hates his Baal though he keepes his calues Euen into the most wicked families it pleaseth God to cast his powerfull restraints that all are not equally vicious It is no newes to see lewd men make scruple of some sinnes The world were not to liue in if all sinnes were affected by all It is no thanke to Ahab and Iezebel that their sonne is no Baalite As no good is traduced from parents so not all euill there is an Almighty hand that stops the foule current of nature at his pleasure No Idolater can say that his child shall not be a conuert The affinitie betwixt the houses of Israel and Iuda holds good in succession Iehoram inherits the friendship the aid of Iehoshaphat whose counsell as is most likely had cured him of that Baalisme It was a good warre whereto he solicites the good King of Iudah The King of Moab who had beene an ancient Tributarie from the daies of Dauid falls now from his homage and refuses to pay his hundred thousand Lambes and hundred
All mouthes are boldly opened with a conceit of impunitie My eare shall bee no graue to burie my friends good name But as I will bee my present friends selfe So will I bee my absent friends deputie to say for him what he would and cannot speake for himselfe 70 The losse of my friend as it shall moderately grieue mee so it shall another way much benefit mee in recompence of his want for it shall make mee thinke more often and seriously of earth and of heauen Of earth for his body which is reposed in it Of Heauen for his soule which possesseth it before mee Of earth to put me in minde of my like frailtie and mortality Of Heauen to make me desire and after a sort emulate his happinesse and glory 71 Varietie of obiects is wont to cause distraction when againe a little one laid close to the eye if but of a peny breadth wholly takes vp the sight which could else see the whole halfe Heauen at once I will haue the eies of my minde euer fore-stalled and filled with those two obiects the shortnesse of my life eternity after death 72 I see that he is more happy that hath nothing to lose than he that loseth that which he hath I will therefore neither hope for riches nor feare pouerty 73 I care not so much in any thing for multitude as for choice Bookes and friends I will not haue many I had rather seriously conuerse with a few than wander amongst many 74 The wicked man is a very coward and is afraid of euery thing Of God because he is his enemy of Satan because he is his tormentor of Gods creatures because they ioyning with their Maker fight against him of himselfe because he beares about him his owne accuser and executioner The godly man contrarily is afraid of nothing Not of God because he knowes him his best friend and therefore will not hurt him not of Satan because he cannot hurt him not of afflictions because he knowes they proceed from a louing God and end to his owne good not of the creatures since the very stones of the field are in league with him not of himselfe since his conscience is at peace A wicked man may be secure because he knowes not what he hath to feare or desperate through extremitie of feare but truly couragious he cannot be Faithlesnesse cannot chuse but be false-hearted I will euer by my courage take triall of my faith By how much more I feare by so much lesse I beleeue 75 The godly man liues hardly and like the Ant toiles here during the Summer of his peace holding himselfe short of his pleasures as looking to prouide for an hard Winter Which when it comes he is able to weare it out comfortably whereas the wicked man doth prodigally lash out all his ioyes in the time of his prosperitie and like the Grashopper singing merrily all Summer is starued in Winter I will so enioy the present that I will lay vp more for hereafter 76 I haue wondred oft and blushed for shame to reade in meere Philosophers which had no other Mistresse but Nature such strange resolution in the contempt of both fortunes as they call them such notable precepts for a constant setlednesse and tranquillitie of minde and to compare it with my owne disposition and practice whom I haue found too much drouping and deiected vnder small crosses and easily againe caried away with little prosperitie To see such courage and strength to contemne death in those which thought they wholly perished in death and to finde such faint-heartednesse in my selfe at the first conceit of death who yet am thorowly perswaded of the future happinesse of my soule I haue the benefit of nature as well as they besides infinite other helps that they wanted Oh the dulnesse and blindnesse of vs vnworthy Christians that suffer Heathens by the dim candle-light of Nature to goe further than we by the cleere Sun of the Gospell that an indifferent man could not tell by our practice whether were the Pagan Let me neuer for shame account my selfe a Christian vnlesse my Art of Christianitie haue imitated and gone beyond nature so farre that I can finde the best Heathen as farre below me in true resolution as the vulgar sort were below them Else I may shame Religion it can neither honest nor helpe me 77 If I would be irreligious and vnconscionable I would make no doubt to be rich For if a man will defraud dissemble forsweare bribe oppresse serue the time make vse of all men for his owne turne make no scruple of any wicked action for his aduantage I cannot see how hee can escape wealth and preferment But for an vpright man to rise is difficult while his conscience straightly curbes him in from euery vniust action and will not allow him to aduance himselfe by indirect meanes So riches come seldome easily to a good man seldome hardly to the consciencelesse Happy is that man that can be rich with truth or poore with contentment I will not enuy the grauell in the vniust mans throat Of riches let mee neuer haue more than an honest man can beare away 78 God is the God of order not of confusion As therefore in naturall things he vseth to proceed from one extreme to another by degrees through the meane so doth hee in spirituall The Sun riseth not at once to his highest from the darknesse of midnight but first sends forth some feeble glimmering of light in the dawning then lookes out with weake and watrish beames and so by degrees ascends to the midst of heauen So in the seasons of the yeere we are not one day scorched with a Summer heat and on the next frozen with a sudden extremitie of cold But Winter comes on softly first by cold dewes then hoare frosts vntill at last it descend to the hardest weather of all such are Gods spirituall proceedings He neuer brings any man from the estate of sin to the estate of glory but through the estate of grace And as for grace he seldome brings a man from grosse wickednesse to any eminence of perfection I will be charitably iealous of those men which from notorious lewdnesse leape at once into a sudden forwardnesse of profession Holinesse doth not like Ionas gourd grow vp in a night I like it better to goe on soft and sure than for an hastie fit to runne my selfe out of winde and after stand still and breathe me 79 It hath beene said of old To doe well and heare ill is princely Which as it is most true by reason of the enuy which followes vpon iustice so is the contrary no lesse iustified by many experiments To doe ill and to heare well is the fashion of many great men To doe ill because they are borne out with the assurance of impunitie To heare well because of abundance of Parasites which as Rauens to a carkasse gather about great men Neither is there any so great misery in
precept of the Philosopher who taught him that by sitting and resting the minde gathereth wisdome * * Guliel Paris Another leaning to some Rest towards the left side for the greater quieting of the heart * * Dâ—onys Carthus A third standing with the eies lift vp to Heauen but shut for feare of distractions But of all other me thinketh Isaacs choice the best who meditated walking In this let euery man be his owne master so be we vse that frame of body that may both testifie reuerence and in some cases helpe to stirre vp further deuotion which also must needs be varied according to the matter of our Meditation If we thinke of our sinnes Ahabs soft pase the Publicans deiected eies and his hand beating his brest are more seasonable If of the ioyes of heauen Steuens countenance fixed aboue and Dauids hands lift vp on high are most fitting In all which the body as it is the instrument and vassall of the soule so will easily follow the affections thereof and in truth then is our deuotion most kindly when the body is thus commanded his seruice by the Spirit and not suffered to goe before it and by his forwardnesse to prouoke his master to emulation CHAP. XII NOw time and order call vs from these circumstances Of the matter and subiect of our â—editation to the matter and subiect of Meditation which must be Diuine and Spirituall not euill nor worldly O the carnall and vnprofitable thoughts of men We all meditate one how to doe ill to others another how to doe some earthly good to himselfe another to hurt himselfe vnder a colour of good as how to accomplish his lewd desires the fulfilling whereof proueth the bane of the soule how he may sinne vnseene and goe to hell with the least noise of the world Or perhaps some better mindes bend their thoughts vpon the search of naturall things the motions of euery heauen and of euery starre the reason and course of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea the manifold kinds of simples that grow out of the earth and creatures that creepe vpon it with all their strange qualities and operations Or perhaps the seuerall formes of gouernment and rules of State take vp their busie heads so that while they would be acquainted with the whole world they are strangers at home and while they seeke to know all other things â—â—â—y remaine vnknowne of themselues The God that made them the vilenesse of their nature the danger of their sinnes the multitude of their imperfections the Sauiour that bought them the Heauen that he bought for them are in the meane time as vnknowne as vnregarded as if they were not Thus doe foolish children spend their time and labour in turning ouer leaues to looke for painted babes not at all respecting the solid matter vnder their hands We fooles when will we be wise and turning our eies from vanity with that sweet Singer of Israel make Gods statutes our song and meditation in the house of our pilgrimage Earthly things proffer themselues with importunity Heauenly things must with importunity be sued to Those if they were not so little worth would not be so forward being forward need not any Meditation to solicit them These by how much more hard they are to intreat by so much more precious they are being obtained and therefore worthier our endeuor As then we cannot goe amisse so long as we keep our selues in the tracke of Diuinitie while the soule is taken vp with the thoughts either of the Deitie in his essence and persons sparingly yet in this point and more in faith and admiration than inquiry or of his attributes his Iustice Power Wisdome Mercy Truth or of his workes in the creation preseruation gouernment of all things according to the Psalmist I will meditate of the beauty of thy glorious Maiesty and thy wonderfull workes so most directly in our way and best fitting our exercise of Meditation are those matters in Diuinitie which can most of all worke compunction in the heart and most stirre vs vp to deuotion Of which kinde are the Meditations concerning Christ Iesus our Mediator his Incarnation Miracles Life Passion Buriall Resurrection Ascension Intercession the benefit of our Redemption the certainty of our Election the graces and proceeding of our Sanctification our glorious estate in Paradise lost in our first Parents our present vilenesse our inclination to sinne our seuerall actuall offences the tentations and sleights of euill Angels the vse of the Sacraments nature and practice of Faith and Repentance the miseries of our life with the frailty of it the certainty and vncertainty of our death the glory of Gods Saints aboue the awfulnesse of iudgement the terrors of hell and the rest of this quality wherein both it is fit to haue variety for that euen the strongest stomacke doth not alwaies delight in one dish and yet so to change that our choice may be free from wildnesse and inconstancy CHAP. XIII The order of the worke it selfe NOw after that we haue thus orderly suited the person and his qualities with the due circumstances of time place disposition of body and substance of the matter discussed I know not what can remaine besides the maine businesse it selfe and the manner and degrees of our prosecution thereof which aboue all other calleth for an intentiue Reader and resolute practice Wherein that we may auoid all nicenesse and obscurity since wee striue to profit we will giue direction for the Entrance Proceeding Conclusion of this Diuine worke CHAP. XIIII The entrance into the worke A Goodly building must shew some magnificence in the gate and great personages haue seemely Vshers to goe before them who by their vncouered heads command reuerence and way Euen very Poets of old had wont before their Ballads to implore the aid of their gods And the heathen Romans entred not vpon any publike ciuill businesse without a solemne apprecation of good successe 1 The common entrance which is Prayer How much lesse should a Christian dare to vndertake a spirituall worke of such importance not hauing craued the assistance of his God which me thinkes is no lesse than to professe he could doe well without Gods leaue When we thinke euill it is from our selues when good from God As Prayer is our speech to God so is each good Meditation according to Bernard Gods speech to the heart The heart must speake to God that God may speake to it Prayer therefore and Meditation are as those famous twinnes in the story or as two louing Turtles whereof separate one the other languisheth Prayer maketh way for Meditation Meditation giueth matter strength and life to our prayers By which as all other things are sanctified to vs so we are sanctified to all holy things This is as some royall Eunuch to perfume and dresse our soules that they may be fit to conuerse with the King of Heauen But the prayer that leadeth in
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
worst be spared is happiest 40 It was a fit comparison of worldly cares to thornes for as they choke the Word so they pricke our soules Neither the Word can grow vp amongst them nor the heart can rest vpon them Neither body nor soule can finde ease while they are within or close to vs. Spirituall cares are as sharp but more profitable they paine vs but leaue the soule better They breake our sleepe but for a sweeter rest we are not well but either while we haue them or after we haue had them It is as impossible to haue spirituall health without these as to haue bodily strength with the other 41 In temporall good things it is best to liue in doubt not making full account of that which wee hold in so weake a tenure In spirituall with confidence not fearing that which is warranted to vs by an infallible promise and sure earnest He liues more contentedly that is most secure for this world most resolute for the other 42 God hath in nature giuen euery man inclinations to some one particular calling which if he follow he excels if he crosse hee proues a non-proficient and changeable but all mens natures are equally indisposed to grace and to the common vocation of Christianity we are all borne Heathens To doe well Nature must in the first be obserued and followed in the other crossed and ouercome 43 Good-man is a title giuen to the lowest whereas all Titles of Greatnesse Worship Honor are obserued and attributed with choice The speech of the World bewraies their minde and shewes the common estimation of goodnesse compared with other qualities The World therefore is an ill Herald and vnskilfull in the true stiles It were happie that Goodnesse were so common and pitty that it either should not stand with Greatnesse or not be preferred to it 44 Amongst all actions Satan is euer busiest in the best and most in the best part of the best as in the end of Praier when the heart should cloze vp it selfe with most comfort He neuer feares vs but when we are well emploied and the more likelihood he sees of our profit the more is his enuy and labour to distract vs. We should loue our selues as much as he hates vs and therefore striue so much the more towards our good as his malice striueth to interrupt it We doe nothing if we contend not when we are resisted The good soule is euer in contradiction denying what is granted and contending for that which is denied suspecting when it is gaine-said and fearing libertie 45 God fore-warnes ere he try because he would be preuented Satan steales vpon vs suddenly by temptations because he would foile vs. If we relent not vpon Gods premonition and meet not the lingring pase of his punishments to fore-stall them he punisheth more by how much his warning was more euident and more large Gods trials must be met when they come Satans must be seene before they come and if we be not armed ere we be assaulted we shall be foiled ere we can be armed 46 It is not good to be continuall in denunciation of iudgement The noise to which we are accustomed though lowd wakes vs not whereas a lesse if vnusuall stirreth vs. The next way to make threatnings contemned is to make them common It is a profitable rod that strikes sparingly and frights somewhat oftner than it smiteth 47 Want of vse causeth disabilitie and custome perfection Those that haue not vsed to pray in their Closet cannot pray in publike but coldly and in forme He that discontinues meditation shall be long in recouering whereas the man inured to these exercises who is not dressed till he haue praied nor hath supped till hee haue meditated doth both these well and with ease He that intermits good duties incurres a double losse of the blessing that followeth good of the facultie of doing it 48 Christianity is both an easie yoke and an hard hard to take vp easie to beare when once taken The heart requires much labour ere it can be induced to stoope vnder it and findes as much contentment when it hath stooped The worldling thinkes Religion seruilitie but the Christian knowes whose slaue he was till hee entred into this seruice and that no bondage can be so euill as freedome from these bonds 49 It is a wonder how full of shifts Nature is ready to turne ouer all good purposes If we thinke of death she suggests secretly Tush it shall not come yet If of iudgement for sinne This concernes not thee it shall not come at all If of heauen and our labour to reach it Trouble not thy selfe it will come soone enough alone Addresse thy selfe to pray It is yet vnseasonable stay for a better opportunitie To giue almes Thou knowest not thy owne future wants To reproue What needst thou thrust thy selfe into wilfull hatred Euery good action hath his let He can neuer be good that is not resolute 50 All Arts are Maids to Diuinitie therefore they both vaile to her and doe her seruice and she like a graue Mistresse controlles them at pleasure Naturall Philosophy teacheth that of nothing can bee nothing made and that from the priuation to the habit is no returne Diuinitie takes her vp for these and vpon supernaturall principles teaches her a Creation a Resurrection Philosophy teaches vs to follow sense as an infallible guide Diuinitie tels her that Faith is of things not seene Logick teaches vs first to discourse then to resolue Diuinitie to assent without arguing Ciuill Law teacheth that long custome prescribeth Diuinitie that old things are passed Morall Philosophy that tallying of iniuries is iustice Diuinitie that good must be returned for ill Policy that better is a mischiefe than an inconuenience Diuinitie that we may not doe euill that good may ensue The Schoole is well ordred while Diuinitie keepes the Chaire but if any other skill vsurpe it and checke their Mistresse there can follow nothing but confusion and Atheisme 51 Much difference is to be made betwixt a reuolter and a man trained vp in error A Iew and an Arrian both deny Christs Deity yet this opinion is not in both punisht with bodily death Yea a reuolt to a lesse error is more punishable than education in a capitall Heresie Errors of iudgement though lesse regarded than errors of practice yet are more pernicious but none so deadly as theirs that once were in the truth If truth be not sued to it is dangerous but if forsaken desperate 52 It is an ill argument of a good action not well done when we are glad that it is done To be affected with the comfort of the conscience of well performing it is good but meerely to reioyce that the act is ouer is carnall He neuer can begin cheerefully that is glad he hath ended 53 He that doth not secret seruice to God with some delight doth but counterfeit in publique The truth of any act or passion is then best tried when it
there is not lesse craft then violence For since they haue perceiued the blood of Martyrs to bee but the seede of the Church and that these perfumes are more dispersed with beating they haue now learned to murder without noise and to bring forth if at least they list sometimes to make the people priuy to some examples of terror not men but carcasses Behold the constant confessions of the dying Saints haue made them weary of publike executions none but bare walles shall now testifie the courage and faith of our happy Martyrs A disguised corpse is onely brought forth to the multitude either for laughter or feare Yet because the very dead speake for truth in a loud silence these spectacles are rate and the graues of heretikes are become as close as their death Yet lest since neither liuing mouthes nor faithfull pens may be suffered to insinuate any truth those speeches should perhaps be receiued from the Ancients which in vs were hereticall the monuments of vnpartiall antiquitie must be depraued all vvitnesses that might speake against them must be corrupted with a fraudulent violence and some of them purged to the death So whiles ours are debarred and the Ancients altered posteritie shall acknowledge no aduersarie What should I speake of those plausible deuices which they haue inuented to make superstitious and foolish Proselytes Their proud vaunts of antiquitie vniuersalitie succession and the name of their fore-fathers doe not onely perswade but amaze and besot an ignorant heart The glorious shewes of their processions the gaudy ornaments of their Altars the pompe and magnificence of the places and manner of their Seruices the triumphs of their great Festiuals are enough to bewitch any childish simple or vaine beholders Who knowes not that nature is most led by sense Sure children and fooles such are all meere naturall men cannot be of any other Religion Besides all these their personall vndertakings vvhat for cunning what for boldnesse could promise nothing but successe They can transforme themselues into all shapes and in these false formes thrust themselues into all Courts and companies not oftner changing their habit then their name They can take the best opportunities to worke vpon those vvhich are either most vnable to resist or most like to bestead them That I may not speake of the wrongs of vnseasonable trauell vvherein many vnsetled heads haue met dangers and sollicited errors who like fond and idle Dinahs going abroad to gaze haue been rauished ere their returne Neuer was any bird so laid for by the nets and calls of the fowler as the great heire of some noble family or some fiery vvit is by these impostors They know that greatnesse is both lawlesse and commanding if not by precept yet by example their very silence is perswasorie and imperious But alas for that other sex Still the Deuill begins with Eue still his assault is strongest where is weakest resistance Simon Magus had his Helena Nicolas the Deacon had his choros foemineos as Hierome calls them Marcion had his Factoresse at Rome Appelles his Philumena Montanus his Prisca and Maximilla Arrius his Constantines-sister Donatus his Lucilla Elpidius his Agape Priscillianus his Galla and our Iesuites haue their painted Ladies not dead but liuing both for obiects and instruments When they saw they could not blow vp religion with French powder into heauen they now try by this Moabitish plot to sinke it downe to Hell Those filly women which are laden with sinnes and diuers lusts must now be the stales of their spirituall fornications But for that these enterprises want not danger that both parts may securely succeed behold publique libertie of dispensations vvhether for dissembled religion or not vnprofitable filthinesse These meanes are like the Authors dishonest and godlesse Adde if you please hereto those which pretend more innocent policy their common dependances vpon one Commander their intelligences giuen their charges receiued their rewards and honours perhaps of the Calender perhaps of a red Hat duely conferred Neither may the least helpe be ascribed to the conference of studies the conioyned labours of whole Societies directed to one end and shrouded vnder the title of one Author to large maintenances raised from the death-beds of some guilty benefactors from whence flow both infinite numbers and incomparable helps of Students Vnder which head for the time past not a few are moued by the remembrance of the bounteous hospitalitie of the religious who hauing ingrossed the vvorld to themselues seemed liberall in giuing some thing like vnto some vaine-glorious theeues which hauing robbed wealthy Merchants bestow some pence vpon beggers Further the smothering if not composing of their frequent strifes and confining of brawles within their owne thresholds vvith the nice menaging of their knowne oppositions hath wonne many ignorant friends Lastly the excellent correspondence of their doctrines vnto nature hath been their best sollicitor We haue examined particulars in a former Epistle vvherein wee haue made it euident that Popery affects nothing but to make Nature either proud or vvanton it offers difficulties but carnall and such as the greatest louer of himselfe would easily embrace for an aduantage That we may therefore summe vp all I need not accuse our carelesnesse indifferencie idlenesse loose cariage in all vvhich would God wee had not aided them and wronged our selues nor yet their zeale and forwardnesse worse meanes are guilty of their gaine In short the faire outside which they set vpon Religion which sure is the best they haue if not all their pretended miracles vvilfull vntruths strait prohibitions bloody and secret inquisitions deprauations of ancient witnesses expurgation of their owne gay and garish sights glorious titles crafty changes of names shapes habits conditions insinuations to the great oppugnation of the vveaker sexe falshood of answers and oathes dispensations for sinnes vniting of forces concealing of differences largenesse of contributions multitude of actors and meanes accordances to mens naturall dispositions Where we on the contrarie care not to seeme but to be disclaime miracles dare not saue the life of Religion with a lye giue free scope to all pens to all tongues to all eyes shed no blood for Religion suffer all Writers to speake like themselues shew nothing but poore simplicitie in our deuotions goe euer and looke as we are reach the truth right-downe in an honest plainnesse take no vantage of imbecilitie sweare true though we die giue no hope of indulgence for euill study each retired to himselfe and the Muses publish our quarrels and aggrauate them anger nature and conquer it Such gaine shall be grauell in their throats such losses to vs in our not daring to sinne shall bee happy and victorious in all other regards are both blame-worthy and recouerable What dulnesse is this Haue wee such a King as in these lists of Controuersie may dare to grapple with that great infallible Vicar for his triple Crowne such Bishops as may iustly challenge the whole Consistorie of Rome so
Clingius the Franciscan aduise in this case that is Let all false conceit and preposterous confidence bee remooued from it that the trust which should onely be put in the merit of Christ bee not placed vpon these courses and let no man thinke that hereby he deserues righteousnesse remission grace and lastly which I adde remoue but idlenesse superstition necessitie from this kinde of life and we doe not we will not disallow it Neither doe we take our Colledges for any other than certaine sacred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 monasticall Academies wherein according to the precept of Pelagius the Pope we may be maturely fitted for these holy seruices of God and his Church such were the Monasteries of the Ancient insomuch as Possidonius can witnesse that Saint Austen out of one little house Possid in vita Aug. sent forth ten labourers into the haruest of the Church SECTION XIIII Concerning the Canon of the Scripture NOw lest I be too tedious it is time for mee from these points which doe directly concerne our selues to hasten vnto those which do more closely touch the Maiestie of God and doe as it were send plaine challenges into heauen And those do either respect the Scripture which is his expressed word or Christ which is his naturall and substantiall Word or lastly the worship due vnto his Name And first the Scripture complaines iustly of three maine wrongs offered to it The first of addition to the Canon The second of detraction from the sufficiencie of it The third of hanging all the authoritie thereof vpon the sleeue of the Church For of that corrupt Translation of Scripture which the Trent Diuines haue made onely and fully authenticall I forbeare purposely to speake although it were easie to shew that which Reuchline following the steps of Hierom hath auerred That the Hebrewes drinke of the Well head the Greekes of the streame Hier. aduers â—eluidium and the Latines of the puddle neither will I so much as touch the iniurious inhibition of those holy bookes to the Laity Who can endure a piece of new cloth to bee patched vnto an old garment Or what can follow whence but that the rent should bee worse I referre the reader for the citation of these to my disswasiue from Popery Who can abide that against the faithfull information of the Hebrewes against the cleere Testimonies of Melito Cyril Athanasius Origen Hilary Hierom Ruffinus Nazianzen against their owne Doctors both of the middle and latest age six whole bookes should by their fatherhoods of Trent be vnder pain of a curse imperiously obtruded vpon God his Church Whereof yet some propose to their Readers no better than magicall iugglings others bloudy selfe murders other lying fables and others heathenish 〈◊〉 not without a publike applause in the relation These indeed Caâ—â—â—â— ingennously as his fashion is according to that he had learned of Hierome would perswade vs to haue beene admitted onely by the Ancients into the Canon of Manners not of Faith And surely there be many precepts in Syracider the counterfeit Salomon and Esdraâ— which sauour of excellent wisedome but I wonder what kinde of good manners can be learned from such like histories Catechâ—â—â—eni euen by those Nouices to whom Athanasius bequeaths these bookes Well may I say of these as that Chian seruant of his Master which sold his wine Epith. l. 1. sect 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si quis l. Hester Dan Baeruc Eccl. Iudith Tob. Macca pro Canonicis non recipâ—rit Anathema fit sect 4. Apoc. vlt. and dranke his lees while they haue good they seeke for naught But let these bookes how questionable soeuer to Ephiphanius be all sacred let them be according to the meaning of the councell of Carthage and of Austen so oft cited to this purpose after Canonicall yet what man or Angel dare presume to vndertake to make them diuine Wee know full well how great impietie it is to father vpon the God of heauen the weake conceptions of an humane wit neither can we be any whit moued with the idle cracke of the Tridentine curse whiles we heare God thundring in our eares If any man adde vnto these words God shall adde vnto him the plagues written in this book SECTION XV. Of the Insufficiencie of Scripture NEither know I whether it be more wickedly audacious to fasten on God those things which be neuer wrote or to weaken the authority and denie the sufficiencie of what he hath written The Papists doe both We affirme saith Bellarmine that there is not expressely contained in Scriptures all necessary doctrine either concerning faith Lib. 4. de verbo non scripto c. 30. sect 1. Pari veneratiâ—â—e pari pietatis affectu or manners And the Tridentine Fathers giue charge that Traditions be receiued with no lesse Pietie and Veneration than the Bookes of Scripture Vnwritten Truths saith our wittie Chancellour More are equiualent to the Word of God What place is there for peace There are we confesse certaine things of a middle nature indifferent rites wherein much must be yeelded to the Church much to Traditions but that those things which are simply necessary to saluation whetherto be knowne or to be done should not be found in the holy Scriptures either in their words Per verba per sensum or in their sense as Aquinas distinguishes we iustly hold absurd and with Erasmus contrary to all true diuinitie Some Constitutions for publike order are from the Church but all necessary determinations of faith are to be fetcht from the voyce of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Can. Nic. Graec. con Pisan â—innius Conc. Tom. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is as Nissen truely commends it the right and euen rule of life The law of God is perfect saith Dauid yea and makes perfect saith Paul And what can be added to that which is already perfect or what perfection can there be where some necessary points are wanting yea if we may beleeue Hosius the greatest part How much is the Spirit of God mis-taken Hee wrote these things that wee might beleeue and in beleeuing be saued But now if Trent may be iudge although we beleeue what he hath written yet wee cannot be saued vnlesse we doe also receiue and beleeue what he hath not written How ill was Constantine taught of old how ill aduised in that publike speech for which yet we doe not finde that any of those Worthies of â—ice Theod. l. 1. c. â— Tert. de praeser l. â—â—â—er Her Origin c. 16. 〈◊〉 Rom. Achae in synops Ambr. lib. 3. Hex c. 3. did so much as iogge him on the elbow in a milde reproofe whiles hee sayd The bookes of the Euangelists Apostles as also the Oracles of the Ancient Prophets doe plainely instruct vs in the message and meaning of God How miserably were euery one of the learned Fathers of the Church blinded that they could neuer either see or acknowledge
enemies vpon himselfe True Christian fortitude teaches vs not to regard the number or quality of the opponents but the equity of the cause and cares not to stand alone and challenge all commers and if it could be opposed by as many worlds as men it may be ouerborn but it cannot be daunted Whereas popularity caries weake minds and teaches them the safety of erring with a multitude Caleb saw the giantly Anakims and the walled Cities as well as the rest and yet he sayes Let vs go vp and possesse it As if it were no more but to go and see and conquer Faith is couragious makes nothing of those dangers wherwith others are quailed It is very materiall with what eyes we looke vpon all obiects Feare doth not more multiply euils then faith diminisheth them which is therefore bold because either it sees not or contemnes that terror which feare represents to the weake There is none so valiant as the beleeuer It had beene happy for Israel if Calebs counsell had beene as effectuall as good But how easily haue these Rulers discouraged a faint-hearted people In stead of lifting vp their ensignes and marching towards Canaan they sit them downe and lift vp their voice and cry The rods of their AEgyptian Task-masters had neuer beene so fit for them as now for crying They had cause indeed to weepe for the sinne of their infidelity but now they weepe for feare of those enemies they saw not I feare if there had beene ten Calebs to perswade and but two faint spies to discourage them those two cowards would haue preuailed against those tenne sollicitors How much more now ten oppose and but two incourage An easie Rhetoricke drawes vs to the worse part yea it is hard not to run downe the hill The faction of Euill is so much stronger in our nature then that of Good that euery least motion preuailes for the one scarce any sure for the other Now is Moses in danger of losing all the cost and care that euer he bestowed vpon Israel His people are already gone backe to AEgypt in their hearts and their bodies are returning Oh ye rebellious Hebrewes where shall God haue you at last Did euer Moses promise to bring you to a fruitfull Land without Inhabitants To giue you a rich Country without resistance Are not the graues of Canaan as good as those of Aegypt What can ye but dye at the hands of the Anakims Can ye hope for lesse from the Aegyptians What madnesse is this to wish to dye for feare of death Is there lesse hope from your enemies that shall be when ye goe vnder strong and expert Leaders then from the enemies that were when yee shall returne masterlesse Can those cruell Egyptians so soone haue forgotten the blood of their fathers children brothers husbands which perished in pursuing you Had yee rather trust the mercy of knowne enemies then the promise of a faithfull God Which way will ye returne Who shall diuide the Sea for you Who shall fetch you water out of the Rocke Or can ye hope that the Manna of God will follow you while yee runne from him Feeble minds when they meet with crosses they lookt not for repent of their good beginnings and wish any difficulty rather then that they finde How many haue pulled backe their foot from the narrow way for the troubles of a good profession It had been time for the Israelites to haue falne downe on their faces before Moses and Aaron and to haue said Ye led vs thorow the Sea make way for vs into Canaan Those Giants are strong but not so strong as the Rocke of Rephidim ye stroke that and it yeelded If they be tall the Pillar of God is higher then they when we looke on our selues we see cause of fear but when we consider the miraculous power of you our leaders we cannot but contemne those men of measures Leaue vs not therfore but go before vs in your directiōs go to God for vs in your praiers But now contrarily Moses and Aaron fall on their faces to them and sue to them that they would be content to be conducted Had they beene suffered to depart they had perished Moses and his few had beene victorious And yet as if he could not be happy without them be falls on his face to them that they would stay We haue neuer so much need to bee importuned as in those things whose benefit should make vs most importunate The sweetnesse of Gods Law and our promised glory is such as should draw all hearts after it And yet if we did not sue to men as for life that they would bee reconciled to God and be saued I doubt whether they would obtaine yea it were well if our sute were sufficient to preuaile Though Moses and Aaron intreat vpon their faces and Ioshua and Caleb perswade and rend their garments yet they moue nothing The obstinate multitude growne more violent with opposing is ready to returne them stones for their prayers Such hath been euer the thankes of fidelity and truth Crossed wickednesse proues desperate and in stead of yeelding seekes for reuenge Nothing is so hatefull to a resolute sinner as good counsell We are become enemies to the world because we tell them truth That God which was inuisibly present whiles they sinned when they haue sinned shewes himselfe glorious They might haue seene him before that they should not sinne Now they cannot choose but see him in the height of their sinne They saw before the Pillar of his ordinary presence now they see him vnusually terrible that they may with shame and horror confesse him able to defend able to reuenge The helpe of God vses to shew it selfe in extremitie He that can preuent euils conceales his aide till danger be ripe And then he is fearfull as before he seemed conniuent Of CORAH'S Conspiracie THe teares of Israel were scarce drie since the smart of their last mutiny and now they begin another The multitude is like a raging Sea full of vnquiet billowes of discontentment whereof one rises in the fall of another They saw God did but threaten and therefore are they bold to sinne It was now high time they should know what it is for God to bee angry There was neuer such a reuenge taken of Israel neuer any better deserued When lesser warnings will not serue God lookes into his Quiuer for deadly arrowes In the meane time what a weary life did Moses lead in these continuall successions of conspiracies What did hee gaine by his troublesome gouernment but danger and despight Who but he would not haue wisht himselfe rather with the sheepe of Iethro then with these wolues of Israel But as he durst not quit his hooke without the calling of God so now he dare not his Scepter except he be dismissed by him that called him no troubles no oppositions can driue him from his place we are too weake if we suffer men to chase vs from that
for vs to striue in our prayers to striue with him not against him when once wee know them it is our dutie to sit downe in a silent contentation Whiles the Childe was yet aliue I fasted and wept for I said who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the Childe may liue but now he is dead Wherfore should I fast Can-I bring him backe againe The griefe that goes before an euill for remedie can hardly bee too much but that which followes an euill past remedie cannot bee too little Euen in the saddest accident Death wee may yeeld something to nature nothing to impatience immoderation of sorrow for losses past hope of recouery is more fullen than vse-full our stomacke may be bewrayed by it not our wisdome AMNON and TAMAR IT is not possible that any word of God should fall to the ground Dauid is not more sure of forgiuenesse than smart Three maine sins passed him in this businesse of Vriah Adultery Murder Dissimulation for all which he receiues present payment for Adultery in the deflowring of his Daughter Thamar for Murder in the killing of his Sonne Amnon for Dissimulation in the contriuing of both Yet all this was but the beginning of euils Where the Father of the Family brings sinne home to the house it is not easily swept our Vnlawfull Lust propagates it selfe by example How iustly is Dauid scourged by the sinne of his Sonnes whome his Act taught to offend Maacha was the Daughter of an Heathenish King By her had Dauid that beautifull but vnhappy Issue Absalom and his no lesse faire Sister Thamar Perhaps thus late doth Dauid feele the punishment of that vnfit choice I should haue maruelled if so holy a man had not found crosses in so vnequall a match either in his person or at least in his feed Beauty if it be not well disciplin'd proues not a Friend but a Traytour three of Dauids Children are vndone by it at once What else was guilty of Amnons incestuous loue Tamars rauishment Absoloms pride It is a blessing to be faire yet such a blessing as if the soule answer not to the face may leade to a curse How commonly haue we seene the foâ—â—lest soule dwell fairest It was no fault of Tamars that shee was beautifull the Candle offends not in burning the foolish flie offends in scorching it selfe in the flame yet it is no small misery to become a tentation vnto another and to be made but the occasion of others ruine Amnon is loue-sicke of his sister Tamar and languishes of that vnnaturall heat Whither will not wanton lust carry the inordinate mindes of pampered and vngouerned youth None but his halfe sister will please the eyes of the young Prince of Israel Ordinary pleasures will not content those whom the conceit of greatnesse youth and ease haue let loose to their appetite Perhaps yet this vnkindly flame might in time haue gone out alone had not there beene a Ionadab to blow these coales with ill counsell It were strange if great Princes should want some Parasiticall Followers that are ready to feed their ill humors Why art thou the Kings Sonne so leane from day to day As if it were vnworthy the Heire of a King to suffer either Law or Conscience to stand in the way of his desires Whereas wise Princes know well that their places giue them no priuiledge of sinning but call them in rather to so much more strictnesse as their example may be more preiudiciall Ionadab was the Cousin German of Amnon Ill aduice is so much more dangegerous as the interest of the giuer is more Had he beene a true friend hee had bent all the forces of his disswasion against the wicked motions of that sinfull lust and had shewed the Prince of Israel how much those lewd desires prouoked God and blemished himselfe and had lent his hand to strangle them in their first Conception There cannot be a more worthy improuement of friendship than in a feruent opposition to the sinnes of them whom we professe to loue No enemy can be so mortall to great Princes as those officious Clients whose flattery soothes them vp in wickednesse These are Traytors to the Soule and by a pleasing violence kill the best part eternally How ready at hand is an euill suggestion Good counsell is like vnto Wel-water that must be drawne vp with a Pumpe or Bucket Ill counsell is like to Conduit-water which if the cocke be but turned runnes out alone Ionadab hath soone proiected how Amnon shall accomplish his lawlesse purpose The way must be to faine himselfe sicke in body whose minde was sicke of lust and vnder this pretence to procure the presence of her who had wounded and only might cure him The daily increasing languor and leanenesse and palenesse of loue-sicke Amnon might well giue colour to a Kerchiefe and a pallet Now is it soone told Dauid that his eldest Sonne is cast vpon his sicke bed there needs no suite for his visitation The carefull Father hastenâ— to his Bed-side not without doubts and feates He that was lately so afflicted with the sicknesse of a Childe that scarce liued to see the light how sensible must we needs thinke hee would bee of the indisposition of his first borne Soone in the prime of his age and hopes It is not giuen to any Prophet to fore-see all things Happie had it beene for Dauid if Amnon had beene truly sicke and sicke vnto death yet who could haue perswaded this passionate Father to haue beene content with this succession of losses this early losse of his Successour How glad is he to heare that his Daughter Tamars skill might bee likely to fit the dyet of so deareâ— patient Conceit is word to rule much both in sicknesse and the cure Tamar is sent by her Father to the house of Amnon Her hand only must dresse that Dish which may please the nice Palace of her sicke Brother Euen the Children of Kings in those homelyâ—r Tymes did not scorne to put their fingers to some workes of huswifrie Shee tooke floure and did knead it and did make Cakes in his sight and did bake the Cakes and tooke a Pan and powred them out before him Had shee not beene sometimes vsed to such domestique imployments shee had beene now to seeke neither had this beene required of her but vpon the knowledge of her skill Shee doth not plead the impayring of her beauty by the scorching of the fire nor thinkes her hand too dainty for such meane Services but settles to the worke as one that had rather regard the necessities of her Brother than her owne state Only pride and idlenesse haue banisht honest and thrifty diligence out of the houses of the great This was not yet the Dish that Amnon longed for It was the Cooke and not the Cates which that wanton eye affected Vnlawfull Acts seeke for secrecie The companie is dismissed Tamar onely staies Good meaning suspects nothing Whiles she presents the meat
God that hee knew cherishing was euer went to follow stripes after vehement euacuation cordials after a darke night the cleare light of the morning Hope therfore doth not only vphold but cheare vp his heart in the midst of his sorrow If we can looke beyond the cloud of our affliction and see the Sun-shine of comfort on the other side of it we cannot bee so discouraged with the presence of euill as heartned with the issue As on the contrary let a man be neuer so mery within and see paine and miserie waiting for him at the doore his expectation of euill shall easily daunt all the sense of his pleasure the retributions of temporall fauours goe but by peraduentures It may be the Lord will looke on mine affliction of eternall are certaine and infallible If we suffer we shall reigne why should not the assurance of raigning make vs triumph in suffering Dauids patience drawes on the insolence of Shimei Euill natures grow presumptuous vpon forbearance In good dispositions iniury vnanswered growes weary of it selfe and dies in a voluntary remorse but in those dogged stomackes which are onely capable of the restraints of feare the silent digestion of a former wrong prouokes a second Mercy had need to be guided with wisedome left it proue cruell to it selfe Oh the base minds of inconstant Time-seruers Stay but a while till the wheele be a little turned you shall see humble Shimei fall downe on his face before Dauid in his returne ouer Iordan now his submission shall equall his former rudenesse his praiers shall requite his curfes his teares make amends for his stones Let not my Lord impute iniquitie vnto me neither doe thou remember that which thy seruant did peruersly the day that my Lord the King went out of Ierusalem that the King should take it to heart for thy seruant doth know that I haue sinned False-hearted Shimei had Absalom prospered thou hadst not sinned thou hadst not repented then hadst thou bragged of thine insultation ouer his miseries whose pardon thou now beggest with teares The changes of worldly minds are thanklesse since they are neither wrought out of conscience nor loue but onely by a slauish feare of a iust punishment Dauid could say no more to testifie his sorrow for his hainous sinnes against God to Nathan then Shimei sayes of himselfe to Dauid whereto may be added the aduantage of a voluntary confession in this offender which in Dauid was extorted by the reproofe of a Prophet yet is Dauids confession seriously penitent Shemies craftily hypocriticall Those alterations are iustly suspected which are shaped according to the times and outward occasions the true penitent lookes onely at God and his sinne and is changed when all other things are themselues Great offences had need of answerable satisfactions As Shimei was the onely man of the House of Beniamin that came forth and cursed Dauid in his flight so is hee the first man euen before those of the House of Ioseph though nearer in situation that comes to meet Dauid in his returne with prayers and gratulation Notorious offenders may not thinke to sit downe with the taske of ordinary seruices The retributions of their obedience must be proportiable to their crimes ACHITOPHEL SO soone as Dauid heard of Achitophels hand in that conspiracy hee fals to his prayers O Lord I pray thee turne the counsell of Achitophel into foolishnesse The knowne wisedome of his reuolted counsellor made him a dangerous and dreadfull aduersary Great parts mis-imployed cannot but proue most mischieuous when wickednesse is armed with wit and power none but a God can defeat it when we are matched with a strong and subtile enmity it is high time if euer to bee deuout If the bounty of God haue thought good to furnish his creatures with powers to warre against himselfe his wisedome knowes how to turne the abuse of those powers to the shame of the owners and the glory of the giuer Oh the policy of this Machiauell of Israel no lesse deepe then hell it selfe Goe in to thy fathers concubines which he hath left to keepe the house and when all Israel shall heare that thou art abhorred of thy father the hands of all that are with thee shall be strong The first care must be to secure the faction There can be no safety in siding with a doubtfull rebell if Absalom be a traytor yet he is a Sonne Nature may returne to it selfe Absalom may relent Dauid may remit where then are we that haue helpt to promote the conspiracy the danger is ours whiles this breach may bee peeced There is no way but to ingage Absalom in some further act vncapable of forgiuenesse Besides the throne let him violate the bed of his Father vnto his treason let him adde an incest no lesse vnnaturall now shall the world see that Absalom neither hopes nor cares for the reconciliation of a father Our quarrell can neuer haue any safe end but victory the hope whereof depends vpon the resolution of our followers they cannot bee resolute but vpon the vnpardonable wickednesse of their Leader Neither can this villany be shamefull enough if it be secret The closenesse of euill argues feare or modesty neither of which can beseeme him that would be a successefull traytor Set vp a Tent on the top of the house and let all Israel be witnesses of thy sinne and thy Fathers shame Ordinary crimes are for vulgar offenders Let Absalom sinne eminently and doe that which may make the world at once to blush and wonder Who would euer haue thought that Achitophel had liued at Court at the Councell-table of a Dauid Who would thinke that mouth had euer spoken well Yet had hee been no other then as the Oracle of God to the religious Court of Israel euen whiles he was not wise enough to be good Policy and grace are not alwayes lodged vnder one roofe This man whiles he was one of Dauids deepe Counsellors was one of Dauids fooles that said in their hearts There is no God else hee could not haue hoped to make good an euill with worse to build the successe of treason vpon incest Prophane hearts doe so contriue the plots of their wickednesse as if there were no ouer-ruling power to crosse their designes or to reuenge them He that sits in heauen laughs them to scorne and so farre giues way to their sinnes as their sinnes may proue plagues vnto themselues These two Sonnes of Dauid met with pestilent counsell Amnon is aduised to incest with his sister Absalom is aduised to incest with his fathers Concubines That by Ionadab this by Achitophel Both preuaile It is as easie at least to take ill counsell as to giue it Pronenesse to villany in the great cannot want either proiectors to deuise or parasites to execute the most odious and vnreasonable sinnes The Tent is spred lest it should not bee conspicuous enough on the top of the house The act is done in the fight of all Israel The
helpe of the Physitian this desperate because it needs not Euery soule is sicke those most that feele it not Those that feele it complaine those that complaine haue cure those that feele it not shall finde themselues dying ere they can wish to recouer Oh blessed Physitian by whose stripes we are healed by whose death we liue happy are they that are vnder thy hands sicke as of sinne so of sorrow for sinne it is as vnpossible they should dye as it is vnpossible for thee to want either skill or power or mercy Sinne hath made vs sicke vnto death make thou vs but as sicke of our sinnes we are as safe as thou are gracious Christ among the Gergesens or Legion and the Gaderene Herd I Doe not any where finde so furious a Demoniacke as amongst the Gergesens Satan is most tyrannous where he is obeyed most Christ no sooner sailed ouer the lake then hee was met with two possessed Gadarenes The extreme rage of the one hath drowned the mention of the other Yet in the midst of all that cruelty of the euill spirit there was sometimes a remission if not an intermission of vexation If oft-times Satan caught him then sometimes in the same violence hee caught him not It was no thanke to that malignant one who as he was indefatigable in his executions so vnmeasurable in his malice but to the mercifull ouer-ruling of God who in a gracious respect to the weaknesse of his poore creatures limits the spightfull attempts of that immortall enemie and takes off this Mastiue whiles wee may take breath He who in his iustice giues way to some onsets of Satan in his mercy restraines them so regarding our deseruings that withall he regards our strength If way should be giuen to that malicious spirit we could not subsist no violent thing can endure if Satan might haue his wil we should no moment be free He can be no more weary of doing euil to vs then God is of doing good Are we therefore preserued from the malignitie of these powers of darknesse Blessed be our strong helper that hath not giuen vs ouer to be a prey vnto their teeth Or if some scope haue been giuen to that enuious one to afflict vs hath it been with fauourable limitations it is thine onely mercy O God that hath chained and muzled vp this band-dog so as that hee may scratch vs with his pawes but cannot pierce vs with his fangs Farre farre is this from our deserts who had too well merited a iust abdication from thy fauour and protection and an interminable seisure by Satan both in soule and body Neither doe I here see more matter of thankes to our God for our immunity from the externall iniuries of Satan then occasion of serious inquirie into his power ouer vs for the spirituall I see some that thinke themselues safe from this ghostly tyranny because they sometimes finde themselues in good moods free from the suggestions of grosse sinnes much more from the commission Vaine men that feed themselues with so false and friuolous comforts will they not see Satan through the iust permission of God the same to the soule in mentall possessions that he is to the body in corporall The worst demoniack hath his lightsome respites not euer tortured not euer furious betwixt whiles hee might looke soberly talke sensibly moue regularly It is a wofull comfort that wee sinne not alwayes There is no Master so barbarous as to require of his Slaue a perpetuall vnintermitted toyle yet though hee sometimes eate sleepe rest hee is a vassall still If that wicked one haue drawne vs to a customarie perpetration of euill and haue wrought vs to a frequent iteration of the same sinne this is gage enough for our seruitude matter enough for his tyrannie and insultation He that would be our tormenter alwaies cares onely to be sometimes our Tempter The possessed is bound as with the invisible fetters of Satan so with the materiall chaines of the inhabitants What can bodily force preuaile against a spirit Yet they indeuour this restraint of the man whether out of charitie or iustice Charitie that he might not hurt himselfe Iustice that he might not hurt others None doe so much befriend the Demoniacke as those that binde him Neither may the spiritually possessed be otherwise handled for though this act of the enemie be plausible and to appearance pleasant yet there is more danger in this deare and smiling tyranny Two sorts of chaines are fit for outragious sinners Good lawes vnpartiall executions That they may not hurt that they may not be hurt to eternall death These iron chaines are no sooner fast then broken There was more thâ—n an humane power in this disruption It is not hard to conceiue the vtmost of nature in this kinde of actions Sampson doth not breake the cords and ropes like a threed of towe but God by Sampson The man doth not breake these chaines but the spirit How strong is the arme of these euill angels how farre transcending the ordinarie course of nature They are not called Powers for nothing what flesh and blood could but tremble at the palpable inequalitie of this match if herein the mercifull protection of our God did not the rather magnifie it selfe that so much strength met with so much malice hath not preuailed against vs In spight of both wee are in safe hands Hee that so easily brake the iron fetters can neuer breake the adamantine chaine of our faith In vaine doe the chafing billowes of hell beat vpon that Rocke whereon wee are built And though these brittle chaines of earthly metall bee easily broken by him yet the sure tempered chaine of Gods eternall Decree hee can neuer breake that almightie Arbiter of Heauen and Earth and Hell hath chained him vp in the bottomlesse pit and hath so restrained his malice that but for our good wee cannot be tempted wee cannot be foyled but for a glorious victory Alas it is no otherwise with the spiritually possessed The chaines of restraint are commonly broken by the fury of wickednesse What are the respects of ciuilitie feare of God feare of men wholesome lawes carefull executions to the desperately licentious but as cobwebs to an harnet Let these wilde Demoniacks know that God hath prouided chaines for them that will hold euen euerlasting chaines vnder darknesse these are such as must hold the Deuils themselues their masters vnto the iudgement of the great Day how much more those impotent vassals Oh that men would suffer themselues to be bound to their good behauiour by the sweet and easie recognizances of their duty to their God and the care of their owne soules that so they might rather be bound vp in the bundle of life It was not for rest that these chaines were torne off but for more motion This prisoner runnes away from his friends hee cannot runne away from his Iaylor Hee is now caried into the Wildernesse Not by meere externall force but by
for none but God to hold discourse with Satan Our surest way is to haue as little to doe with that euill one as wee may and if hee shall offer to maintaine conference with vs by his secret tentations to turne our speech vnto our God with the Archangell The Lord rebuke thee Satan It was the presupposition of him that knew it that not only men but spirits haue names This then he askes not out of an ignorance or curiositie nothing could bee hid from him who calleth the starres and all the hosts of heauen by their names but out of a iust respect to the glory of the miracle hee was working whereto the notice of the name would not a little auaile For if without inquirie or confession our Sauiour had erected this euill spirit it had passed for the single dispossession of one onely Deuill whereas now it appeares there was a combination and hellish champertie in these powers of darknesse which were all forced to vaile vnto that almighty command Before the Deuill had spoken singularly of himselfe What haue I to doe with thee and I beseech thee torment me not Our Sauiour yet knowing that there was a multitude of Deuils lurking in that brest who dissembled their presence wrests it out of the Spirit by this interrogation What is thy name Now can those wicked ones no longer hide themselues He that asked the question forced the answer My name is Legion The author of discord hath borrowed a name of warre from that military order of discipline by which the Iewes were subdued doth the Deuill fetch his denomination They were many yet they say My name not Our name though many they speake as one they act as one in this possession There is a maruellous accordance euen betwixt euill spirits that Kingdome is not diuided for then it could not stand I wonder not that wicked men doe so conspire in euill that there is such vnanimitie in the broachers and abettors of errours when I see those Deuils which are many in substance are one in name action habitation Who can bragge too much of vnitie when it is incident into wicked spirits All the praise of concord is in the subiect if that be holy the consent is Angelicall if sinfull deuillish What a fearfull aduantage haue our spirituall enemies against vs If armed troopes come against single straglers what hope is there of life of victory How much doth it concerne vs to band our hearts together in a communion of Saints Our enemies come vpon vs like a torrent Oh let not vs runne asunder like drops in the dust All our vnited forces will bee little enough to make head against this league of destruction Legion imports Order number conflict Order in that there is a distinction of regiment a subordination of Officers Though in hell there be confusion of faces yet not confusion of degrees Number Those that haue reckoned a Legion at the lowest haue counted it six thousand others haue more then doubled it though here it is not strict but figuratiue yet the letter of it implyes multitude How fearfull is the consideration of the number of Apostate Angels And if a Legion can attend one man how many must we needs thinke are they who all the world ouer are at hand to the punishment of the wicked the exercise of the good the tentation of both It cannot be hoped there can be any place or time wherein we may be secure from the onsets of these enemies Be sure ye lewd men ye shall want no furtherance to euill no torment for euill Be sure yee godly yee shall not want combatants to try your strength and skill Awaken your courages to resist and stirâ—e vp your hearts make sure the meanes of your safety There are more with vs then against vs The God of heauen is with vs if we be with him and our Angels behold the face of God If euery deuill were a Legion we are safe Though wee walke through the valley of the shadow of death we shall feare no euill Thou O Lord shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of our enemies and thy right hand shall saue vs. Conflict All this number is not for sight for rest but for motion for action Neither was there euer houre since the first blow giuen to our first Parents wherein there was so much as a truce betwixt these aduersaries As therefore strong frontier Townes when there is a peace concluded on both parts breake vp their garison open their gates neglect their Bulwarkes but when they heare of the enemy mustering his forces in great and vnequall numbers then they double their guard keepe Sentinell repaire their Sconces so must we vpon the certaine knowledge of our numerous and deadly enemies in continuall aray against vs addresse our selues alwayes to a wary and strong resistance I doe not obserue the most to thinke of this ghostly hostilitie Either they doe not finde there are tentations or those tentations hurtfull they see no worse then themselues and if they feele motions of euill arising in them they impute it to fancy or vnreasonable appetite to no power but natures and those motions they follow without sensible hurt neither see they what harme it is to finne Is it any maruell that carnall eyes cannot discerne spirituall obiects That the world who is the friend the vassall of Satan is in no warre with him Elisha's seruant when his eyes were opened saw troops of spirituall souldiers which before hee discerned not If the eyes of our soules bee once enlightened by supernaturall knowledge and the cleare beames of faith wee shall as plainely descry the inuisible powers of wickednesse as now our bodily eyes see heauen and earth They are though wee see them not we cannot be safe from them if wee doe not acknowledge not oppose them The Deuils are now become great suitors to Christ That hee would not command them into the deepe that hee would permit their entrance into the swine What is this deepe but hell both for the vtter separation from the face of God and for the impossibilitie of passage to the region of rest and glory The very euill spirits then feare and expect a further degree of torment they know themselues reserued in those chaines of darknesse for the iudgement of the great day There is the same wages due to their sinnes and to ours neither are the wages paid till the worke bee done they tempting men to sinne must needs sinne grieuously in tempting as with vs men those that mislead into sinne offend more then the actors not till the vpshot therefore of their wickednesse shall they receiue the full measure of their condemnation This day this deepe they tremble at what shall I say of those men that feare it not It is hard for men to beleeue their owne vnbeliefe If they were perswaded of this fiery dungeon this bottomlesse deepe wherein euery sinne shall receiue an horrible portion with the damned durst they stretch
in the poole of Samaria the dogges come to claime their due they licke vp the blood of the great King of Israel The tongues of those brute creatures shall make good the tongue of Gods Prophet Michaiah is iustified Naboth is reuenged the Baalites confounded Ahab iudged Righteous art thou O God in all thy waies and holy in all thy workes AHAzIAH sicke and ELIJAH reuenged AHaziah succeeds his father Ahab both in his throne and in his sinne Who could looke for better issue of those loines of those examples God followes him with a double iudgement of the reuolt of Moab and of his owne sicknesse All the reigne of Ahab had Moab beene a quiet Tributarie and furnished Israel with rich flockes and fleeces now their subiection dies with that warlike King and will not be inherited This rebellion tooke aduantage as from the weaker spirits so from the sickly body of Ahaziah whose disease was not naturall but casuall walking in his palace of Samaria some grate in the floore of his Chamber breakes vnder him and giues way to that fall whereby hee is bruised and languisheth The same hand that guided Ahabs shaft cracks Ahaziahs lattesse How infinite varietie of plagues hath the iust GOD for obstinate sinners whether in the field or in the chamber he knowes to finde them out How fearlesly did Ahaziah walke on his wonted pauement The Lord hath laid a trap for him whereinto whiles he thinkes least he fals irrecouerably No place is safe for the man that is at variance with God The body of Ahaziah was not more sicke then his soule was gracelesse None but chance was his enemy none but the God of Ekron must bee his friend He lookes not vp to the Omnipotent hand of diuine iustice for the disease or of mercy for the remedy An Idoll is his refuge whether for cure or intelligence Wee heare not till now of Baal-zebub this new God of flies is perhaps of his making who now is a suter to his owne erection All these heathen Deities were but a Deuill with change of appellations the influence of that euill spirit deluded those miserable clients else there was no fly so impotent as that out-side of the god of Ekron Who would thinke that any Israelite could so farre dote vpon a stocke or a Fiend Time gathered much credit to this Idol in so much as the Iewes afterwards stiled Beel-zebub the Prince of all the regions of darknesse Ahaziah is the first that brings his Oracle in request and payes him the tribute of his deuotion Hee sends messengers and sayes Goe inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recouer of this disease The message was either idle or wicked idle if he sent it to a stock if to a deuill both idle and wicked What can the most intelligent spirits know of future things but what they see either in their causes or in the light of participation What a madnesse was it in Ahaziah to seeke to the posterne whiles the fore-gate stood open Could those euill spirits truely foretell euents no way pre-existent yet they might not without sinne bee consulted the euill of their nature debarres all the benefit of their information If not as intelligencers much lesse may they be sought to as gods who cannot blush to heare and see that euen the very Euangelicall Israel should yeeld Pilgrims to the shrines of darknesse How many after this cleere light of the Gospell in their losses in their sicknesses send to these infernall Oracles and damne themselues wilfully in a vaine curiositie The message of the iealous God intercepts them with a iust disdaine as here by Elijah Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that yee goe to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron What can be a greater disparagement to the True God then to be neglected then to stand aside and see vs make loue to an hellish riuall were there no God in Israel in heauen what could wee doe other what worse This affront of what euer Ahaziah cannot escape without a reuenge Therefore thus saith the Lord Thou shalt not come downe from that bed on which thou art gone vp but shalt surely die It is an high indignitie to the True God not to be sought to in our necessities but so to bee cashiered from our deuotions as to haue a false god thrust in his roome is such a scorne as it is well if it can escape with one death Let now the famous god of Ekron take off that brand of feared mortalitie which the liuing God hath set vpon Ahaziah Let Baal-zebub make good some better newes to his distressed suppliant Rather the King of Israel is himselfe without his repentance hasting to Beel-zebub This errand is soone done The messengers are returned ere they goe Not a little were they amazed to heare their secret message from anothers mouth neither could chuse but thinke Hee that can tell what Ahaziah said what hee thought can foretell how hee shall speed Wee haue met with a greater God then wee went to seeke what need wee inquire for another answer With this conceit with this report they returne to their sicke Lord and astonish him with so short so sad a relation No maruell if the King inquired curiously of the habit and fashion of the man that could know this that durst say this They describe him a man whether of an hairy skin or of rough course carelesse attire thus drest thus girded Ahaziah readily apprehends it to be Elijah the old friend of his father Ahab of his mother Iezebel More then once had he seene him an vnwelcome guest in the Court of Israel The times had beene such that the Prophet could not at once speake true and please Nothing but reproofes and menaces sounded from the mouth of Elijah Michaiah and hee were still as welcome to the eyes of that guilty Prince as the Syrian arrow was into his flesh Too well therefore had Ahaziah noted that querulous Seer and now is not a little troubled to see himselfe in succession haunted with that bold and ill-boding spirit Behold the true sonne of Iezebel the anguish of his disease the expectation of death cannot take off the edge of his persecution of Elijah It is against his will that his death-bed is not bloody Had Ahaziah meant any other then a cruell violence to Elijah he had sent a peaceable messenger to call him to the Court hee had not sent a Captaine with a band of Souldiers to fetch him the instruments which hee vseth cary reuenge in their face If he had not thought Elijah more then a man what needed a band of fifty to apprehend one and if he did thinke him such why would hee send to apprehend him by fifty Surely Ahaziah knew of old how miraculous a Prophet Elijah was what power that man had ouer all their base Deities what command of the Elements of the heauens and yet hee sends to attache him It is a strange thing