in the mines of learning Sharp wits like sharp knives do often cut their owners fingers The deep reach of a prudent man makes him aggravate such evils as are already come upon him by considering every circumstance so as to accent every sad consideration and anticipate such as are yet to come by galloping in his thoughts to meet them Had not Achitophel been so wise as to foresee his inevitable ruine in the remote causes of it when Hushai's counsel was embraced he would never have made so much hast as he did to hang himself § 11. Lastly Insufficiency to render men either holy or happy For when the worldly-wise have dived into the bottome of Natures sea they are able to bring up from thence in stead of these pearls of price nothing but hands full of shels and gravell Knowledge indeed and good parts managed by grace are like the rod in Moses his hand wonder-workers but turn to serpents when they are cast upon the ground and employed in promoting earthly designes Learning in religious hearts like that gold in the Israelites ear-rings is a most pretious ornament But if men pervert it to base wicked ends or begin to make an idol of it as they did a golden calf of their ear-rings it then becomes an abomination Doubtles these later times wherein so many knowing men are of a filthy conversation and have joyned feet of clay to their heads of gold would have afforded good store of additional observations to him that wrote the famous book concerning the vanity of Sciences which appeareth Corn. Agrippa in nothing more then their inability to produce sutable deportment in such as enjoy them without which there can be no solid foundation laid for true happiness § 12. Wherefore bething thy self at length O deluded world and write over all thy school-doors Let not the Jerem. 9. 23. wise man glory in his wisdome Over all thy court-gates Let not the mighty man glory in his might Over all thy Exchanges and Banks Let not the rich man glory in his riches Write upon thy looking-glasses that of Bathsheba Favour is Prov. 30. 31. deceitfull and beauty is vain Upon thy Mewes and Artillery-yards that of the Psalmist God delighteth not in the strength Psal 147. 10. of an horse he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man Upon thy Taverns Innes and Alehouses that of Solomon Wine is a mocker strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise Upon Prov. 20. 1. thy Magazines and Wardrobes that of our Saviour Lay not up for your selves Matth. 6. 19. treasures on earth where moth and rust doth corrupt where theeves break through and steal Write upon thy Counting-houses that of Habakkuk Wo to him Habak 2. 6. that increaseth that which is not his how long and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay Thy Play-houses that of Paul Lovers of pleasure more then lovers 2 Tim. 3 4. of God Thy banquetting houses that of the same holy Apostle Meats for the belly and the belly for meats but God shall 1 Cor. 6. 13. destroy both them and it Yea upon all thine Accommodations that of the Preacher All is vanity and vexation of Eccles. 1. 14. spirit EXERCITATION 2. A gloss upon Psalme 36. 8. God in Christ a soul-satisfying object The circular motion of humane souls and their onely rest A threefold fulness of God and Christ opposite to the threefold vanity of the creatures § 1. VVHat shall we then say Are the sons of men in whom such strong desires and longings after blessedness are implanted left without all possible means of attaining that in which rationall appetites may acquiesce God forbid They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness Psal 36. 7 8. of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures so David to God concerning such as put their trust under the shadow of his wings Creature-comforts are but lean blessings in comparison there is a fatness in Gods house such as satisfies and that abundantly They afford but drops Christ a river of pleasures Look as when an Army of men comes to drink at a mighty river a Jordan a Thames Exerc. 2. they all go satisfied away none complaining of want none envying another because there was water enough for them all whereas had they come to a little brook there would not have been found enough to quench the thirst of every one So here The creatures are small brooks that have but a little water in them yea broken cisterns that hold Jerem. 2. 13. no water No wonder if souls return empty from them But Christ hath a river for his followers able to give them all satisfaction We must not expect more from a thing then the Creatour hath put into it He never intended to put the virtue of soul-satisfying into any mear creature but hath reserved to himself Son and Spirit the contenting of spirits as a principall part of divine prerogative To such as expect it elsewhere that person or thing they rely upon may say as Jacob did to Rachel Am I in Gods stead Gen. 30 2. § 2. Certain it is that none can make our souls happy but God who made them nor any give satisfaction Neque enim facit beatum hominem nisi qui sent hominem Deus Aug. epist 52. to them but Christ who gave satisfaction for them They were fashioned at first according to the image of God and nothing short of him who is stiled the brightness of his Fathers glory and Heb. 1. 3. the express image of his person can replenish Ad imaginem Dei facta anima rationalis caeteris omnibus occupari potest repleri non potest Bernard Serm. de bonis deserend them As when there is a curious impression left upon wax nothing can adequately fill the dimensions and lineaments of it but the seal that stamped it Other things may cumber the minde but not content it As soon may a trunck be filled with wisdome as a soul with wealth and bodily substances nourished with shadows as rationall spirits fed with bodies Whatsoever goodness creatures have is derivative whatsoever happiness they enjoy stands in reduction to the Originall of their being The motion of immortall souls is like that of celestiall bodies purely circular They rest not without returning back to the same point from whence they issued which is the bosome of God himself Fishes are said to visit the place of their spawning yearly as finding it most commodious for them and sick patients are usually sent by physicians to their native soil for the sucking in of that air from which their first breath was received Heaven is the place where souls were produced the spirit of man was at first breathed in by the Father of spirits and cannot acquiesce till he be enjoyed and heaven in him § 3. Witness was born to this truth by the Amen the
unto all men in regard of the substance of their souls which are invisible incorporeal and intelligent as God is Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man And Gen. 9. 6. again in James Therewith curse we men James 3 9. which are made after the similitude of God We read of the Emperour Theodosius that having exacted a new tribute from the people of Antioch there arose See Theodor. hist lib. 5. c. 21. a commotion in which the people broke down the Statue of the Empress Placilla his late wife He in a rage sent his Forces against the city to sack it One Macedonius a Monk interceded thus If the Emperour be so much and so justly offended that the image of his wife was so defaced shall not the king of heaven said the Monk be angry at him if he shall deliberately deface and break the image of God in so many men as are like to perish in this Massacre What a vast difference is there betwixt reasonable creatures and that brazen image we for that image are easily able to set up one hundred but the Emperour with all his power is not able to restore so much as an hair of these men if once he kill them upon which admonition Theodosius it is said forbore his design Secondly in a strict sense So 't is appliable onely to Christ who is the image of the invisible God the brightness Colos 1. 15. of his glory and express image of his Heb. 1. 3. person For all the three things that go to make a perfect image viz. Likeness Derivation and Agreement in nature are concurrent here The kings image is in his coin and in his son but after a different manner In his coin there may be likeness and derivation but not identity of Nature which is also added in his son In Saints there are the former they are like to God in their qualities derived from him but in Christ all three Thirdly in a middle sense neither so largely as to extend to all men nor so strictly as to be restrained unto Christ alone but between both So taken it is nothing else but that conformity to God from which all men fell in the first Adam and unto which none but Saints are restored by the second § 6. For the third The parts of which man consisteth are body and soul Moses at first speaks to both The Gen. 〈◊〉 7. Lord God saith he formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul God had before made Spirits by themselves and bodies by themselves some celestial others terrestrial now on the sixth day for a conclusion of his works he frames a creature consisting of a spirit and a body joyned together in whom he includes the choice perfections of all the former One observes that God Weemse Portracture p. 41. hath joyned all things in the world by certain Media The earth and water are coupled by slime the air and water by vapours Exhalations are a middle between air and fire Quick silver a middle between water and mettals coral between roots and stones so man between beasts and Angels Manilius hath comprehended much in Manil. lib. 4. apud Lip◠Physiolog l. 3. dissert 2. few verses Quid mirum noscere mundum Si possint homines quibus est mundus in ipsis Exemplúmque Dei quisque est in imagine parva In English thus What wonder if men know the world Since they themselves the world epitomize Yea every one a medal of God is Where he doth in effect call his body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world and his soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little God In the pursuance Charron of wisdome pag. 16. of the former the Stoicks were wont to say That it was better being a fool in an humane shape then being wise in the form of a beast Yea Solomon himself in the twelfth of Ecclesiastes findeth in his head both Sun Moon and Stars Well therefore may his head resemble the heavens where these lights are as our eyes also are in our upper parts without which the world would be a dungeon his heart the fire it being kept hot by continual motion and conveying natural heat to the whole body his bloud and other humours the water his spirits the air and his flesh and bones the earth In prosecution of the latter Tully a Platonist Scito te Deum esse c. Lib. de somn Scip. goeth so far as to bid a man take notice that he is a God and some Divines Bonaventurae Amatorium pag. 601. col 2. finde a resemblance of the Trinity in mans soul The understanding will and conscience three faculties but one soul as Father Son and holy Ghost three persons but one God Let us all mean while taste and see how good the Lord is in preparing us such bodies and infusing such souls into us but withall so as to consider and improve the Original of both § 7. Seeing Adams body had its original from the dust of the earth the consideration hereof should be an antidote against pride in all his posterity Art not thou the son of Adam was not he the son of dust was not that the son of nothing when the Lord would humble Adam after the fall he put him in minde of his being dust In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat Gen. 3 19. Gen. 18. 27. thy bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return And when Abraham would be low before God he styleth himself dust and ashes Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord who am but dust and ashes Ecclus 10. 9. Why art thou proud O dust and ashes saith Siracides and Bernard Cùm sis humi limus cur non es humilimus Why art not thou most humble O man seeing thou art but the dust of the earth As for the soul that was purely from God Divinae particula aurae as an ancient Poet calleth it for God saith Moses breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul This should render us restless till that Image after which Adam was made be renewed in us by regeneration The relicks of it found in men unconverted what are they but magni nominis umbra the mere shadow of a great and glorious name How unlike are natural men to God for all them Our Queen Elizabeth once in her progress observing some pictures of hers hung up for signs to be very unlike her caused them to be taken down and burnt Burning must be the end of those that continue unlike to God whereas such as are by converting grace changed into the same 2 Cor. 3. 18. image as Paul speaketh from glory to glory shall at length arrive
of I shall instance in two The pains of hell deserved by us and the pains of Christ endured for us Well may the consideration of Hell-torments due to us all as being by nature children of wrath conduce to the working of patience in us under these petty sufferings in comparison For what are these rods to those scorpions A feaver to those everlasting burnings The stone or gout to that fire and brimstone A sick-bed to Hell where the fit never goeth off the fire never goeth out the worm Mark 9. 44. never dyeth So also when upon our beds of sickness we think of that garden wherein Christ lay prostrate upon the ground in our fits of his Agony in our sweats of his water and bloud the consideration of his torments and of our interest in them may well mitigate the sense of our present sufferings if not wholly swallow them up as Aarons rod devoured those of the magicians Art thou afflicted with sore pain in this or that part He had hardly any member free Are thy spirits feeble and faint His very soul was exceedingly Matth. 26. 38. sorrowfull even unto death Dost thou cry My God my God why hast thou afflicted me Jesus cryed with a loud voice My God my God why hast thou Matth. 27. 46. forsaken me § 6. Yea but how manifest soever it be that when the flesh faileth the heart may be strengthened how the heart it self should fail and yet be strengthened is not so evident I am therefore to make it appear in the next place that these two clauses My heart faileth and God is the strength of my heart may both be verified at once without a paradox in different respects By reason of remainders of unbelief in the most regenerate on this side heaven when Satans temptations shall strike in with their corruptions holy men may be induced in a fit of dejection because the Lord hath cast them down to conceive and say he hath cast them off David once said I had fainted unless I had beleeved to Psal 27. 13. see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living Such fainting flows from not beleeving such unbelief is much fomented by not considering that as no outward blessing is good enough to be a signe of eternal Election seeing God often filleth their bellies with hid treasure who treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath so no temporall affliction is bad enough to be an evidence of Reprobation seeing the dearest son of Gods love was a man of sorrows and acquainted Isa 53. 3. with grief Yet may the same heart at the same time be strengthened from another cause namely God who easily can and usually doth supply such effectual grace as is able to keep the head above water when the rest of the body is under it able to preserve the Spouse in a posture of leaning upon her Cant. 8. 5. beloved in a wilderness to make one with Abraham beleeve in hope against Rom. 4. 18. Job 13. 15. hope and say with Job Though he kill me yet will I trust in him Faith can support when Nature shrinks call God father when he frowns and make some discovery of a sun through the darkest cloud When it sees no light it may feel some influence when it cannot close with a promise it may lay hold upon an attribute and be ready to make this profession Though both my flesh and my heart fail yet divine compassions fail not Though I can hardly discern at present either sun or moon or stars yet will I cast anchor in the dark and ride it out till the day break Time was when Jonah said I am cast out of thy sight but Jonah 2. 4 7. added with the same breath yet will I look again toward thy holy temple and presently after when my soul fainted within me I remembred the Lord c. § 7. The connexion of these words in the psalm My heart faileth but God is Quaecunque me angustiae corporis aut animae urunt Tu meo anims es robur dum te aeternam mihi haereditatem fore spero Simmius in Psal 73. the strength of my heart and my portion for ever may seem to imply some such thing to wit that in times of languishment God affords a strengthening support in secret by encouraging a beleever to wait upon himself as his portion for ever notwithstanding all his sufferings for the present There can be no better or more sovereign cordiall then this if we consider the sutableness and sufficiency of God to this purpose In the choice of a portion as of a wife fitness is chiefly to be regarded she is a wife indeed who is a meet help that a portion indeed which is sutable to the soul of man God onely is so For the soul is a spirituall and immortall substance therefore to her worldly accommodations are unsutable because they are most of them corporeall All of them temporall But God who is a Spirit and who onely John 4. 24. hath immortality fits her exactly in both respects The uncreated Spirit becomes a portion for ever to this his everlasting 1 Tim. 6. 16. creature As for sufficiency the souls appetite is too vast for any creatures to fill up the measure of its capacity but when she hath once pitched upon God self-sufficient in his being all-sufficient in his communications she then hath enough and is ready to profess with David The Lord is the portion of Psal 16. 56. mine inheritance and of my cup the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage Indeed what can one wish in an heritage that is not to be found in God Would we have large possessions He is immensity A sure estate He is immutability A long term of continuance He is Eternity it self I shall therefore shut up this with a serious congratulation to the Saints and an high applause of their blessedness Happy thrice happy you dearly beloved in the Lord Quid potest co esse selicius cujus efficitur suus conditor census haeredâ—tas ejus dignatur esse ipsa Divinitaâ— Prosper de vit contemplat lib. 2. cap. 16. because when those men of the world which have their portion in this life as David speaks part with theirs as they must all do at death if not before you are led to a fuller fruition of your portion Theirs at the best is but some good blessing of God that will in time be taken from them yours is the good God himself blessed and blessing you for ever He is so at present and he will be so to all eternity A portion of which you can never be plundered Impoverished you may be but not undone discouraged but not disinherited Your flesh perhaps yea and your hearts too may fail but God will be the strength of your hearts and your portion for ever I shall add no more but onely reminde
them in these a little before he was to be executed afforded a few whorish tears asking whether he might be saved by Christ or no When one told him that if he truly repented he should surely not perish he brake out into this speech Nay if your Christ be so easie to be intreated indeed as you say then I defie him and care not for him Horrible blasphemy desperate wickedness for a man to draw himself back from repentance by that very cord of love whereby he should have been drawn to it The next degree of impiety is when men are therefore bold to continue long in sinning because he with whom they have to do is a long-suffering God A vice which the Preacher of old took notice of Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil But let such fear and tremble at what followeth Though a sinner doth evil Eccles 8 11 12 13. an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know it shall not be well with the wicked The Lord valueth every moment of his forbearance as in the parable Behold these three years I come seeking Luke 13. 7. fruit on this fig-tree and finde none Christ sets an high price upon every exercise of his patience as in the Canticles Open to me for my head is filled with Cantic 5. 2. dew and my locks with the drops of the night Take we heed of sleighting that which God and Christ value Know and consider that patience may be tired that however the Lord be long-suffering yet he will not suffer for ever but be weary of repenting in case men will not be weary of sinning Hear what was once said by himself to Jerusalem Thou hast forsaken me saith the Lord thou Jerem. 15. 6. art gone backward therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee and destroy thee I am weary with repenting EXERCITATION 3. Exerc. 3. The bounty of God declared by his benefits viz. giving his Son to free us from hell his Spirit to fit us for heaven his Angels to guard us on earth large provisions in the way and full satisfaction at our journeys end Joh. 3. 16. James 1. 5. and Psal 24. 1. Glossed Isai 25. 6. Alluded to Inferences from divine Bounty beneficence to Saints not dealing niggardly with God exemplified in David Paul and Luther Truth in God is without all mixture of the contrary It appears in his making good of promises and threatnings teaching us what to perform and what to expect § 1. OUr Bibles in the next clause making use of the generical term have it Abundant in goodness I will make bold to vary a little from the common translation and to reade it Abundant in bounty because the word as Zanchy and others have observed most properly signifieth that kinde of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propriè significat benignitatem seu liberalem beneficentiam Zanch. de Natur Dei l. 1. câ— 18. Vide Fulleri miscellan lib. 1. c. 8. goodness which we call Bounty or Benignity and which maketh a fourth branch This God is abundant in witness the greatest of his gifts by which we are wont to measure the bounty of benefactours I shall instance in some of the chief He bestoweth upon us First His son to free us from hell God Joh. 3. 16. so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son He did not grant him upon Non concessit sed purissime dedit Stella the request and earnest suit of lapsed creatures but freely gave him unasked not a servant but a Son not an adopted son such as we are but a begotten begotten not as Saints are of his Jam. 1. 18. will by the word of truth but of his Nature he himself being the Word and the Truth not one of many but an onely Son thus begotten and this not for the procuring of some petty deliverance but that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Well might this gift of royal bounty be ushered in with a God so loved the world Majesty and love have been thought Non bene conveniunt nec in una sede morantur Majâ—stas amoâ— hardly compatible Yet behold the majesty of God bearing love and that to the world the undeserving yea ill-deserving world of mankinde Herein is love saith St John elsewhere let me say herein is bounty not that we loved 1 Joh. 4. 10. God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Loved and So loved that particle is most emphatical and noteth the transcendency of a thing either good or evil Paul speaking of the incestuous Corinthian decyphers him thus Him that hath so 1 Cor. 5. 3. done this deed so impudently so abominably so unchristianly The officers being astonied at our Saviours doctrine cried out Never man spake so as Joh. 7. 46. this man so excellently so powerfully so incomparably Here God so loved the world that is so freely so infinitely so unspeakably The Apostle himself who had been rapt up to the third heaven and there heard things not to be uttered wanteth words when he cometh to utter this and useth an accumulation of many because no one could serve his turn to express it sufficiently Not content to have styled it love mercie grace as not having yet said enough he calleth it great love glorious grace rich mercy yea exceeding riches Ephes 2. 4 5 7. of his glorious and mercifull grace in his second chapter to the Ephesians § 2. Secondly His Spirit to fit us for heaven Our heavenly Father is he that giveth the holy Spirit to them that ask Luke 11. 13. him The Spirit thus given worketh in us regeneration we are therefore said to be born of the Spirit and that real holiness Joh. 3. 5. 6. concerning which the Apostle saith without it no man shall see the Lord Hebr. 12. 14. So preparing us for that place which our Lord Jesus is gone before to prepare Joh. 14. 2 3. for us A daily conversation in heaven is the surest forerunner of a constant abode there The Spirit by enabling us hereunto first bringeth heaven into the soul then conducteth the soul to it Whence it is that Nehemiah recording the acts of Gods bounty to Israel reckoneth this as one of the principal Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct Nehem. 9. 20. them Thirdly His Angels to guard us on earth After David had said The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that Psal 34. 7 8. fear him and delivereth them he addeth immediately O taste and see that the Lord is good herein good in bestowing such a guard upon us It was an act of royal benignity towards Mordechai in king Ahashuerus to make Haman the favourite his attendant as he rode through the streets Lo here a
far greater the holy Angels those favourites in the Court of heaven are all ministring spirits Hebr. 1. 14. sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation A task which they perform without grudging although in themselves more noble creatures then we are both out of love to their younger brethren of whom they have a most tender care and out of obedience to God their Father and ours Psal 91. 11. Mittis Unigenitum immittis Spiritum nè quid vacet in coelestibus ab opere solicituelinis Angelos mittis in ministerium who hath given them charge so to do as it is in the Psalm He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways Lay this to the former as Bernard did and we shall see the whole heaven at work for our preservation God the Father sending his Son to redeem us the Fathet and Son sending their Spirit to guide us the Father Son and Spirit sending their Angels to minister for us O taste and see that the Lord is good bountifully good § 3. Fourthly Large provisions in the way We consist of body and soul he provideth plentifully for both giving 1. Tim. 6. 17. us richly all things to enjoy as one Apostle phraseth it yea as another giving unto Jam. 1. 5. all men liberally and not upbraiding Whereas ordinary benefactours by reason of their stinted abilities give either but a few things or to a few persons onely or if to many but sparingly and are besides apt to corrupt and blemish their good turns by casting them in the Authores pereunt garrulitate sui Martial receivers teeth and making their boast continually of them all these are here removed from God whilest he is said to give unto all men and that liberally yea and so as not to upbraid although whatever men receive yea whatever they are sin excepted be wholly his That of the Psalmist is very emphatical and well deserveth our consideration The earth is the Lords Psal 24. 1. and the fulness thereof the world and they that dwell therein The house wherein a man dwelleth may be his landlords but the furniture his own Here we are told that not the earth onely but the fulness of it is the Lords Both house and furniture may be anothers but he that inhabiteth it his own man Here they that dwell therein are the Lords the inhabitants themselves as the room and the stuff To which agreeth that of St Paul ye are not your own 1 Cor. 6. 19. and that of an ancient writer cited by Heinsius Our very being is none of Nostrum non est quod sumus multò minùs quod habemus ours much less the things we have in possession As for spiritual provisions his people use not to be scanted in them Another particular reckoned up by Nehemiah when he set himself to celebrate the acts of divine bounty towards Israel◠was the institution of Ordinances Thou camest down also saith Nehem. 9. 13. 14. he speaking to God upon mount Sinai and spakest with them from heaven and gavest them right judgements and true laws good statutes and commandements and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath One way whereby great Princes are wont to manifest their royal bounty is the making of great feasts as Ahasuerus and Solomon did we may safely allude to the Prophets expression though the place have another meaning and say of the Church in that respect In this mountain doth the Lord of hosts make Isai 25. 6. unto all people a feast of fat things of wine on the lees of fat things full of marrow of wine on the lees well refined Good Sermons and Prayers are like well refined wines and as Christ himself is a Saviour full of merits so is his Gospel a doctrine full of promises his Supper a Sacrament full of mysteries his Sabbath a day full of opportunities all his Ordinances fat things full of marrow § 4. Fifthly Full satisfaction at our journeys end Now indeed as the natural so the spiritual eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the spiritual ear with hearing because we see but as through a 1 Cor. 13. 12. glass darkly not face to face and know but in part that of which we hear Then shall eye and ear have enough when we shall see God as he is and hear Christ 1 Joh. 3. 2. saying Come ye blessed of my Father inherit Matth. 25. 34. the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world Here although beleeving souls have fellowship with Sistitur appetitus in via satiatur in patria God in Christ sufficient to stay their stomachs as at a breakfast yet that degree of fruition is wanting which should satiate them fully as at a feast beyond that of Ordinances What shall there be enjoyed will replenish every chink of rational appetites the first Truth filling up our understandings and the chief Good our wills to the very brim Then shall that be to the utmost verified which David once said of regenerate persons They shall be abundantly Psal 36. 8. 9. satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures for with thee is the fountain of life in thy light shall we see light § 5. For improvement hereof As our Saviour once said Be ye mercifull so Be ye bountifull let me say as your father is bountifull St Paul having praised the Macedonians for their deep poverty abounding unto the riches of their liberality urgeth the grace and benignity of Christ as a principal motive to excite his Corinthians to a like exercise of bounty towards the poor Saints at Jerusalem For ye know saith 2 Cor. 8. 2 9. he the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be-rich More especially let us all learn from hence not to deal niggardly with God himself but to think no pains too great no expence too much no time too long that is spent in his service Not as the manner of some is who so manage the profession of religion as if their main care and study were how to serve him with most ease and to come off with the cheapest performances David Paul and Luther were men of another spirit The first as he delighted in the commemoration of divine bounty to him saying I will Psal 13. 6. sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me And again Return Psal 116. 7. unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee so he was no niggard in his returns but ever and anon enquiring what he should do to testifie his thankfulness What shall I Psal 116. 12. render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me And as providence offered occasion laying himself out for God witness that his resolution testified to
at that perfection of glory which is also the image of God as David hath it As for me I shall behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness EXERCITATION 5. Exerc. 5. The same and other attributes of God declared from his providentiall dispensations the interchangeableness whereof largely discoursed of and applied from Ecclesiastes 7. 14. A gloss upon Isaiah chap. 10. 11. Chearfulness a duty in six respects Crosses how to be considered § 1. THe vicissitude of divine dispensations which I am to treat of next is exactly recorded by Solomon saying In the day of prosperity Eccles 7. 14. be joyfull but in the day of adversity consider God also hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should finde nothing after him It is most clear from hence that there is an intermixture of dispensations adverse and prosperous in the course of divine Providence and that we may see much of God therein It will appear in six particulars There are times I. Wherein things go very ill with a man in reference to his private affairs yet well with the publick which keepeth him from sinking into despondency Mephibosheth was cheated by Ziba of half his lands yet Let him take all said he 2 Sam. 19. 29 30. for as much as my Lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house The woman of Sparta whom we reade of And. Camerar cent 3. pag. 174. in Plutarch being told that all her five sons were slain in the battel but withall that the enemies were worsted and her countreymen victours uttered this Heroick speech Lugeant ergò miserae Ego victrice patria beatam me esse judico Let such as are miserable lament I cannot but account my self happy now that my countrey hath had the better II. Wherein a mans personal comforts are multiplied but the Churches misery damps his mirth Nehemiah was much in favour at the king of Persia's Court yet his countenance could not but be sad when he heard that the city Nehem. 2. 3. the place of his fathers sepulchres lay waste and the gates thereof were consumed with fire We read of Terentius an orthodox captain under Valens an Arrian Emperour who having done some eminent Theodoret. lib. 4. cap. 2. 8. service was willed by the Emperour who intended him a just recompence to ask of him what he would He preferred a petition in behalf of the orthodox Christians that they might have a Church allowed them by themselves to worship God in Valens displeased tore the petition and threw it away He gathered up the scattered pieces and profest that seeing he could not be heard in the cause of Christ he would make no suit for his own advantage That of Esaias Rejoyce ye with Isa 66. 10 11. Jerusalem c. that ye may suck and be satisfied is both preceptive and argumentative Jerusalem is compared to a nursing mother beleevers to her sucking children If the Nurse be in health the Childe hath cause to rejoyce in that and shall fare the better for it If she be distempered the childe will go near to suck the disease from her § 2. III. Wherein long prosperity followeth after much adversity as in Josephs case He had been envyed sold imprisoned His feet were hurt in Psal 105. 18. the stocks the iron entred into his soul Yet afterward Pharaoh giveth him his own Gen. 41. 42 43. ring arrayeth him in vestures of fine linen putteth a gold chain about his neck maketh him ride in the second chariot he had caused the people to cry before him Bow the knee and appointed him Ruler over all the land of Egypt in which height of honour he lived and died IV. Wherein adversity treads upon the heels of long prosperity as in Jobs case The candle of God had long shined upon his head and the secret of God been upon his tabernacle His children then were about him he had washed his steps with butter and the rock poured him out rivers of oyl His Vers 3 4 5 6 19 20. root was spread by the waters and the dew lay all night upon his branch His glory was fresh in him and his bowe renowned in his hand which are his own expressions Job 29. But ere long his servants are slain with the edge of the sword his castle taken away by the enemy all his children killed at once vvith the fall of an house in vvhich they vvere feasting he himself afflicted in body vexed in spirit grieved by his comforters in a vvord brought from the throne to the dunghil so as to give just occasion to the proverb As poor as Job Fifthly Wherein crosses and comforts take it by turns so as a man goes out of one into another in a succession of vicissitudes Thus it fared with Ezechiah After his comming to the Crown for divers years the Lord was with him and he prospered whithersoever he went forth But in the fourteenth year of his reign the tide of prosperity begins to turn Sennacharib comes up against him with a most formidable host and took his fenced cities He betakes himself to prayer and the Lord delivers him by a miracle sending an Angel to destroy one hundred eighty five thousand of his enemies in Chap. 20. 1. c a night But the next news we hear is that Ezechiah was sick unto death yet he dies not but had fifteen years added to his life and was assured by a sign from heaven of his recovery Yet presently after all this he receives a sad message from thence concerning the loss of all his treasure and the wofull condition of all his posterity See what a strange succession is here after glorious victories comes the loss of his fenced cities and an alarm given to Jerusalem it self After that a miraculous deliverance then a mortal sickness then a cheering sign but e're long a Message of very sad concernment § 3. VI. Wherein pleasure and sorrow joy and grief are so interwoven one with another as a man may seem happy and miserable both at once Jacob is at once scared with hearing of Esau's four hundred men and cheered with the sight of an host of Angels sent to gaurd him He doth at once receive an hurt in the hollow of his thigh and a blessing from the Angel that wrestled with him David at once is hated by Saul and loved by Jonathan Ahashuerus at once enjoys the glory of an absolute Monarch and is sleighted by his own wife Haman at once swims in an ocean of Court-delights and is tormented for the want of Mordechai's knee As one the one side Out of the strong comes sweetness 〈◊〉 Pet. 4. 14. when the spirit of glory and of God rest upon a suffering Saint because he is a Saint and a sufferer so on the other Even in laughter the heart is sorowfull Prov. 14. 13. Medio de fonte leporum Lucret. l.
his being swallowed up with overmuch sorrow lest Satan saith he should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices 2 Cor. 2. 7 11. V. Because if we look to our selves cheerfulness is advantageous both to our bodies therefore compared to the best food such as men use to have at feasts He that is of a merry heart hath a Prov. 15. 15. continual feast and the best physick too A merry heart doth good like a medicine Prov. 17. 22. but a broken spirit drieth the bones And also our spirits Uncheerfulness maketh the soul of a man drive heavily as the chariots of Pharaoh did in the red sea but the joy of the Lord oyleth the wheels Cheerfulness supples the joynts of our hearts and so rendereth them nimble and active in holy performances See Nehemiah 8. 10. VI. Because if we cast our eyes upon others the uncheerfulness of professours often bringeth a bad report upon the profession and maketh the world ready to beleeve that Christians serve a bad master or have but an hard service of it whereas their rejoycing in the ways of the Lord would help to bring others in love with religion See Acts 9. 31. and Esther 8. the two last verses § 7. Fifthly Endure afflictions so as in the day of adversity duly to consider the Nature Authour and Ends of Crosses I. The Nature of those afflictions that befall men in Christ They are not Inter vincula carnisicis Chirurgi Chamier Panstrat from vindicative justice which is wholly removed from such by the mediation of him in whom they have beleeved and so not formally punishments but from fatherly discipline whereby it cometh to pass that although the matter be the same there is as much difference between the sufferings of beleevers and of ungodly persons out of Christ as there is between the cords wherewith an executioner pinioneth his condemned malefactour and those wherewith the indulgent Chirurgion bindeth his patient the ones design being to kill the others to cure They are crosses indeed which beleevers undergo but no curses and have no such malignity in them as the world imagineth II. The Authour Well might Eliphaz Job 5 6. say Trouble springs not out of the ground for it cometh from heaven and that out of love As many as I love Rev. 3. 19. saith Christ I rebuke and chasten How bitter soever the cup be which I am to drink and by whomsoever it is handed to me the comfort is it was of my heavenly fathers mixing who I am sure would not put any poysonfull although he do put some displeasing ingredients into it I will therefore say Christ enabling as Christ himself did The cup which my father hath given me shall John 18. 11. I not drink it III. The Ends Which are specially three 1. The mortifying of our corruptions By this shall the iniquity of Jacob Isa 27. 9. be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin All the harm which the fiery furnace did the young men in Daniel was to burn off their cords our lusts are cords cords of vanity in Scripture-phrase the fiery tryal is sent on purpose to burn and consume them Afflictions help to scour off this kinde of rust Adversity like winter-weather is of use to kill the vermine which the the summer of prosperity is wont to breed 2. For the enlivening and quickning of our graces I spake unto Jerem. 22. 21. unto thee in thy prosperity and thou saidst I will not hear But elsewhere Lord in Isa 26. 16. trouble have they visited thee they poured out a prayer when they chastening was upon them These two places compared shew how apt prosperity is to make men Gallio's adversity to render them Zelots As bruising maketh aromatical spices to send out their savour and collision fetcheth fire out of the flint which was hid before so pressures excite devotion The cold water of persecution is often cast in the Churches face to fetch her again when she is in a swoon 3. For the furthering of our glory Christ went from the Cross to Paradise so do Christians He was made perfect through Heb. 2. 10. sufferings so are they It became him to Luke 24. 26. suffer and to enter into his glory It becomes them to tread in their masters steps When the founder hath cast his bell he doth not presently hang it up in the steeple but first try it with his hammer and beat upon it on every side to see if any flaw be in it Christ doth not presently after he hath converted a man convey him to heaven but suffers him first to be beaten upon by manifold temptations and after advanceth him to the crown spoken of Jam. 1. 12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptations for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him this crown the cross makes way for although no cross can merit it but that of Christ Yet as law is said to work wrath occasionally So Our light afflictions which are but for a moment work 2 Cor. 1. 17. for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory APHORISME VI. Aph. 6. Providence extends it self not onely to all created beings and to all humane affairs especially those that concern the Church but even to the sins of Angels and men EXERCITATION 1. Introduction concerning the contents of this Aphorisme Providence over all created beings Preservation of men to be ascribed to God himself not to good men yea not to good Angels in whom heart-searching and patience wanting Providence reaching to humane affairs Oeconomical Civil Military Moral and Ecclesiastical Anastasius his design frustrate Rome and our nation instanced in I. G. castigated § 1. THis Aporisme requireth a clear demonstration of these propositions 1. That divine providence extends it self to all created beings 2. That it reacheth to Exerc. 1. all humane affairs 3. That it is especially seen in such affairs as concern the Church And 4. That although God be not the authour of sin yet his providence is an actour in it Unto these when I shall have added an answer to objections and from each proposition an inference the whole will be completely handled The first proposition which I am to begin with is Divine providence extends it self to all created Beings Well may we strike in with the Levites in that form of acknowledging God wherein they went before the people saying Thou even thou art Lord alone Nehem. 9. 6. Thou hast made heaven the heaven of heavens with all their host the earth and all things that are therein the seas and all that is therein and thou preservest them all David bringeth it down a little lower Thy judgements are a great deep O Lord Psal 36. 6. thou preservest man and beast Job lower yet What shall I do unto thee O thou preserver Job 7.
Plinies unbelief The Psalmists stumble at the prosperity of the wicked His recovery by considering it was not full was not to be final The superintendency of Providence over military and civil affairs in particular The Churches afflictions Promises cautioned Duty of casting care upon God He no authour of sin The attestation of this State and of this writer § 1. TWo things are still remaining viz. Objections against and Corollaries from the formentioned propositions to which in their order Objection against the first Some think Ex hoc Deus beatus est quia nihil curat neque habet ipse negotium neque alteri exhibel Lactant. de ira Dei cap. 4. Credat Judaeus Apello Non ego namque Deos didici securum agere aevum Hor. the extending of divine Providence to all created beings how mean soever unsutable to the perfection of God whom they say it doth not become to stoop so low Epicurus is cited by Lactantius as speaking to this purpose and after him Horace Answ They speak like heathens not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God The Psalmist otherwise Who is like unto the Lord our God Psal 113. v. 5 6 7 8. who dwelleth on high Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in earth He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghil He maketh the barren woman to keep house to be a joyfull mother of children Of his care and providence it is beleeved Providentia Dei nec fallitar nec fatigatur Eam nec magna onerant nec parva effugiunt Molin Enod quaest p. 23. and asserted by divines that it is neither deceived nor tired that as the greatest things do not overburden it so least things do not escape it That of our Saviour to his Disciples is a most express assertion Are not five Luke 12. 6 7. sparrows sold for two farthings and not one of them is forgotten before God But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered Wherefore by way of Corollary from hence let God himself alone be acknowledged the Preserver and Governour of all things Let no man think by his strength of parts or extremity of pains to take the work out of his hands Melancthon was beyond Monendus est per vos Philippus ut desinat esse Rector mundi Wolf memorabil measure solicitous about Church-affairs in that age wherein he lived insomuch as Luther once wrote to his neighbour-ministers that they should do well to give him a serious admonition not to attempt the government of this world any longer That of Maximilian the Emperour in the time of Pope Julius the second was an honest acknowledgement Deus aeterne nisi vigilares Historia Pontificum Romanorum contract per Jacobum Revium pag. 259. quà m male esset mundo quem regimus nos Ego miser venator ebriosus ille acâ—sceleratus Julius O eternal Lord God if thou thy self shouldst not be watchfull how ill it would be with this world which is now governed by me a miserable hunter and by this drunken and wicked Pope Julius § 2. Against the second proposition it hath been objected that there is no such thing as the providence of God superintending humane affairs especially considering the great prosperity which is enjoyed by wicked men Pliny the great Naturalist speaketh of Irridendum est si quis putet illud quicquid est summum agere curam rerum humanâ—rum Natur. hist l. 6. c. 7. Psalm 73. v. 2 3. it as a thing to be entertained with laughter rather then belief And the Psalmists words are these As for me my feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipt For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked Behold V. 12 13. these are the ungodly who prosper in the world they increase in riches Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency Answ That which then satisfied him should now suffice to answer us He went into the sanctuary of God then understood V. 17 18. he their end Surely thou didst set them in slippery places thou castedst them down into destruction Their prosperity was not full was not to be final I. Was not full The places wherein they stood were slippery their felicity varnished over but rotten within That in S. John and onely that is perfect prosperity when the inward and outward man thrive together I wish 3 John 2. above all things saith he to Gaius that thou maist prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth With them it is quite otherwise They have it may be fat bodies but lean souls full purses but empty heads and hearts blest in their estates but cursed in their spirits Have Lament 3. 65. houses and lands worth many thousands but hearts little worth according to that The tongue of the just is as Prov. 10. 20. Nulla verior miseria quam falsa laetitia Nihil infelicius felicitate peccantium choice silver the heart of the wicked is little worth Call you this prosperity It is in truth nothing less It is unhappiness rather and there are those who have not stuck to name it so II. Was not to be final Thou castedst them down into destruction The world came in fast upon them one way and the wrath of God came as fast another This fair day of theirs is but a weather-breeder as a calm before an earth-quake To Deut. 32. 35. me belongeth vengeance and recompence saith the Lord their foot shall slide in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make haste David expresseth it most emphatically I have seen the wicked in great Psalm 37. 35 36. power and spreading himself like a green bay-tree A tree that retaineth its viridity and freshness even in winter when fruit-bearing trees have cast their leaves yet he passed away and lo he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found Let such an one be sought in his counting-house which was wont to be the temple wherein he worshipped his God Mammon he is not there At Court where he was so magnified and almost adored he is not to be found in the lodgings there He that would finde him must seek him in hell For there he is This is the end of such worldly prosperity as cometh from God and yet defieth him § 3. The Corollary from hence is let the superintendency of divine providence over all humane affairs in particular over Military and Civil be humbly acknowledged I. Over military Those French-men were undoubtedly to blame who in their flattering applauses of Richelieu did ascribe Howels lustra Ludov. p. 166. the reduction of Rochel solely to him insomuch as one of their Chroniclers writeth That in the taking of that town neither the king nor God Almighty had a share in