laid to which if they shall adde but one scruple it shall be to mee sufficient ioy contentment recompence From your Hal-sted Decemb. 4. Your Worships humbly deuouted IOS HALL THE FIRST CENTVRIE OF MEDITATIONS AND VOWES DIVINE and MORALL 1 IN Meditation those which begin heauenly thoughts and prosecute them not are like those which kindle a fire vnder greene wood and leaue it so soone as it but begins to flame leesing the hope of a good beginning for want of seconding it with a sutable proceeding when I set my selfe to meditate I will not giue ouer till I come to an issue It hath beene said by some that the beginning is as much as the middest yea more than all but I say the ending is more than the beginning 2 There is nothing but Man that respecteth greatnesse Not God not death not Iudgement Not God he is no accepter of persons Not nature we see the sonnes of Princes borne as naked as the poorest and the poore childe as faire well-fauoured strong witty as the heire of Nobles Not disease death iudgement they sicken alike die alike fare alike after death There is nothing besides naturall men of whom goodnesse is not respected I will honour greatnesse in others but for my selfe I will esteeme a dram of goodnesse worth a whole world of greatnesse 3 As there is a foolish wisdome so there is a wise ignorance in not prying into Gods Arke not enquiring into things not reuealed I would faine know all that I need and all that I may I leaue Gods secrets to himselfe It is happy for me that God makes me of his Court though not of his Counsell 4 As there is no vacuity in nature no more is there spiritually Euery vessell is full if not of liquor yet of aire so is the heart of man though by nature it is empty of grace yet it is full of hypocrisie and iniquitie Now as it is filled with grace so it is empty of his euill qualities as in a vessell so much water as goes in so much ayre goes out but mans heart is a narrow-mouthed vessell and receiues grace but by drops and therefore takes a long time to empty and fill Now as there be differences in degrees and one heart is neerer to fulnesse than another so the best vessell is not quite full while it is in the body because there are still remainders of corruption I will neither be content with that measure of grace I haue nor impatient of Gods delay but euery day I will endeuour to haue one drop added to the rest so my last day shall fill vp my vessell to the brim 5 Satan would seeme to bee mannerly and reasonable making as if hee would bee content with one halfe of the heart whereas God challengeth all or none as indeed hee hath most reason to claime all that made all But this is nothing but a craftie fetch of Satan for he knowes that if hee haue any part God will haue none so the whole falleth to his share alone My heart when it is both whole and at the best is but a strait and vnworthy lodging for God if it were bigger and better I would reserue it all for him Satan may looke in at my doores by a tentation but hee shall not haue so much as one chamber-roome set a part for him to soiourne in 6 I see that in naturall motions the neerer any thing comes to his end the swifter it moueth I haue seene great riuers which at their first rising out of some hills side might bee couered with a bushell which after many miles fill a very broad channell and drawing neere to the Sea doe euen make a little Sea in their owne bankes So the winde at the first rising as a little vapour from the crannies of the earth and passing forward about the earth the further it goes the more blustering and violent it waxeth A Christians motion after hee is regenerate is made naturall to God-ward and therefore the neerer he comes to heauen the more zealous he is A good man must not bee like Ezekias Sunne that went backward nor like Ioshuahs Sunne that stood still but Dauids Sunne that like a Bridegroome comes out of his chamber and as a Champion reioiceth to runne his race onely herein is the difference that when hee comes to his high noone hee declineth not How euer therefore the minde in her naturall faculties followes the temperature of the body yet in these supernaturall things she quite crosses it For with the coldest complexion of age is ioined in those that are truly religious the feruentest zeale and affection to good things which is therefore the more reuerenced and better acknowledged because it cannot bee ascribed to the hot spirits of youth The Deuill himselfe deuised that old slander of early holinesse A young Saint an old Deuill Sometimes young Deuils haue proued old Saints neuer the contrarie but true Saints in youth doe alwaies proue Angels in their age I will striue to bee euer good but if I should not finde my selfe best at last I should feare I was neuer good at all 7 Consent harteneth sinne which a little dislike would haue daunted at first As wee say There would bee no theeues if no receiuers so would there not bee so many open mouthes to detract and slander if there were not so many open eares to entertaine them If I cannot stop another mans mouth from speaking ill I will either open my mouth to reproue it or else I will stop mine cares from hearing it and let him see in my face that he hath no roome in my heart 8 I haue oft wondered how fishes can retaine their fresh taste and yet liue in salt waters since I see that euery other thing participates of the nature of the place wherein it abides So the waters passing thorow the chanels of the earth varie their sauour with the veines of soile thorow which they slide So brute creatures transported from one region to another alter their former qualitie and degenerate by little and little The like danger I haue seene in the manners of men conuersing with euill companions in corrupt places For besides that it blemisheth our reputation and makes vs thought ill though wee bee good it breeds in vs an insensible declination to ill and workes in vs if not an approbation yet a lesse dislike of those sinnes to which our eares and eies are so continually inured I may haue a bad acquaintance I will neuer haue a wicked companion 9 Expectation in a weake minde makes an euill greater and a good lesse but in a resolued minde it digests an euill before it come and makes a future good long before present I will expect the worst because it may come the best because I know it will come 10 Some promise what they cannot doe as Satan to Christ some what they could but meane not to doe as the sons of Iacob to the Sechemites some what they meant for the
stirres vp his courage and strikes them both hip thigh with a mighty plague That God which can doe nothing imperfectly where hee begins eyther mercy or iudgement will not leaue till hee haue happily finished As it is in his fauours so in his punishments One stroke drawes on another The Israelites were but slaues and the Philistims were their masters so much more indignely therefore must they needs take it to be thus affronted by one of their owne vassals yet shall we commend the moderation of these Pagans Samson being not mortally wronged by one Philistim falls foule vpon the whole Nation the Philistims hainously offended by Samson doe not fall vpon the whole Tribe of Iudah but being mustered together call to them for satisfaction from the person offending the same hand of God which wrought Samson to reuenge restrained them from it It is no thanke to themselues that sometimes wicked men cannot bee cruell The men of Iudah are by their feare made friends to their Tyrants and taytors to their friend it was in their cause that Samson had shed bloud yet they conspire with the Philistims to destroy their owne flesh and bloud So shall the Philistims bee quit with Israel that as Samson by Philistims reuenged himselfe of Philistims so they of an Israelite by the hand of Israelites That which open enemies dare not attempt they work by false brethren and these are so much more perilous as they are more entire It had been no lesse easie for Samson to haue slaine those thousands of Iudah that came to binde him then those other of the Philistims that meant to kill him bound And what if he had said Are ye turnd Traytors to your Deliuerer your bloud be vpon your owne heads But the Spirit of God without whom he could not kil either beast or man would neuer stirre him vp to kill his brethren though degenerated into Philistims they haue more power to binde him then he to kill them Israelitish bloud was precious to him that made no more scruple of killing a Philistim then a Lion That bondage and vsury that was allowed to a Iew from a Pagan might not be exacted from a Iew. The Philistims that had before plowed with Samsons Heifer in the case of the Riddle are now plowing a worse furrow with an Heifer more his owne I am ashamed to heare these cowardly Iewes say Knowest thou not that the Philistims are Lords ouer vs Why hast thou done thus vnto vs We are therefore come to binde thee Wheras they should haue said We finde these tyrannicall Philistims to vsurpe dominion ouer vs thou hast happily begun to shake off their yoke and now we are come to second thee with our seruice the valour of such a Captaine shall easily lead vs forth to liberty We are ready either to die with thee or to bee freed by thee A fearefull man can neuer be a true friend rather then incurre any danger he will be false to his owne soule Oh cruell mercy of these men of Iuda Wee will not kill thee but we will binde thee and deliuer thee to the hands of the Philistims that they may kill thee As if it had not been much worse to dye an ignominious and tormenting death by the hands of Philistims then to bee at once dispatcht by them which wisht either his life safe or his death easie When Saul was pursued by the Philistims vpon the mountaines of Gilboa he could say to his Armour-bearer Draw forth thy sword and kill me lest the vncircumcised come and thrust me thorow and mocke me and at last would rather fall vpon his owne sword then theirs And yet these cousins of Samson can say Wee will not kill thee but we will binde thee and deliuer thee It was no excuse to these Israelites that Samsons binding had more hope then his death It was more in the extraordinary mercy of God then their will that hee was not tyed with his last bonds Such is the goodnesse of the Almighty that he turnes the cruell intentions of wicked men to an aduantage Now these Iewes that might haue let themselues loose from their owne bondage are binding their Deliuerer whom yet they knew able to haue resisted In the greatest strength there is vse of patience There was more fortitude in this suffering then in his former actions Samson abides to be tyed by his owne countrymen that he may haue the glory of freeing himselfe victoriously Euen so O Sauiour our better Nazarite thou which couldst haue called to thy Father and haue had twelue Legions of Angels for thy rescue wouldst be bound voluntarily that thou mightst triumph So the blessed Martyrs were racked and would not be loosed because they expected a better resurrection If we be not as well ready to suffer ill as to doe good we are not fit for the consecration of God To see Samson thus strongly manicled and exposed to their full reuenge could not but be a glad spectacle to these Philistims and their ioy was so full that it could not but flie forth of their mouthes in shouting and laughter Whom they say loose with terror it is pleasure to see bound It is the sport of the spirituall Philistims to see any of Gods Nazarites fettered with the cords of iniquitie their Imps are ready to say Aha so would we haue it But the euent answers their false ioy with that clause of triumph Reioyce not ouer me O mine enemie though I fall yet I shal rise again How soon was the countenance of these Philistims changed and their shouts turned into shriekings The Spirit of the Lord came vpon Samson and then what are cords to the Almighty His new bonds are as a flax burnt with fire and he rouzes vp himselfe like that young Lion whom he first incountred flyes vpon those cowardly aduersaries who if they had not seen his cords durst not haue seen his face If they had been so many diuels as men they could not haue stood before that Spirit which lifted vp the heart and hand of Samson Wicked men neuer see fairer prospect then when they are vpon the very threshold of destruction Security and Ruine are so close bordering vpon each other that where we see the face of the one we may be sure the other is at his backe This didst thou O blessed Sauiour when thou wert fastened to the Crosse when thou layest bound in the graue with the cords of death thus didst thou miraculously raise vp thy selfe vanquish thine enemies and lead captiuity captiue Thus doe all thy holy ons when they seem most forsaken and laid open to the insultation of the world finde thy Spirit mighty to their deliuerance and the discomfiture of their malicious aduersaries Those three thousand Israelites were not so ill aduised as to come vp into the rocke vnweaponed to apprehend Samson Samson therefore might haue had his choice of swords or speares for this skirmish with the Philistims yet he leaues
willing their torment they may be made most sensible of paine and by the obedible submission of their created nature wrought vpon immediately by their appointed tortures Besides the very horrour which ariseth from the place whereto they are euerlastingly confined For if the incorporeall spirits of liuing men may bee held in a loathed or painfull body and conceiue sorrow to bee so imprisoned Why may wee not as easily yeeld that the euill spirits of Angels or men may be held in those direfull flames and much more abhorre therein to continue for euer Tremble rather O my soule at the thought of this wofull condition of the euill Angels who for one onely act of Apostasie from God are thus perpetually tormented whereas we sinfull wretches multiply many and presumptuous offences against the Maiestie of our God And withall admire and magnifie that infinite mercy to the miserable generation of man which after this holy seueritie of iustice to the reuolted Angels so graciously forbeares our hainous iniquities and both suffers vs to be free for the time from these hellish torments and giues vs opportunitie of a perfect freedome from them for euer Praise the Lord O my soule and all that is within me praise his holy Name who for giueth all thy sinnes and healeth all thine infirmities Who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and compassions There is no time wherein the euill spirits are not tormented there is a time wherein they expect to be tormented yet more Art thou come to torment vs before our time They knew that the last Assises are the prefixed terme of their full execution which they also vnderstood to be not yet come For though they knew not when the Day of Iudgement should be a point concealed from the glorious Angels of heauen yet they knew when it should not be and therefore they say Before the time Euen the very euill spirits confesse and fearfully attend a set day of vniuersall Sessions They beleeue lesse then Deuils that either doubt of or deny that day of finall retribution Oh the wonderfull mercy of our God that both to wicked men and spirits respites the vtmost of their torment He might vpon the first instant of the fall of Angels haue inflicted on them the highest extremitie of his vengeance Hee might vpon the first sinnes of our youth yea of our nature haue swept vs away and giuen vs our portion in that fierie lake he stayes a time for both Though with this difference of mercy to vs men that here not onely is a delay but may be an vtter preuention of punishment which to the euill spirits is altogether impossible They doe suffer they must suffer and though they haue now deserued to suffer all they must yet they must once suffer more then they doe Yet so doth this euill spirit expostulate that he sues I beseech thee torment mee not The world is well changed since Satans first onset vpon Christ Then hee could say If thou be the Sonne of God now Iesus the Sonne of the most high God then All these will I giue thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship me now I beseech thee torment mee not The same power when hee lists can change the note of the Tempter to vs How happy are wee that haue such a Redeemer as can command the Deuils to their chaines Oh consider this ye lawlesse sinners that haue said Let vs breake his bonds and cast his cords from vs How euer the Almighty suffers you for a iudgement to haue free scope to euill and ye can now impotently resist the reuealed will of your Creator yet the time shall come when yee shall see the very masters whom ye haue serued the powers of darknesse vnable to auoid the reuenges of God How much lesse shall man striue with his Maker man whose breath is in his nostrils whose house is clay whose foundation is the dust Nature teaches euery creature to wish a freedome from paine the foulest spirits cannot but loue themselues and this loue must needs produce a deprecation of euill Yet what a thing is this to heare the deuill at his prayers I beseech thee torment me not Deuotion is not guilty of this but feare There is no grace in the suit of Deuils but nature no respect of glory to their Creator but their owne ease They cannot pray against sinne but against torment for sinne What newes is it now to heare the profanest mouth in extremitie imploring the Sacred Name of God when the Deuils doe so The worst of all creatures hates punishment and can say Lead me not into paine onely the good heart can say Leade mee not into temptation If wee can as heartily pray against sinne for the auoiding of displeasure as against punishment when wee haue displeased there is true grace in the soule Indeed if wee could feruently pray against sinne we should not need to pray against punishment which is no other then the inseparable shadow of that bodie but if we haue not laboured against our sins in vaine doe wee pray against punishment God must be iust and the wages of sinne is death It pleased our holy Sauiour not onely to let fall words of command vpon this spirit but to interchange some speeches with him All Christs actions are not for example It was the errour of our Grand-mother to hold chat with Satan That God who knowes the craft of that old Serpent and our weake simplicitie hath charged vs not to enquire of an euill spirit surely if the Disciples returning to Iacobs Well wondred to see Christ talke with a woman well may wee wonder to see him talking with an vncleane Spirit Let it be no presumption O Sauiour to aske vpon what grounds thou didst this wherein wee may not follow thee Wee know that sinne was excepted in thy conformitie of thy selfe to vs wee know there was no guile found in thy mouth no possibilitie of taint in thy nature in thine actions Neither is it hard to conceiue how the same thing may bee done by thee without sinne which wee cannot but sinne in doing There is a vast difference in the intention in the Agent For on the one side thou didst not aske the name of the spirit as one that knew not and would learne by inquiring but that by the confession of that mischiefe which thou pleasedst to suffer the grace of the cure might bee the more conspicuous the more glorious so on the other God and man might doe that safely which meere man cannot doe without danger thou mightest touch the leprosie and not be legally vncleane because thou touchedst it to heale it didst not touch it with possibility of infection So mightest thou who by reason of the perfection of thy diuine nature wert vncapable of any staine by the interlocution with Satan safely conferre with him whom corrupt man pre-disposed to the danger of such a parle may not meddle with without sinne because not without perill It is
There is a mutuall hatred betwixt a Christian and the world for on the one side the loue of the world is enmitie with God and Gods children cannot but take their Fathers part On the other The world hates you because it hated me first But the hatred of the good man to the wicked is not so extreme as that wherewith hee is hated For the Christian hates euer with commiseration and loue of that good he sees in the worst knowing that the essence of the very Deuils is good and that the lewdest man hath some excellent parts of nature or common graces of the Spirit of God which he warily singleth out in his affection But the wicked man hates him for goodnesse and therefore findes nothing in himselfe to moderate his detestation There can be no better musicke in my eare than the discord of the wicked If he like me I am afraid he spies some qualitie in me like to his owne If he saw nothing but goodnesse hee could not loue me and be bad himselfe It was a iust doubt of Phocion who when the people praised him asked What euill haue I done I will striue to deserue euill of none but not deseruing ill it shall not grieue me to heare ill of those that are euill I know no greater argument of goodnesse than the hatred of a wicked man 76 A man that comes hungry to his meale feeds heartily on the meat set before him not regarding the metall or forme of the platter wherein it is serued who afterwards when his stomacke is satisfied begins to play with the dish or to reade sentences on his trencher Those auditors which can finde nothing to doe but note elegant words and phrases or rhetoricall colours or perhaps an ill grace of gesture in a pithie and materiall speech argue themselues full ere they came to the feast and therefore goe away with a little pleasure no profit In hearing others my onely intention shall be to feed my minde with solid matter if my eare can get ought by the way I will not grudge it but I will not intend it 77 The ioy of a Christian in these worldly things is limited and euer awed with feare of excesse but recompenced abundantly with his spirituall mirth whereas the worldling giues the reines to his minde and powres himselfe out into pleasure fearing onely that he shall not ioy enough He that is but halfe a Christian liues but miserably for he neither enioyeth God nor the world Not God because he hath not grace enough to make him his owne Not the world because hee hath some taste of grace enough to shew him the vanitie and sinne of his pleasures So the sound Christian hath his heauen aboue the worldling here below the vnsetled Christian no where 78 Good deeds are very fruitfull and not so much of their nature as of Gods blessing multipliable We thinke ten in the hundred extreme and biting vsurie God giues vs more than an hundred for ten yea aboue the increase of the gaine which wee commend most for multiplication For out of one good action of ours God produceth a thousand the haruest whereof is perpetuall Euen the faithfull actions of the old Patriarchs the constant sufferings of ancient Martyrs liue still and doe good to all successions of ages by their example For publike actions of vertue besides that they are presently comfortable to the doer are also exemplary to others and as they are more beneficiall to others so are more crowned in vs. If good deeds were vtterly barren and incommodious I would seeke after them for the conscience of their owne goodnesse how much more shall I now be incouraged to performe them for that they are so profitable both to my selfe and to others and to me in others My principall care shall be that while my soule liues in glory in heauen my good actions may liue vpon earth and that they may be put into the banke and multiply while my body lies in the graue and consumeth 79 A Christian for the sweet fruit hee beares to God and men is compared to the noblest of all plants the Vine Now as the most generous Vine if it be not pruned runs out into many superfluous stems and growes at last weake and fruitlesse so doth the best man if he be cut short of his desires and pruned with afflictions If it bee painfull to bleed it is worse to wither Let me be pruned that I may grow rather than cut vp to burne 80 Those that doe but superficially taste of diuine knowledge finde little sweetnesse in it and are ready for the vnpleasant rellish to abhorre it whereas if they would diue deepe into the Sea they should finde fresh water neere to the bottome That it sauours not well at the first is the fault not of it but of the distempered palate that tastes it Good metals and minerals are not found close vnder the skinne of the earth but below in the bowels of it No good Miner casts away his Mattock because he findes a veine of tough clay or a shelfe of stone but still delueth lower and passing thorow many changes of soyle at last comes to his rich treasure We are too soone discouraged in our spirituall gaines I will still perseuere to seeke hardning my selfe against all difficultie There is comfort euen in seeking hope and there is ioy in hoping good successe and in that successe is happinesse 81 Hee that hath any experience in spirituall matters knowes that Satan is euer more violent at the last then raging most furiously when he knowes he shall rage but a while Hence of the persecutions of the first Church the tenth and last vnder Dioclesiaâ— and Maximinian and those other fiue Tyrants was the bloudiest Hence this age is the most dissolute because neerest the conclusion And as this is his course in the vniuersall assaults of the whole Church so it is the same in his conflicts with euery Christian soule Like a subtill Orator he reserues his strongest force till the shutting vp And therefore miserable is the folly of those men who defer their repentance till then when their onset shall be most sharpe and they through paine of body and perplexednesse of minde shall be least able to resist Those that haue long furnisht themselues with spirituall munition finde worke enough in this extreme brunt of temptation how then should the carelesse man that with the helpe of all opportunities could not finde grace to repent hope to atchieue it at the last gaspe against greater force with lesse meanes more distraction no leisure Wise Princes vse to prepare ten yeeres before for a field of one day I will euery day lay vp somewhat for my last If I win that skirmish I haue enough The first and second blow begin the battell but the last onely wins it 82 I obserue three seasons wherein a wise man differs not from a foole In his infancy in sleepe and in silence for in the two former
of their Teachers be taught to say Let my death be to the remission of all my sinnes and then that he should haue giuen him a boule of mixt wine with a graine of Frankincense to bereaue him both of reason and paine I durst be confident in this latter the rather for that S. Marke calls this draught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Myrrh-wine mingled as is like with other ingredients And Montanus agrees with me in the end Ad stuporem mentis alienationem A fashion which Galatine obserues out of the Sannedrim to bee grounded vpon Prou. 31.6 Giue strong drinke to him that is ready to perish I leaue it modestly in the middest let the learneder iudge Whatsoeuer it were he would not die till he had complained of thirst and in his thirst tasted it Neither would he haue thirsted for or tasted any but this bitter draught that the Scripture might be fulfilled They gaue mee vineger to drinke And loe now Consummatum est All is finished If there be any Iew amongst you that like one of Iohns vnseasonable Disciples shall aske Art thou he or shall we looke for another hee hath his answer Yee men of Israel why stand you gazing and gaping for another Messias In this alone all the Prophesies are finished and of him alone all was prophesied that was finished Pauls old rule holds still To the Iewes a stumbling blocke and that more ancient curse of Dauid Let their table bee made a snare And Steuens two brands sticke still in the flesh of these wretched men One in their necke stiffe-necked the other in their heart vncircumcised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one Obstinacie the other Vnbeleefe stiffe necks indeed that will not stoope and relent with the yoke of sixteene hundred yeeres iudgement and seruilitie vncircumcised hearts the filme of whose vnbeleefe would not be cut off with so infinite conuictions Oh mad and miserable Nation let them shew vs one prophesie that is not fulfilled let them shew vs one other in whom all the prophesies can be fulfilled and we will mix pittie with our hate If they cannot and yet resist their doome is past Those mine enemies that would not haue me to reigne ouer them bring them hither and slay them before me So let thine enemies perish O Lord. But what goe I so far Euen amongst vs to our shame this riotous age hath bred a monstrous generation I pray God I be not now in some of your bosomes Aug ad Hit Dâ—m volunt Iudaei esse Christiani nec Iudae sunt nec Christiani that heare me this day compounded much like to the Turkish religion of one part Christian another Iew a third worldling a fourth Atheist a Christians face a Iewes heart a worldlings life and therefore Atheous in the whole that acknowledge a God and know him not that professe a Christ but doubt of him yea beleeue him not The foole hath said in his heart There is no Christ What shall I say of these men They are worse than deuils that yeelding spirit could say Iesus I know and these miscreants are still in the old tune of that tempting deuill Situ es filius Dei If thou bee the Christ Oh God that after so cleare a Gospell so many miraculous confirmations so many thousand martyrdomes so many glorious victories of truth so many open confessions of Angels men deuils friends enemies such conspirations of heauen and earth such vniuersall contestations of all Ages and people there should be left any sparke of this damnable infidelitie in the false hearts of men Behold then yee despisers and wonder and vanish away Whom haue all the Prophets foretold or what haue the prophesies of so many hundreds yea thousands of yeeres foresaid that is not with this word finished who could foretell these things but the Spirit of God who could accomplish them but the Sonne of God Hee spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets saith Zacharie he hath spoken and he hath done one true God in both none other spirit could foresay these things should be done none other power could doe these things thus fore-shewed this word therefore can fit none but the mouth of God our Sauiour It is finished Wee know whom wee haue beleeued Thou art the Christ the Sonne of the liuing God Let him that loues not the Lord Iesus be accursed to the death Thus the prophesies are finished Of the legall obseruations with more breuitie Christ is the end of the Law What Law Ceremoniall Morall Of the Morall it was kept perfectly by himselfe satisfied fully for vs Of the Ceremoniall it was referred to him obserued of him fulfilled in him abolisht by him There were nothing more easie than to shew you how all those Iewish Ceremonies lookt at Christ how Circumcision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Passeouer the Tabernacle both outer and inner the Temple the Lauer both the Altars the Tables of Shew-bread the Candlesticks the Vaile the Holy of Holies the Arke the Propitiatorie the pot of Manna Aarons Rod the High Priest his Order Line his Habits his Inaugurations his Washings his Anointings his Sprinklings Offerings the sacrifices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what-euer Iewish Rite had their vertue from Christ relation to him and their end in him This was then their last gaspe for now straight they died with Christ now the vaile of the Temple rent As Austen well notes out of Matthewes order Ex quo apparet tunc scissiam esse cum Cirillus emisit spiritam It tore then when Christs last breath passed That conceit of Theophilact is wittie that as the Iewes were wont to rend their garments when they heard blasphemie so the Temple not enduring these execrable blasphemies against the Sonne of God tore his vaile in peeces But this is not all the vaile rent is the obligation of the rituall Law canceled the way into the heauenly Sanctuarie opened the shadow giuing roome to the substance in a word it doth that which Christ saith Consummatum est Euen now then the law of Ceremonies died It had a long and solemne buriall Ceremoniae ficut defancta corpora necessariorum efficijs deducenda erant ad sepulturaÌ„ non simulatè sed religiose nec descrenda continuò Augustin Ego è contrario loquaâ— reclamante mundo libâ—râ voce pronunciem ceremonas Iudaeorum perniciâ—saâ— essâ— mortiferas quicunque eas obsâ—ruauâ—râ—t siue ex Iudaeis siuâ— ex Gentibus in barathrum diaboli deuolutum Hier. Quisque is nunc ea celebrare voluerit tanquam sopitos cineres erucus non erit pius c. as Augustine saith well perhaps figured in Moses who died not lingeringly but was thirty dayes mourned for what meanes the Church of Rome to digge them vp now rotten in their graues and that not as they had beeene buried but sowen with a plenteous increase yea with the inuerted vsurie of too many of you Citizens ten for one It is a graue and deepe
them on earth to whom perhaps the fiends light firebrands below As Caesarius the Monke brings in Petrus Cantor and Roger the Norman disputing the case of Becket so wee haue many titular Saints few reall many which are written in red Letters in the Calendar of the world Holy to the Lord whom God neuer canonizes in heauen and shall once entertaine with a Nescio I know you not These men yet haue Holinesse written vpon them and are like as Lucian compares his Grecians to a faire gilt bossed booke looke within there is the Tragedie of Thyestes or perhaps Arrius his Thalia the name of a Muse the matter heresie or Conradus Vorstius his late monster that hath De Dev in the front and Atheisme and Blasphemie in the text As S. Paul saies to his Corinths Would God yee could suffer me a little Yee cannot want praisers yee may want reprouers and yet you haue not so much need of Panegyricks as of reprehensions These by how much more rare they are by so much more necessarie Nec-censura deest quae increpet nec medicina quae saâ—et saith Cyprian A false praise grieues and a true praise shames saith Anastasius As Kings are by God himselfe called Gods for there are Dij nuncupatiuè and not essentialiter as Gregorie distinguishes because of their resemblance of God so their Courts should be like to heauen and their attendants like Saints and Angels Decet domum tuam sanctitudo agrees to both Thus you should be But alas I see some care to be gallant others care to be great few care to be holy Yea I know not what Deuill hath possessed the hearts of many great ones of our time in both sexes with this conceit that they cannot be gallant enough vnlesse they be godlesse Holinesse is for Diuines or men of meane spirits for graue subdued mortified retired mindes not for them that stand vpon the tearmes of honour height of place and spirit noble humours hence are our oaths duels profanesses Alas that wee should be so besotted as to thinke that our shame which is our onely glory It is reason that makes vs men but it is holinesse that makes vs Christians And woe to vs that wee are men if wee be not Christians Thinke as basely of it as yee will you shall one day finde that one dram of holinesse is worth a whole world of greatnesse yea that there is no greatnesse but in holinesse For Gods sake therefore doe not send holinesse to Colledges or Hospitals for her lodging but entertaine her willingly into the Court as a most happy guest Thinke it a shame and danger to goe in fine clothes while you haue foule hearts and know that in vaine shall you bee honour'd of men if you bee not holy to the Lord. Your goodly outsides may admit you into the Courts on earth but you shall neuer looke within the gates of the Court of heauen without holinesse Without holinesse no man shall see God O God without holinesse we shall neuer see thee and without thee we shall neuer see holinesse write thou vpon these flinty hearts of ours Holinesse to thy selfe Make vs holy to thee that wee may bee glorious with thee and all thy Saints and Angels All this onely for thy Christs sake and to whom c. THE IMPRESE OF GOD. THE SECOND PART By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. THE IMPRESE OF GOD. THE SECOND PART ZACH. vlt. 20. IT is well-neere a yeere agoe since in this Gracious Presence we entred vpon this mysticall yet pertinent Text. You then heard what This day is what these Bells or Bridles what this inscription what these Pots and Bowles And out of That day you heard the proficiencie of the Church out of Holinesse written on the Bells the sanctification of the Church You shall now heare out of these bells or bridles of warlike horses thus inscribed the change of the holy warre and peace of the Church out of these pots aduanced to the likenesse of the bowles of the Altar the degrees of the Churches perfection and acceptation All which craue your gratious and honourable attention That conceit which yet is graced with the name of some Fathers that takes this in the literall sense of Constantines bridle wee passe as more worthy of smiles than confutation Questionlesse the sense is spirituall and it is a sure rule that as the historicall sense is fetcht from signification of words so the spirituall from the signification of those things which are signified by the words For this inscription then it shall not be vpon the bells for their owne sakes but for the horses not as bells but as bells of the horses And on the horses not for their owne sakes but as they serue for their Riders The horse a military creature there is no other mention of him in Scripture no other vse of him of old when the eyes of Elishaes seruant were open he saw the hill full of horses 2. King 6. Euen the celestiall warfare is not expressed without them Hence you shall euer finde them matcht with Chariots in the Scripture And the Poet Nunc tempus equos nunc poscere currus hee rusheth into the battell saith Ieremy and he is made for it for he hath both strength and nimblenesse He is strong there is fortitudo equi Psalm 47. and God himselfe acknowledges it Hast thou giuen the horse his strength Iob 39. He is swift saith Ieremy 4.13 yea as Eagles or Leopards saith Abacuc We must take these horses then either as continuing themselues or as altered If the first The very warres vnder the Gospell shall be holy and God shall much glorifie himselfe by them He saith not There shall be no horses or those horses shall haue no bells or those bells no inscription but those horses and their vse which is warre and their ornaments which are bells shall haue a title of Holinesse While Cornelius Agryppa writes of the vanity of Sciences wee may well wonder at the vanity of his opinion that all warre was forbidden vnder the Gopell But let Agrippa bee vaine in this as a meere Humanist and the Anabaptists grosly false as being franticke heretiques it is maruell how Erasmus so great a Scholler and Ferus so great a Text-man could miscarry in this Manichean conceit Alphonsus a Castro would faine haue our Oecolompadius to keepe them company but Bellarmine himselfe can hardly beleeue him No maruell when he sees Zuinglius die in the field tho as a Pastor not as a Souldier and when our swords haue so well taught them besides our tongues that the hereticks are as good friends to warre as enemies to them It is Gods euerlasting title Dominus exercituum To speake nothing of the old Testament What can Cornelius Agrippa say to Cornelius the Centurion I feare no man would giue that title to him that opposed warre which Gods spirit
pleasing euill Yea though the Vnderstanding haue sufficiently informed it of the worthinesse of good and the turpitude of euill yet being ouercome with the false delectablenesse of sinne it yeelds to a misse-assent Reason being as Aquinas speakes either swallowed vp by some passion or held downe by some vicious habit It is true still the Will followes the Reason neither can doe otherwise but therefore if Reason mis-led be contrary to Reason and a schisme arise in the soule it must follow that the Will must needs bee contrary to Will and Reason Wherein it is like a Planet which though it be carried aboue perpetually by the first mouer yet slily creepes on his owne way contrary to that strong circumuolution And though the minde be sufficiently conuinced of the necessitie or profit of a good act yet for the tediousnesse annexed to it in a dangerous spirituall â—codie it insensibly slips away from it and is content to let it fall As some idle or fearefull Merchant that could be glad to haue gold if it would come with ease but will not either take the paines or hazard the aduenture to fetch it Thus commonly the Will in both respects Water-man-like lookes forward and rowes backward and vnder good pretences doth nothing but deceiue The affections are as deceitfull as either whether in misse-placing measure or manner Mis-placing They are fiery where they should be coole and where they should burne freeze Our heart makes vs beleeue it loues God and giues him pledges of affection whiles it secretly doats vpon the world like some false strumpet that entertaines her husband with her eyes and in the meane time treads vpon the toe of an Adulterer vnder the board That it loues iustice when it is but reuenge That it grieues for the missing of Christ when indeed it is but for the loaues and fishes That it feares God when indeed it is but afraid of our owne torment That it hates the sin when it is the person That it hates the world when it thrusts God out of doores to lodge it Measure That we loue God enough and the world but enough when as indeed the one loue is but as the cold fit of an ague the other an hot we chill in the one no lesse than we glow in the other when wee make God onely a stale to draw on the world That we doe enough hate our corruptions when at our sharpest we doe but gently sneape them as Hely did his sonnes or as some indulgent parent doth an vnthriftie darling whom he chides and yet feeds with the fewell of his excesse That we haue grieued enough for our sinnes when they haue not cost vs so much as one teare nothing but a little fashionable winde that neuer came further than the roots of our tongue That we doe enough compassionate the afflictions of Ioseph when we drinke wine in bowles That we feare God more than men when we are ashamed to doe that in presence of a childe which we care not to doe in the face of God Manner That our heart loues and hates and feares and ioyes and grieues truly when is an hypocrite in all That it delights constantly in God and holy things when it is but an Ephraims morning dew That our anger is zealous when it is but a flash of personall malice or a superstitious furie That we feare as sonnes when it is as cowards or slaues That we grieue as Gods patients when we fret and repine and struggle like franticks against the hand of our Maker Thus to summe vp all the heart of man is wholly set vpon cozenage the vnderstanding ouer-knowing mis-knowing dissembling The will pretending and inclining contrarily The affections mocking vs in the obiect measure manner and in all of them the heart of man is deceitfull Ye haue seene the face of this Cheator looke now at his hand and now ye see who this Deceiuer is see also the sleights of his deceit and therein the fashion the subiect the sequell of it from whence we will descend to our Demeanure towards so dangerous an Impostor The fashion of his deceit is the same with our ordinary Iuglers either cunning conueyance or false semblance Cunning conueyance whether into vs in vs from vs. The heart admits sinne as Paradise did the Serpent There it is but by what chinkes or cranies it entered we know not so as we may say of sinne as the Master of the feast in the Gospell said to his slouenly guest Quomodo intrasti How camest thou in hither Corruption doth not eat into the heart as our first Parents did into the apple so as the print of their teeth might be seene but as the worme eats into the core insensibly Neither is there lesse closenesse when it is entred I would it were as vntrue a word as it is an harsh one that many a professedly Christian heart lodges a deuill in the blinde roomes of it and either knowes it not or will not bee acknowne of it euery one that harbours a willing sinne in his brest doth so The malicious man hath a furious deuill the wanton an vncleane deuill a Beelphegor or a Tammonz the proud man a Lucifer the couetous a Mammon Certainly these soule spirits are not more truly in hell than in a wicked heart there they are but so closely that I know not if the heart it selfe know it it being verified of this citadell of the heart which was said of that vast Niniuâ— that the enemie had taken some parts of it long ere the other knew it What should I speake of the most common and yet most dangerous guest that lodges in this Inne of the heart Infidelity Call at the doore and aske if such a one host not there They within make strange of it deny it forsweare it Call the officers make priuy search you shall hardly finde him Like some Iesuite in a Popish dames chamber he is so closely contriued into false floores and double wals that his presence is not more easily knowne than hardly conuinced confessed How easie is it to say that if infidelitie did not lurke in the hearts of men they durst not doe as they doe they could not but doe what they doe not Durst they sinne if they were perswaded of an hell durst they buy a minute of pleasure with euerlasting torments Could they so sleight heauen if they beleeued it Could they be so loth to possesse it Could they thinke much of a little painfull goodnesse to purchase an eternity of happinesse No no men fathers and brethren if the heart were not Infidell whiles the face is Christian this could not be Neither doth the heart of man more cunningly conuey sinne into and in it selfe than from it The sin that ye saw euen now openly in the hands is so swiftly past vnder the board that it is now vanished Looke for it in his fore-head there it is not looke for it vnder his tongue there is none looke for it in his
6. Leuistis proculdubio pallas Iudicate quid de coâ—â—cibus fecistis Aut vtrumque lauate aut c. Si quod tangit aspectus lauandum est vt parietes c. Videmus rectum videmus coelum c. haec à vobis lauaâ—i non possunt The very name it selfe if at least you haue vnderstood it Kirke or Church which is nothing but an abbreuiation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords house might haue taught you that ours were dedicated to God theirs to the Deuill in their false gods Augustine answers you as directly as if he were in my roome The Gentiles saith he to their gods erected Temples wee not Temples vnto our Martyrs as vnto Gods but memorials as vnto dead men whose spirits with God are still liuing These then if they were abused by Popish Idolatrie is there no way but Downe with them downe with them to the ground Well fare the Donatists yet your old friends they but washed the walles that were polluted by the Orthodoxe by the same token that Optatus askes them why they did not wash the bookes which ours toucht and the heauens which they lookt vpon What are the very stones sinfull what can be done with them The very earth where they should lye on heapes would bee vncleane But not their pollution angers you more than their proud Maiestie What house can bee too good for the Maker of all things As God is not affected with State so is he not delighted in basenesse If the pompe of the Temple were ceremoniall yet it leaues this moralitie behinde it that Gods house should be decent and what if goodly If we did put holinesse in the stones as you doe vncleanenesse it might be sinne to bee costly Let mee tell you there may bee as much pride in a clay wall as in a carued Proud Maiestie is better than proud basenesse the stone or clay will offend in neither we may in both If you loue cottages the auncient Christians with vs loued to haue Gods house stately as appeares by the example of that worthy Bishop of Alexandria Athanas Apol. Euseb de vita Const Oâ—bo Frising l. 5. c. 3. and that gracious Constantine in whose daies these sacred piles began to lift vp their heads vnto this enuied height Take you your owne choyce giue vs ours let vs neitheir repine nor scorne at each other SEP But your Temples especially your Cathedrall and mother Churches stand still in their proud Maiestie possessed by Arch-Bishops and Lord-Bishops like the Flamins and Arch-Flamins amongst the Gentiles from whom they were deriued and furnished with all manner of pompous and superstitious monuments as carued and painted Images Massing-Copes and Surplices chanting and Organ-musicke and many other glorious ornaments of the Romish Harlot by which her Maiestie is commended to and admired by the vulgar so farre are you in these respects for being gone or fled yea or crept either out of Babylon Now if you be thus Babylonish where you repute your selues most Sion-like and thus confounded in your owne euidence what defence could you make in the things whereof an aduersary would challenge you If your light be darknesse how great is your darkenesse SECTION XLVI ALL this while I feared you had beene in Popish Idolatry The Founders and Furnitures of our Churches now I finde you in Heathenish These our Churches are still possessed by their Flamins and Arch Flamins I had thought none of our Temples had beene so ancient certainly I finde but one poore ruinous building reported to haue worne out this long tyranny of time For the most you might haue read their age and their Founders in open records But these were deriued from those surely the Churches as much as the men It is true the Flamins and whateuer other heathen Priests were put downe Lumb l. 4. dist 24. Isid l. 7. Etymol cap. 12. Theophilus Episc cum caeteras statuas deorum confringereâ— vnam integram seruari iussit eamque in loco publico crexit vt Christian Bishops were set vp Are these therefore deriued from those Christianity came in the roome of Iudaisme was it therefore deriued from it Before you told vs that our Prelacie came from that Antichrist of Rome now from the Flamins of the Heathen Both no lesse than either If you cannot be true yet learne to be constant But what meane you to charge our Churches with carued painted Images It is well you write to those that know them Why did not you say wee bow our knees to them and offer incense Perhaps you haue espied some olde dustie statue in an obscure corner couered ouer with Cob-webs Gentiles tempore progrediente non inficiâ—rentur se iuâ—â—smodi deos coluisse Ammonius Grammaticus hacdere valde discruciatus Dixit grauem plagèm religioni Graecorum inflictam quod illa vna statua non cuerteretur Socrat. l. 5. c. 16. with halfe a face that miserably blemisht or perhaps halfe a Crucifixe inuerted in a Church-window and these you surely noted for English Idols no lesse dangerous glasse you might haue seene at Geneua a Church that hates Idolatry as much as you doe vs What more Massing Copes and Surplices some Copes if you will more Surplices no Massing Search your bookes againe you shall finde Albes in the Masse no Surplices As for Organ-musicke you should not haue fetcht it from Rome but from Ierusalem In the Reformed Church at Middleburgh you might haue found this skirt of the Harlot which yet you grant at least crept out of Babylon Iudge now Christian Reader of the weight of these grand exceptions and see whether ten thousand such were able to make vs no Church and argue vs not onely in Babylon but to be Babylon it selfe Thus Babylonish we are to you and thus Sion-like to God euery true Church is Gods Sion euery Church that holds the Foundation is true according to that golden rule Ephes 2.21 Euery building that is coupled together in this corner-stone groweth vnto an holy Temple in the Lord No aduersary either Man or Deuill can confound vs eitheir in our euidences or their owne challenges we may be faultie but we are true And if the darkenesse you finde in vs be light how great is our light SEP But for that not the separation but the cause makes the Schismatike and lest you should seeme to speake euill of the thing you know not and to condemne a cause vnhearâ— you lay downe in the next place the supposed cause of our separation against which you deale as insufficiently And that you pretend to be none other than your consorting with the Papists in certaine Ceremonies touching which and our separation in regard of them thus you write M.H. If you haue taken but the least knowledge of the ground of our iudgement and practice how dare you thus abuse both vs and the Reader as if the onely or chiefe ground of our separation were your Popish Ceremonies But if you goe
it is not wealth alone that is accessary to this pride there are some that with the Cynicke or that worse dogge the patcht Cistertian are proud of rags there are others that are rich of nothing but cloathes somewhat like to Naziavâ—cus country of Ozizala that abounded in flowers but was barren of come their cloaths are more worth then all the rest as wee vse to say of the Elder that the flower of it is more worth then all the tree besides but if there be any other causes of our hye-mindednesse wealth is one which doth ordinarily lift vp our heads aboue ourselues aboue others and if there be here any of these empty bladders that are puft vp with the wind of conceit giue me leaue to prick them a little and first let mee tell them they may haue much and be neuer the better The chimny ouer lookes all the rest of the house is it not for all that the very basest piece of the building The very heathen man could obserue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Arist That God giues many a man wealth for their greater mischiefe As the Israelites were rich in Quailes but their fawce was such that famine had beene better little cause had they to be proud that they were fed with meate of Princes with the bread of Angels whiles that which they put into their mouthes God fetcht out of their nostrels Haman was proud that he alone was called to the honour of Esters feast this aduancement raised him fifty cubits higher to a stately gibbet If your wealth be to any of you an occasion of fallingâ— if your gold be turned into fetters it had beene better for you to haue liued beggers Let me tell them next of the folly of this pride They are proud of that which is none of theirs That which law and case-diuinity speakes of life that man is not dominus vitae suae sed custos is as true of wealth Senec. Nature can tell him in the Philosopher that hee is not Dominus but Colonus not the Lord but the Farmer It is a iust obseruation of Philo that God onely by a propriety is stiled the possessor of heauen and earth by Melchisedech in his speech to Abraham Gen. 24. we are onely the tenants and that at the will of the Lord At the most if we will as Diuines we haue jus adrem not dominium in rem right to these earthly things not Lordship ouer them but right of fauour from their proprietary and Lord in heauen and that liable to an account Doe we not laugh at the groome that is proud of his masters horse or some vaine whiffler that is proud of a borrowed chaine So ridiculous are we to be puft vp with that whereof we must needs say with the poore man of the hatchet Alas master it is but borrowed and whereof our account shall be so much more great and difficult as our receit is more Hath God therefore laded you with these earthly riches be ye like vnto the full eare of corne hang downe your heads in true humility towards that earth from which you came And it your stalke be so stiffe that it beares vp aboue the rest of your ridge looke vp to heaueh not in the thoughts of pride but in the humble vowes of thankfulnesse and be not hie-minded but feare Hitherto of the hye-mindednesse that followes wealth Now where our pride is And that they trust not there will be our confidence As the wealthy therefore may not be proud of their riches so they may not trust in them What is this trust but the setting of our hearts vpon them the placing of our ioy and contentment in them in a word the making of them our best friend our patron our idoll our god This the true and ielous God cannot abide and yet nothing is more ordinary The rich mans wealth is his strong City saith Salomonâ— where should a man thinke himselfe safe but in his sort He sees Mammon can doe so much and heares him talke of doing so much more it is no maruell if hee yeeld to trust him Mammon is so proud a boaster that his clients which beleeue in him cannot chuse but be â—onfident of him For what doth he not brag to doe Siluer answers to all saith Salomon That we grant although we would be loath it could answer to truth to iustice to iudgement But yet more he vaunts to procure all to pacifie all to conquer all He saies he can procure all secular offices titles dignities yea I would I might not â—ay in some sacrilegious and periured wretches the sacred promotions of the Church and ye know that old song of the Pope and his Romane trafficke Claues Altariâ— Christum Yea foolish Magus makes full account Keyes Altars Christ the Holy Ghost himselfe may be had for money He sayes he can pacifie all A gift in the bosome appeases wrath yea he sayes looke to it ye that sit in the seats of iudicature hee can sometimes bribe off sinnes and peruert iudgement He sayes hee can ouercome all according to the old Greeke verse Fight with siluer launces and you cannot faile of victory yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. he would make vs beleeue he thought this a bait to catch the Sonne of God himselfe withall All these will I giue thee briefly hee sayes according to the French Prouerbe Siluer does all And let me tell you indeed what Mammon can doe Hee can barre the gates of hell to the vnconscionable soule and helpe his followers to damnation This he can do but for other things howsoeuer with vs men the foolish Siluer-smiths may shout out Great is Mammon of the worldlings yet if we weigh his power aright we shall conclude of Mammon as Paracelsus doth of the Diuell that he is a base and beggerly spirit For what I beseech you can he doe Can he make a man honest can he make him wise can he make him healthfull Can he giue a man to liue more merily to feed more heartily to sleepe more quietly Can we buy off the gout cares death much lesse the paines of another vvorld nay doth he not bring all these Goe to then thou rich man God is offended with thee and meanes to plague thee with disease death Now try what thy bags can doe Begin first vvith God and see whether thou canst bribe him with thy gifts Micah 6. and buy off his displeasure Wherewith shalt thou come before the Lord and bow thy selfe before the high God Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousand riuers of oyle The siluer is mine and the gold is mine saith the Lord of hosts Haggai 2. If that speed not goe to the fergeant of God death see if thou canst fee him not to arrest thee He lookes thee sternely in the face and tels thee vvith Ehud he hath a message to thee from God
abound euerywhere and make no difference betwixt Beggers and Princes Though Pharaoh and his Courtiers abhorred to see themselues louzy yet they hoped this miracle would be more easily imitable but now the greater possibility the greater foyle How are the great wonder-mongers of Aegypt abashed that they can neither make Lice of their owne nor deliuer themselues from the Lice that are made Those that could make Serpent and Frogs could not either make or kill Lice to shew them that those Frogs and Serpents were not their own workmanship Now Pharaoh must needs see how impotent a deuil he serued that could not make that vermine which euery day rises voluntarily out of corruption Iannes and Iambres cannot now make those Lice so much as by delusion which at another time they cānot chuse but produce vnknowing which now they cannot auoid That spirit which is powerfull to execute the greatest things when he is bidden is vnable to doe the least when he is restrained Now these corriuals of Moses can say This is the finger of God Ye foolish inchanters was Gods finger in the Lice not in the Frogs not in the Blood not in the Serpent And why was it rather in the lesse then in the greater Because ye did imitate the other not these As if the same finger of God had not beene before in your imitation which was now in your restraint As if yee could haue failed in these if ye had not beene onely permitted the other Whiles wicked minds haue their full scope they neuer look vp aboue themselues but when once God crosses them in their proceedings their want of successe teaches them to giue God his owne All these plagues perhaps had more horror then paine in them The Frogs creep vpon their clothes the Lice vpon their skins but those stinging Hornets which succeed them shall wound and kill The water was anoyed with the first plague the earth with the second and third this fourth fils the ayre and besides corruption brings smart And that they may see this winged army comes from an angry God not either from nature or chance euen the very Flies shal make a difference betwixt Aegypt and Goshen He gaue them their being sets them their stint They can no more sting an Israelite then fauor an Aegyptian The very wings of Flies are directed by a prouidence and doe acknowledge their limits Now Pharaoh finds how impossible it is for him to stand out with God since all his power cannot rescue him from Lice and Flyes And now his heart begins to thaw a little Goe doe sacrifice to your God in this Land or since that will not be accepted Goe into the wildernesse but not far but how soone it knits againe Good thoughts make but a thorow fare of carnall hearts they can neuer settle there yea his very misgiuing hardens him the more that now neither the murren of his cattell nor the botches of his seruants can stir him a whit He saw his cattle strucke dead with a sudden contagion hee saw his Sorcerers after their contestation with Gods messengers strucke with a scab in their very faces and yet his heart is not strucke Who would thinke it possible that any soule could be secure in the middest of such variety and frequence of iudgements These very plagues haue not more wonder in them then their successe hath To what an height of obduration will sin lead a man and of all sins incredulity Amidst all these storms Pharaoh sleepeth till the voice of Gods mighty thunders and hayle mixed with fire rouzed him vp a little Now as betwixt sleeping and waking he starts vp and sayes God is righteous I am wicked Moses pray for vs and presently layes downe his head againe God hath no sooner done thundering then he hath done fearing Al this while you neuer find him carefull to preuent any one euill but desirous still to shift it off when hee feeles it neuer holds constant to any good motion neuer prayes for himselfe but carelesly wils Moses and Aaron to pray for him neuer yeelds God his whole demand but higgleth and dodgeth like some hard chapman that would get a release with the cheapest First They shal not goe then Goe and sacrifice but in Aegypt next Goe sacrifice in the wildernes but not far off after Goe ye that are men then Goe you and your children onely at last Goe all saue your sheepe and cattle Wheresoeuer meere Nature is she is still improuident of future good sensible of present euill inconstant in good purposes vnable through vnacquaintance and vnwilling to speake for her selfe niggardly in her grants and vncheerfull The plague of the Grashoppers startled him a little and the more through the importunity of his seruants for when hee considered the fish destroyed with the first blow the cattle with the fift the corne with the seuenth the fruit and leaues with this eighth and nothing now left him but a bare fruitlesse earth to liue vpon and that couered ouer with Locusts necessity droue him to relent for an aduantage Forgiue me this once take from me this death onely But as constrained repentance is euer short and vnsound the West wind together with the Grashoppers blowes away his remorse now is he ready for another iudgement As the Grashoppers tooke away the sight of the earth from him so now a grosse darknesse takes away the sight of heauen too other darknesses were but priuatiue this was reall and sensible The Aegyptians thought this night long how could they chuse when it was six in one and so much the more for that no man could rise to talk with other but was necessarily confined to his owne thoughts One thinkes the fault in his owne eyes which he rubs oftentimes in vaine Others think that the Sunne is lost out of the Firmament and is now withdrawn for euer Others that all things are returning to their first confusion all think themselues miserable past remedy and wish whatsoeuer had befalne them that they might haue had but light enough to see themselues die Now Pharaoh proues like to some beasts that grow mad with baiting grace often resisted turnes to desperatenesse Get thee from me looke thou see my face no more whensoeuer thou commest in my sight thou shalt dye As if Moses could not plague him as well in absence as if he that could not take away the Lice Flyes Frogs Grashoppers could at his pleasure take away the life of Moses that procured them What is this but to run vpon the iudgements and run away from the remedies Euermore when Gods messengers are abandoned destruction is neere Moses will see him no more till he see him dead vpon the sands but God will now visit him more then euer The fearfullest plagues God still reserues for the vpshot All the former do but make way for the last Pharaoh may exclude Moses and Aaron but Gods Angell hee cannot exclude In sensible messengers are vsed when the visible are
the iourney and curse of the couetous prophet if God had not stayed him How oft are wicked men cursed by a diuine hand euen in those sins which their heart stands to It is no thank to lewd men that their wickednesse is not prosperous Whence is it that the world is not ouer-run with euill but from this that men cannot be so ill as they would The first entertainment of this message would make a stranger thinke Balaam wife and honest Hee will not giue a sudden answer but craues leasure to consult with God and promises to returne the answer he shall receiue Who would not say This man is free from rashnesse from partiality Dissimulation is crafty able to deceiue thousands The words are good when he comes to action the fraud bewaries it selfe For both he insinuates his own forwardnesse and casts the blame of the prohibition vpon God and which is worse deliuers but halfe his answer he sayes indeed God refuses to giue them leaue to goe He sayes not as it was He charges me not to curse them for they are blessed So did Balaam deny as one that wisht to be sent for againe Perhaps a peremptory refusall had hindered his further sollicitation Concealement of some truths is sometimes as faulty as a deniall True fidelity is not niggardly in her relations Where wickednesse meets with power it thinkes to command all the world and takes great scorne of any repulse So little is Balac discouraged with one refusall that he sends so much the stronger message Mo Princes and more honorable Oh that wee could be so importunate for our good as wicked men are for the compassing of their owne designes A deniall doth but whet the desires of vehement suitors Why are we faint in spirituall things when we are not denied but delayed Those which are themselues transported with vanity and ambition thinke that no heart hath power to resist these offers Balacs Princes thought they had strooke it dead when they had once mentioned promotion to great honour Selfe-loue makes them thinke they cannot be slaues whiles others may be free and that all the world would be glad to runne on madding after their bait Nature thinks it impossible to contemn honor and wealth and because too many soules are thus taken cannot beleeue that any would escape But let carnall hearts know there are those can spit the world in the face and say Thy gold and siluer perish with thee and that in comparison of a good conscience can tread vnder foot his best proffers like shadowes as they are and that can doe as Balaam said How neere truth and falshood can lodge together Here was piety in the lips and couetousnesse in the heart Who can any more regard good words that heares Balaam speake so like a Saint An housefull of gold siluer may not peruert his tongue his heart is won with lesse for if he had not already swallowed the reward and found it sweet why did he againe sollicit God in that which was peremptorily denyed him If his mind had not beene bribed already why did he stay the messenger why did he expect a change in God why was he willing to feed them with hope of successe which had fed him with hope of recompence One prohibition is enough for a good man Whiles the delay of God doth but hold vs in suspence importunity is holy and seasonable but when once he giues a resolute deniall it is prophane saucinesse to sollicit him When we aske what we are bidden our suites are not more vehement then welcome but when we begge prohibited fauours our presumption is troublesome and abhominable No good heart will endure to be twice forbidden Yet this opportunity had obtained a permission but a permission worse then a deniall I heard God say before Go not nor curse them Now he sayes Goe but curse not Anon he is angry that he did not goe Why did he permit that which he forbade if he be angry for doing that which he permitted Some things God permits with an indignation not for that he giues leaue to the act but that he giues a man ouer to his sinne in the act this sufferance implies not fauour but iudgement so did God bid Balaam to goe as Salomon bids the yong man follow the wayes of his owne heart It is one thing to like another thing to suffer Moses neuer approued those legall diuorces yet he tolerated them God neuer liked Balaams iourney yet he displeasedly giues way to it as if he said Well since thou art so hot set on this iourney be gone And thus Balaam tooke it else when God after professed his displeasure for the iourney it had beene a ready answer Thou commandedst me but herein his confession argues his guilt Balaams suite and Israels Quailes had both one fashion of grant in anger How much better is it to haue gracious denials then angry yeeldings A small perswasion hartens the willing It booted not to bid the couetous prophet hasten to his way Now he makes himselfe sure of successe His corrupt hart tels him that as God had relented in his licence to goe so he might perhaps in his licence to curse and he saw how this curse might blesse him with abundance of wealth hee rose vp earely therefore and saddled his Asse The night seemed long to his forwardnesse Couetous men need neither clocke nor bell to awaken them their desires make them restlesse O that we could with as much eagernesse seeke the true riches which onely can make vs happy We that see onely the out-side of Balaam may maruell why he that permitted him to goe afterward opposes his going but God that saw his heart perceiued what corrupt affections caried him hee saw that his couetous desires and wicked hopes grew the stronger the neerer he came to his end An Angell is therefore sent to with-hold the hasty Sorcerer Our inward disposition is the life of our actions according to that doth the God of spirits iudge vs whiles men censure according to our externall motions To goe at all when God had commanded to stay was presumptuous but to goe with desire to curse made the act doubly sinfull and fetcht an Angell to resist it It is one of the worthy imployments of good Angels to make secret opposition to euill designes Many a wicked act haue they hindered without the knowledge of the agent It is all one with the Almighty to worke by Spirits and men It is therefore our glory to be thus set on worke To stop the course of euill either by disswasion or violence is an Angelicall seruice In what danger are wicked men that haue Gods Angels their opposites The Deuill moued him to goe a good Angell resists him If an heauenly Spirit stand in the way of a Sorcerers sinne how much more ready are all those spirituall powers to stop the miscariages of Gods deare children How oft had we falne yet more if these Guardians had not
Samuel himselfe whiles hee was aliue could not haue spoken more grauely more seuerely more diuinely than this euill ghost For the Lord will rent thy Kingdome out of thy hand and giue it to thy neighbour Dauid because thou obeyedst not the voyce of the Lord not executedst his fierce wrath vpon the Amalekites therefore hath the Lord done this vnto thee this day When the Deuill himselfe puts on grauity and religion who can maruell at the hypocrisie of men Well may lewd men bee good Preachers when Satan himselfe can play the Prophet Where are those Ignorants that thinke charitably of charmes and spells because they finde nothing in them but good words What Prophet could speake better words than this Deuill in Samuels Mantle Neither is there at any time so much danger of that euill spirit as when hee speakes best I could wonder to heare Satan preach thus prophetically if I did not know that as hee was once a good Angell so hee can still act what hee was Whiles Saul was in consultation of sparing Agag wee shall neuer finde that Satan would lay any blocke in his way Yea then hee was a prompt Orator to induce him into that sinne now that it is past and gone hee can lade Saul with fearefull denunciations of iudgement Till wee haue sinned Satan is a parasite when wee haue sinned hee is a Tyrant What cares hee to flatter any more when hee hath what hee would Now his onely worke is to terrifie and confound that hee may enioy what he hath wonne How much better is it seruing that Master who when wee are most deiected with the conscience of euill heartens vs with inward comfort and speakes peace to the soule in the midst of tumult Ziklag spoyled and reuenged HAd not the King of the Philistims sent Dauid away early his Wiues and his people and substance which hee left at Ziklag had beene vtterly lost Now Achish did not more pleasure Dauid in his entertainment than in his dismission Saul was not Dauids enemy more in the persecution of his person than in the forbearance of Gods enemies Behold thus late doth Dauid feele the smart of Sauls sinne in sparing the Amalekites who if Gods sentence had beene duly executed had not now suruiued to annoy this parcell of Israel As in spirituall respects our sinnes are alwayes hurtfull to our selues so in temporall oft-times preiudiciall to posteritie A wicked man deserues ill of those hee neuer liued to see I cannot maruell at the Amalekites assault made vpon the Israelites of Ziklag I cannot but maruell at their clemencie how iust it was that while Dauid would giue aid to the enemies of the Church against Israel the enemies of the Church should rise against Dauid in his peculiar charge of Israel But whilst Dauid rouing against the Amalekites not many dayes before left neither man nor woman aliue how strange is it that the Amalekites inuading and surprizing Ziklag in reuenge kill neither man nor woman Shall wee say that mercy is fled from the brests of Israelites and rests in Heathens Or shall wee rather ascribe this to the gracious restraint of God who hauing designed Amalek to the slaughter of Israel and not Israel to the slaughter of Amalek moued the hand of Israel and held the hands of Amalek This was that alone that made the Heathens take vp with an vn-bloudy reuenge burning only the wâ—â—es and leading away the persons Israel crossed the reuealed will of God insparing Amalek Amalek fulfils the secret will of God in sparing Israel It was still the lot of Amalek to take Israel at all aduantages vpon their first comming out of Egypt when they were weary weake and vnarmed then did Amalek assault them And now when one part of Israel was in the field against the Philistians another was gone with the Philistims against Israel the Amalekites set vpon the Coasts of both and goes away laded with the spoile No other is to bee exspected of our spirituall Aduersaries who are euer readiest to assayle when wee are the vnreadiest to defend It was a wofull spectacle for Dauid and his Souldiers vpon their returne to find mines and ashes in stood of houses and in steed of their Families solitude Their Citie was vanished into smoke their housholds into captiuitie neither could they know whom to accuse or where to enquire for redresse whiles they made account that their home should recompence their tedious iourney with comfort the miserable desolation of their home doubles the discomfort of their iourney what remained there but teares and lamentations They lifted vp their voyces and wept till they could weepe no more Heere was plentie of nothing but misery and sorrow The heart of euery Israelite was brim full of griefe Dauids ranne ouer for besides that his crosse was the same with theirs all theirs was his alone each man looke on his fellow as a partner of affliction but euery one lookt vpon Dauid as the cause of all their affliction and as common displeasure is neuer but fruitfull of reuenge they all agree to stone him as the Author of their vndoing whom they followed all this while as the hopefull meanes of their aduacements Now Dauids losse is his least griefe neither as if euery thing had conspired to torment him can hee looke besides the aggrauation of his sorrow and danger Saul and his Souldiers had hunted him out of Israel the Philistim Courtiers had hunted him from the fauour of Achish the Amalekites spoyled him in Ziklag yet all these are easie aduersaries in comparison of his owne his owne followers are so far from pittying his participation of the losse that they are ready to kill him because they are miserable with him Oh the many and grieuous perplexities of the man after Gods owne heart If all his traine had ioyned their best helpes for the mitigation of his griefe their Cordials had beene too weake but now the vexation that arises from their fury and malice drowneth the sence of their losse and were enough to distract the most resolute heart why should it bee strange to vs that wee meete with hard tryalls when wee see the deare Annoynted of God thus plunged into euils What should the distressed sonne of Ishai now doe Whither should hee thinke to turne him to goe backe to Israel hee durst not to goe to Achish hee might not to abide amonst those waste heapes hee could not or if there might haue beene harbor in those burnt wals yet there could bee no safety to remayne with those mutinous spirits But Dauid comforted himselfe in the Lord his God oh happie and sure refuge of a faithfull soule The earth yeelded him nothing but matter of disconsolation and heauinesse hee lifts his eyes aboue the hils whence commeth his saluation It is no maruell that God remembreth Dauid in all his troubles since Dauid in all his troubles did thus remember his God hee knew that though no mortall eye of reason or sence could discerne any euasion
she had prepared to her sicke Brother her selfe is made a prey to his outragious Lust The modest Virgine intreates and perswades in vaine shee layes before him the sinne the shame the danger of the fact and since none of these can preuaile faine would winne time by the suggesting of vnpossible hopes Nothing but violence can stay a resolued sinner What hee cannot by intreaty hee will haue by force If the Deuill were not more strong in men than nature they would neuer seeke pleasure in violence Amnon hath no sooner fulfilled his beastly desires than he hates Tamar more than he loued her Inordinate lust neuer ends but in discontentment Losse of spirits and remorse of soule make the remembrance of that Act tedious whose expectation promised delight If we could see the backe of sinfull pleasures ere we behold their face our hearts could not but be fore-stalled with a iust detestation Brutish Amnon it was thy selfe whom thou shouldst haue hated for this villany not thine innocent sister Both of you lay together onely one committed incest What was she but a patient in that impotent fury of lust How vniustly doe carnall men mis-place their affections No man can say whether that loue or this hatred were more vnreasonable Fraud drew Tamar into the house of Amnon force intertained her within and droue her out Faine would she haue hid her shame where it was wrought and may not bee allowed it That roofe vnder which she came with honour and in obedience and loue may not be lent her for the time as a shelter of her ignominie Neuer any sauage could be more barbarous Shechem had rauished Dinah his offence did not make her odious his affection so continued that he is willing rather to draw bloud of himselfe and his people than forgoe her whom hee had abused Amnon in one houre is in the excesse of loue and hate and is sicke of her for whom he was ficke She that lately kept the keyes of his heart is now lockt out of his doores Vnruly passions runne euer into extremities and are then best apaied when they are furthest off from reason and moderation What could Amnon thinke would be the euent of so soule a fact which as hee had not the grace to preuent so hee hath not the care to conceale If hee lookt not so high as Heauen what could he imagine would follow hereupon but the displeasure of a Father the danger of Law the indignation of a Brother the shame and out-cryes of the World All which he might haue hoped to auoid by secresie and plausible courses of satisfaction It is the iust iudgement of God vpon presumptuous offenders that they lose their wit together with their honesty and are either so blinded that they cannot fore-see the issue of their actions or so besotted that they doe not regard it Poore Tamar can but bewaile that which she could not keepe her Virginity not lost but torne from her by a cruell violence She rends her Princely Robe and kâ—ies ashes on her head and laments the shame of anothers sinne and liues more desolate than a widdow in the house of her brother Absalom In the meane time what a corosiue must this newes needs be to the heart of good Dauid whose fatherly command had out of loue cast his Daughter into the iawes of this Lion What an insolent affront must he needs construe this to bee offred by a Sonne to a Father that the Father should bee made the Pandar of his owne Daughter to his Sonne Hee that lay vpon the ground weeping for but the sicknesse of an Infant How vexed doe we thinke hee was with the villanie of his Heire with the rauishment of his Daughter both of them worse than many deaths What reuenge can he thinke of for so haynous a crime lesse than death and what lesse than death is it to him to thinke of a reuenge Rape was by the Law of God capitall how much more when it is seconded with Incest Anger was not punishment enough for so high an offence Yet this is all that I heare of from so indulgent a Father sauing that he makes vp the rest with sorrow punishing his Sonnes out-rage in himselfe The better-natur'd and more gracious a man is the more subiect he is to the danger of an ouer-remissenesse and the excesse of fauour and mercie The milde iniustice is no lesse perillous to the Common-wealth than the cruell If Dauid perhaps out of the conscience of his owne late offence will not punish this fact his sonne Absalom shall not out of any care of Iustice but in a desire of reuenge Two whole yeares hath this slye Courtier smothered his indignation and fayned kindnesse else his inuitation of Amnon in speciall had beene suspected Euen gallant Absalom was a great Sheep-master The brauery and magnificence of a Courtier must bee built vpon the grounds of frugalitie Dauid himselfe is bidden to this bloudie Sheep-shearing It was no otherwise meant but that the Fathers eyes should be the witnesses of the Tragicall execution of one Sonne by another Onely Dauids loue kept him from that horrible spectacle Hee is carefull not to be chargeable to that Sonne who cares not to ouer charge his Fathers stomacke with a Feast of Bloud AMNON hath so quite forgot his sinne that he dares goe to feast in that House where Tamar was mourning and suspects not the kindnesse of him whom he had deserued of a Brother to make an enemy Nothing is more vnsafe to be trusted than the faire lookes of a festred heart Where true Charitie or iust satisfaction haue not wrought a sound reconciliation malice doth but lurke for the opportunitie of an aduantage It was not for nothing that Absalom deferred his reuenge which is now so much the more exquisite as it is longer protracted What could bee more fearefull than when Amnons heart was merrie with Wine to be suddenly stricken with death As if this execution had beene no lesse intended to the Soule than to the bodie How wickedly soeuer this was done by Absalom yet how iust was it with God that he who in two yeares impunity would finde no leisure of repentance should now receiue a punishment without possibilitie of Repentance O God thou art righteous to reckon for those sinnes which humane partialitie or negligence hath omitted and whiles thou punishest sinne with sinne to punish sinne with death If either Dauid had called Amnon to account for this villanie or Amnon had called himselfe the reuenge had not beene so desperate Happie is the man that by an vnfayned Repentance acquits his soule from his knowne euills and improues the dayes of his peace to the preuention of future vengeance which if it bee not done the hand of God shall as surely ouertake vs in iudgement as the hand of Satan hath ouertaken vs in miscarriage vnto sinne ABSALOMS Returne and Conspiracie ONE Act of iniustice drawes on another The iniustice of Dauid in not punishing the rape of
be tryed with honour As some expert Fences that challenges at all weapons so doth this great enemie in vaine shall we plead our skill in some if wee faile in any It must be our wisedome to be prepared for all kind of assaults As those that hold Townes and Forts doe not onely defend themselues from incursions but from the Canon and the Pioner still doth that subtill Serpent trauerse his ground for an aduantage The Temple is not high enough for his next tentation He therefore carrie vp Christ to the top of an exceeding high mountaine All enemies in pitcht fields striue for the benefit of the Hill or Riuer or Wind or Sunne That which his seruant â—â—ac did by his instigation himselfe doth now immediately change places in hope of preuailing If the obscure Countrie will not moue vs hee tries what the Court can doe if not our home the Tauerne if not the field our closet As no place is left free by his malice so no place must be made preiudiciall by our carelessnes and as we should alwayes watch ouer our selues so then most when the opportunity caries cause of suspition Wherefore is Christ caried vp so high but for prospect If the Kingdomes of the earth and their glorie were onely to be represented to his imagination the valley would haue serued If to the outward sence no hill could suffice Circular bodies though small cannot bee seene at once This show was made to both diuers kingdomes lying round about Iudea were represented to the eye The glory of them to the imagination Satan meant the eye could tempt the fancie no lesse than the fancie could tempt the will How many thousand soules haue died of the wound of the eye If we doe not let in sinne at the window of the eye or the doore of the eare it cannot enter into our hearts If there be any pompe maiestie pleasure brauerie in the world where should it bee but in the Courts of Princes whom God hath made his Images his deputies on earth There is soft rayment sumptuous feasts rich Iewels honourable attendance glorious triumphs royall state those Satan layes out to the fairest show But Oh the craft of that old Serpent Many a care attends greatnesse No Crowne is without thornes High seates are neuer but vneasie all those infinite discontentments which are the shaddow of earthly Soueraigntie he hides out of the way nothing may bee seene but what may both please and allure Satan is still and euer like himselfe If tentations might be but turnd about and showne on both sides the kingdome of darknesse would not be so populous Now whensoeuer the Tempter sets vpon any poore soule all sting of conscience wrath iudgement torment is concealed as if they were not Nothing may appeare to the eye but pleasure profit and a seeming happinesse in the enioying our desires those other wofull obiects are reserued for the farewell of sinne that our miserie may be seene and felt at once When we are once sure Satan is a Tyrant till then he is a Parasite There can be no safetie if we doe not view as well the backe as the face of tentations But oh presumption and impudence that hell it selfe may bee asham'd of The Diuell dares say to Christ All these will I giue thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship mee That beggerly spirit that hath not an â—ich of earth can offer the whole world to the maker to the owner of it The slaue of God would bee adored of his Creator How can wee hope hee should bee sparing of false boasts and of vnreasonable promises vnto vs when hee dares offer kingdomes to him by whom Kings reigne Tentations on the right hand are most dangerous how many that haue beene hardned with feare haue melted with honour There is no doubt of that soule that will not bite at the golden hooke False liâ—rs and vaine-glorious boasters see the top of their pedigree If I may not rather say that Satan doth borrow the vse of their tongues for a time Whereas faithfull is hee that hath promised who will also doe it Fdelitie and truth is issue of the heauen If Idolatrie were not a deare sinne to Satan hee would not bee so importunate to compasse it It is miserable to see how he draws the world insensibly into this sinne which they professe to detest Those that would rather hazard the furnace than worship Gold in a statue yet doe adore it in the stampe and finde no saint with themselues If our hearts bee drawne to stoope vnto an ouer high respect of any creature wee are Idolaters O God it is no maruell if thy ielousie be kindled at the admission of any of thine owne workes into a competition of honour with their Creatour Neuer did our Sauiour say Auoide Satan till now It is a iust indignation that is conceiued at the motion of a riualitie with God Neither yet did Christ exercise his diuine power in this command but by the necessary force of Scripture driues away that impure Tempter It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serue The rest of our Sauiours answeres were more full and direct than that they could admit of a replie but this was so flat and absolute that it vtterly daunted the courage of Satan and put him to a shamefull flight and made him for the time weary of his trade The way to be rid of the troublesome solicitations of that wicked one is continued resistance He that forcibly droue the tempter from himselfe takes him off from vs and will not abide his assaults perpetuall It is our exercise and triall that hee intends not our confusion SIMON called AS the Sunne in his first rising drawes all eyes to it So did this Sunne of righteousnesse when he first shone forth into the world His miraculous cures drew Patients his diuine doctrine drew Auditors both together drew the admiring multitude by troopes after him And why doe wee not still follow thee O Sauiour thorow deserts and mountaines ouer land and Seas that wee may bee both healed and taught It was thy word that when thou wert lift vp thou wouldst draw all men vnto thee Behold thou art lift vp long since both to the tree of shame and to the throne of heauenly glory Draw vs and wee shall runne after thee Thy word is still the same though proclaimed by men thy vertue is still the same though exercised vpon the spirits of men Oh giue vs to hunger after both that by both our soules may be satisfied I see the people not onely following Christ but pressing vpon him euen very vnmannerlinesse finds here both excuse and acceptation they did not keepe their distances in an awe to the Maistie of the speaker whiles they were rauished with the power of the speech yet did not our Sauiour checke their vnreuerent thronging but rather incourages their forwardnesse Wee cannot offend thee O God with the importunitie of our
now all hearts are cold all faces pale and euery man hath but life enough to runne away How suddenly is this brauing troupe dispersed Adonijah their new Prince flies to the hornes of the Altar as distrusting all hopes of life saue the Sanctity of the place and the mercy of his riuall So doth the wise and iust God befoole proud and insolent sinners in those secret plots wherein they hope to vndermine the true sonne of Dauid the Prince of Peace he suffers them to lay their heads together and to feast themselues in a iocund securitie and promise of successe at last when they are at the height of their ioyes and hopes he confounds all their deuices and layes them open to the scorne of the world and to the anguish of their owne guilty hearts DAVIDS end and SALOMONS beginning IT well became Salomon to begin his Raigne in peace Adonijah receiues pardon vpon his good behauiour and findes the Throne of Salomon as safe as the Altar Dauid liues to see a wise sonne warme in his seat and now hee that had yeelded to succession yeelds to nature Many good counsels had Dauid giuen his Heire now hee summes them vp in his end Dying words are wont to bee weightiest The Soule when it is entring into glory breathes nothing but diuine I goe the way of all the earth How well is that Princely heart content to subscribe to the conditions of humane mortality as one that knew Soueraigntie doth not reach to the affaires of nature Though a King he neither expects nor desires an immunity from dissolution making not account to goe in any other then the common track to the vniuersall home of mankind the house of age Whither should earth but to earth and why should we grugde to doe that which all doe Be thou strong therefore and shew thy selfe a man Euen when his spirit was going out he puts spirit into his Sonne Age puts life into youth and the dying animates the vigorous He had well found that strength was requisit to gouernment that he had need to be no lesse then a man that should rule ouer men If greatnesse should neuer receiue any opposition yet those worlds powers A weake man may obey none but the strong can gouerne Gracelesse courage were but the whetstone of tyranny Take heed therefore to the charge of the Lord thy God to walke in his wayes and to keepe his Statutes The best legacy that Dauid bequeathes to his heire is the care of piety himselfe had found the sweetnesse of a good conscience and now he commends it to his successor If there be any thing that in our desires of the prosperous condition of our children takes place of goodnesse our hearts are not vpright Here was the father a King charging the King his sonne to keepe the Statutes of the King of Kings as one that knew greatnesse could neither exempt from obedience nor priuiledge sinne as one that knew the least deuiation in the greatest and highest Orbe is both most sensible and most dangerous Neither would he haue his sonne to looke for any prosperity saue onely from well-doing That happinesse is built vpon sands or Ice which is raised vpon any foundation besides vertue If Salomon were wise Dauid was good and if old Salomon had well remembred the counsell of old Dauid he had not so foulely mis-caried After the precepts of pietie follow those of iustice distributing in a due recompence as reuenge to Ioab and Shimei so fauour to the house of Barzillai The bloodinesse of Ioab had lien long vpon Dauids heart the hideous noyse of those treacherous murders as it had pierced heauen so it still filled the eares of Dauid He could abhorre that villanie though he could not reuenge it What he cannnot pay hee will owe and approue himselfe at last a faithfull debtor Now hee will defray it by the hand of Salomon The slaughter was of Abner and Amasa Dauid appropriates it Thou knowest what Ioab did to me The Soueraigne is smitten in the Subiect Neither is it other then iust that the arraignment of meane malefactors runnes in the stile of wrong to the Kings Crowne and dignity How much more 〈◊〉 thou O Sonne of Dauid take to thy selfe those insolencies which are done to thy poorest subiects seruants sonnes members here vpon earth No Saul can touch a Christian here below but thou feelest it in heauen and complainest But what shall we thinke of this Dauid was a man of Warre Salomon a King of Peace yet Dauid referres this reuenge to Salomon How iust it was that he who shed the blood of warre in peace and put the blood of war vpon his girdle that was about his loynes should haue his blood shed in peace by a Prince of peace Peace is fittest to rectifie the out-rages of Warre Or whether is not this done in type of that diuine administration wherein thou O father of heauen hast committed all iudgement vnto thine eternall Sonne Thou who couldst immediately either plague or absolue sinners wilt doe neither but by the hand of a Mediator Salomon learned betimes what his ripenesse taught afterwards Take away the wicked from the King and his Throne shall be established in righteousnesse Cruell Ioab and malicious Shimei must be therfore vpon the first opportunity remoued The one lay open to present iustice for abetting the conspiracy of Adonijah neither needes the helpe of time for a new aduantage The other went vnder the protection of an oath from Dauid and therefore must be fetcht in vpon a new challenge The hoare head of both must bee brought to the graue with blood else Dauids head could not bee brought to his graue in peace Due punishment of malefactors is the debt of authority If that holy King haue runne into arerages yet as one that hates and feares to breake the banke he giues order to his pay-master It shall bee defraid if not by him yet for him Generous natures cannot be vnthankfull Barzillai had shewed Dauid some kindnesse in his extremity and now the good man will haue posterity to inherite the thankes How much more bountifull is the Father of mercies in the remuneration of our poore vnworthy seruices Euen successions of generations shall fare the better for one good parent The dying words and thoughts of the man after Gods owne heart did not confine themselues to the straites of these particular charges but inlarged themselues to the care of Gods publike seruice As good men are best at last Dauid did neuer so busily and carefully marshall the affaires of God as when he was fixed to the bed of his age and death Then did he lode his sonne Salomon with the charge of building the house of God then did hee lay before the eyes of his sonne the modell and patterne of that whole sacred worke whereof if Salomon beare the name yet Dauid no lesse merits it He now giues the platforme of the Courts and buildings Hee giues the gold and siluer for
men according to no other conditions then of their faith The Centurions seruant was sicke the Rulers sonne The Centurion doth not sue vnto Christ to come onely sayes My seruant is sicke of a Palsie Christ answers him I will come and heale him The Ruler sues vnto Christ that hee would come and heale his sonne Christ will not goe onely sayes Goe thy way thy sonne liues Outward things carie no respect with God The Image of that diuine Maiestie shining inwardly in the graces of the soule is that which wins loue from him in the meanest estate The Centurions faith therefore could do more then the Rulers greatnesse and that faithfull mans seruant hath more regard then this great mans sonne The Rulers request was Come and heale Christs answer was Goe thy way thy sonne liues Our mercifull Sauiour meets those in the end whom hee crosses in the way How sweetly doth he correct our prayers and whiles he doth not giue vs what we aske giues vs better then we asked Iustly doth he forbeare to go downe with this Ruler lest he should confirme him in an opinion of measuring his power by conceits of locality distance but he doth that in absence for which his presence was required with a repulse Thy sonne liueth giuing a greater demonstration of his omnipotencie then was craued How oft doth hee not heare to our will that hee may heare vs to our aduantage The chosen vessell would be rid of tentations he heares of a supply of grace The sicke man askes release receiues patience life and receiues glory Let vs aske what we thinke best let him giue what he knowes best With one word doth Christ heale two Patients the sonne and the father the sons feuer the fathers vnbeleefe That operatiue word of our Sauiour was not without the intention of a triall Had not the Ruler gone home satisfied with that intimation of his sonnes life and recouerie neither of them had beene blessed with successe Now the newes of performance meets him one halfe of the way and hee that beleeued somewhat ere he came and more when he went grew to more faith in the way and when he came home inlarged his faith to all the skirts of his familie A weake faith may be true but a true faith is growing He that boasts of a full stature in the first moment of his assent may presume but doth not beleeue Great men cannot want clients their example swaies some their authoritie more they cannot goe to either of the other worlds alone In vaine doe they pretend power ouer others who labour â—ut to draw their families vnto God The Dumbe Deuill eiected THat the Prince of our Peace might approue his perfect victories wheresoeuer hee met with the Prince of darknesse hee foyled him he eiected him He found him in heauen thence did hee throw him headlong and verified his Prophet I haue cast thee out of mine holy mountaine And if the Deuils left their first habitation it was because being Deuills they could not keepe it Their estate indeed they might haue kept and did not their habitation they would haue kept and might not How art thou falne from heauen O Lucifer He found him in the heart of man for in that closet of God did the euill spirit after his exile from heauen shrowd himselfe Sin gaue him possession which he kept with a willing violence thence hee casts him by his word and spirit He found him tyrannizing in the bodies of some possessed men and with power commands the vncleane spirits to depart This act is for no hand but his When a strong man keepes possession none but a stronger can remoue it In voluntary things the strongest may yeeld to the weakest Sampson to a Dalilah but in violent euer the mightiest caries it A spirituall nature must needs be in ranke aboue a bodily neither can any power be aboue a spirit but the God of spirits No otherwise is it in the mentall possession Where euer sinne is there Satan is As on the contrary whosoeuer is borne of God the seed of God remaines in him That euill one not onely is but rules in the sonnes of disobedience in vaine shall wee try to eiect him but by the diuine power of the Redeemer For this cause the Sonne of God was manifested that hee might destroy the workes of the Deuill Doe we finde our selues haunted with the familiar Deuills of Pride selfe-loue sensuall desires vnbeleefe None but thou O Son of the euerliuing God can free our bosomes of these hellish guests Oh clense thou mee from my secret sinnes and keepe mee that presumptuous sinnes preuaile not ouer me O Sauiour it is no Paradox to say that thou castest out more Deuils now then thou diddest whiles thou wert vpon earth It was thy word When I am lifted vp I will draw all men vnto me Satan weighes downe at the feet thou pullest at the head yea at the heart In euery conuersion which thou workest there is a dispossession Conuert mee O Lord and I shall be conuerted I know thy meanes are now no other then ordinary if we expect to be dispossessed by miracle it would be a miracle if euer wee were dispossessed Oh let thy Gospell haue the perfect worke in me so onely shall I bee deliuered from the powers of darknesse Nothing can be said to be dumbe but what naturally speakes nothing can speake naturally but what hath the instruments of speech which because spirits want they can no otherwise speake vocally then as they take voices to themselues in taking bodies This deuill was not therefore dumbe in his nature but in his effect The man was dumbe by the operation of that deuill which possessed him and now the action is attributed to the spirit which was subiectiuely in the man It is not you that speake saith our Sauiour but the spirit of your Father that speaketh in you As it is in bodily diseases that they doe not infect vs alike some seize vpon the humors others vpon the spirits some assault the braine others the heart or lungs so in bodily and spirituall possessions In some the euill spirit takes away their senses in some their lims in some their inward faculties like as spiritually they affect to moue vs vnto seuerall sinnes One to lust another to couetousnesse or ambition another to cruelty and their names haue distinguished them according to these various effects This was a dumbe Deuill which yet had possessed not the tongue onely of this man but his eare not that onely but as it seemes his eies too O suttle and tyrannous spirit that obstructs all wayes to the soule that keepes out all meanes of grace both from the doores and windowes of the heart yea that stops vp all passages whether of ingresse or egresse Of ingresse at the eye or eare of egresse at the mouth that there might be no capacity of redresse What holy vse is there of our tongue but to praise our Maker to confesse our
sinnes to informe our brethren How rife is this Dumbe Deuill euerywhere whiles hee stops the mouthes of Christians from these vsefull and necessarie duties For what end hath man those two priuiledges aboue his fellow creatures Reason and Speech but that as by the one he may conceiue of the great workes of his Maker which the rest cannot so by the other hee may expresse what hee conceiues to the honor of the Creator both of them and himselfe And why are all other creatures said to praise God and bidden to praise him but because they doe it by the apprehension by the expression of man If the heauens declare the glory of God how doe they it but to the eies and by the tongue of that man for whom they were made It is no small honor whereof the enuious spirit shall rob his Maker if he 〈◊〉 close vp the mouth of his onely rationall and vocall creature and turne the best of his workemanship into a dumbe Idoll that hath a mouth and speakes not Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Praise is not more necessary then complaint praise of God then complaint of ourselues whether to God or men The onely amends we can make to God what we haue not had the grace to auoid sinne is to confesse the sinne wee haue not auoided This is the sponge that wipes out all the blots and blurs of our liues If wee confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and iust to forgiue vs our sins and to cleanse vs from all vnrighteousnesse That cunning man-slayer knowes there is no way to purge the sicke soule but vpward by casting out the vicious humor wherewith it is clogged and therefore holds the lips close that the heart may not dis-burden it selfe by so wholesome euacuation When I kept silence my bones consumed For day and night thy band O Lord was heauy vpon me my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer O let me confesse against my selfe my wickednesse vnto thee that thou maist forgiue the punishment of my sinne We haue a tongue for God when wee praise him for our selues when wee pray and confesse for our brethren when we speake the truth for their information which if we hold backe in vnrighteousnesse we yeeld vnto that dumbe Deuill where doe we not see that accursed spirit Hee is on the Bench when the mute or partiall Iudge speakes not for truth and innocence He is in the pulpit when the Prophets of God smother or halue or adulterate the message of their master Hee is at the barre when irreligious Iurors dare lend an oath to feare to hope to gaine Hee is in the market when godlesse chapmen for their peny sell the truth and their soule He is in the common conuersation of men when the tongue belies the heart flatters the guilty balketh reproofes euen in the foulest crimes O thou who only art stronger then that strong one cast him out of the hearts and mouthes of men It is time for thee Lord to worke for they haue destroyed thy Law That it might well appeare this impediment was not naturall so soone as the man is freed from the spirit his tongue is free to his speech The effects of spirits as they are wrought so they cease at once If the Sonne of God doe but remoue our spirituall possession we shall presently breake forth into the praise of God into the confession of our vilenesse into the profession of truth But what strange variety do I see in the spectators of this miracle some wondring others censuring a third sort tempting a fourth applauding There was neuer man or action but was subiect to variety of constructions What man could bee so holy as he that was God What act could bee more worthy then the dispossession of an euill spirit yet this man this act passeth these differences of interpretation What can we doe to vndergoe but one opinion If we giue almes and fast some will magnifie our charity and deuotion others will taxe our hypocrisie If wee giue not some will condemne our hard-heartednesse others will allow our care of iustice if wee preach plainly to some it will sauour of a carelesse slubbering to others of a mortified sincerity Elaborately some will tax our affectation others will applaud our diligence in dressing the delicate viands of God What maruell is it if it bee thus with our imperfection when it fared not otherwise with him that was purity and righteousnesse it selfe The austere fore-runner of Christ came neither eating nor drinking they say He hath a Deuill The sonne of man came eating and drinking they say This man is a glutton a friend of Publicans and sinners and here one of his holy acts caries away at once wonder censure doubt celebration There is no way safe for a man but to square his actions by the right rule of iustice of charitie and then let the world haue leaue to spend their glosses at pleasure It was an heroicall resolution of the chosen vessell I passe very little to be iudged of you or of mans day I maruell not if the people maruelled for here were foure wonders in one The blinde saw the deafe heard the dumbe spake the demoniacke is deliuered Wonder was due to so rare and powerfull a worke and if not this nothing We can cast away admiration vpon the poore deuices or actiuities of men how much more vpon the extraordinary workes of omnipotency Who so knowes the frame of Heauen and earth shall not much be affected with the imperfect effects of fraile humanity but shall with no lesse rauishment of soule acknowledge the miraculous workes of the same Almighty hand Neither is the spirituall eiection worthy of any meaner intertainment Raritie and difficultie are wont to cause wonder There are many things which haue wonder in their worth and leese it in their frequence there are some which haue it in their strangenesse and leese it in their facilitie Both meet in this To see men haunted yea possessed with a dumbe Deuill is so frequent that it is a iust wonder to finde a man free but to finde the dumbe spirit cast out of a man and to heare him praising God confessing his sinnes teaching others the sweet experiments of mercy deserues iust admiration If the Cynick sought in the market for a man amongst men well may we seeke amongst men for a conuert Neither is the difficulty lesse then the rarenesse The strong man hath the possession all passages are blockt vp all helpes barred by the trechery of our nature If any soule be rescued from these spirituall wickednesses it is the praise of him that doth wonders alone But whom doe I see wondring The multiude The vnlearned beholders follow that act with wonder which the learned Scribes entertaine with obloquy God hath reuealed those things to babes which he hath hid from the wise and prudent With what scorne did those great Rabbins speake of these sonnes of the earth This
people that knowes not the Law is accursed Yet the mercie of God makes an aduantage of their simplicity in that they are therefore lesse subiect to cauillation and incredulitie as contrarily his iustice causes the proud knowledge of the other to lie as a blocke in their way to the ready assent vnto the diuine power of the Messias Let the pride of glorious aduersaries disdaine the pouerty of the clients of the Gospell it shall not repent vs to goe to heauen with the vulgar whiles their great ones goe in state to perdition The multitude wondered Who censured but Scribes great Doctors of the Law of the diuinity of the Iewes What Scribes but those of Ierusalem the most eminent Academie of Iudea These were the men who out of their deepe reputed iudgment cast these foule aspersions vpon Christ Great wits oft-times mis-lead both the owners and followers How many shall once wish they had beene borne dullards yea idiots when they shal find their wit to haue barred them out of heauen Where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world Hath not God made the wisdome of the world foolishnesse Say the world what it will a dram of holinesse is worth a pound of wit Let others censure with the Scribes let me wonder with the multitude What could malice say worse Hee casteth out Deuills through Beelzebub the Prince of Deuils The Iewes well knew that the Gods of the heathen were no other then Deuills Amongst whom for that the Lord of Flies so called whether for the concourse of flies to the abundance of his sacrifices or for his ayde implored against the infestation of those swarmes was held the chiefe therefore they stile him The Prince of Deuills There is a subordination of spirits some hier in degree some inferiour to others Our Sauiour himselfe tells vs of the Deuill and his Angels Messengers are inferiour to those that send them The seuen Deuills that entered into the swept and garnished house were worse then the former Neither can Principalities and Powers and Gouernours and Princes of the darkenesse of this World designe other then seuerall rankes of euill Angels There can be no beeing without some kinde of order there can bee no order in paritie If wee looke vp into heauen there is The King of Gods The Lord of Lords hier then the hiest If to the earth There are Monarchs Kings Princes Peeres people If wee looke downe to hell There is the Prince of Deuills They labour for confusion that call for parity What should the Church doe with such a forme as is not exemplified in heauen in earth in hell One deuill according to their supposition may be vsed to cast out another How far the command of one spirit ouer another may extend it is a sector of internall state too deepe for the inquiry of men The thing it selfe is apparent vpon compact and precontracted composition one giues way to other for the common aduantage As we see in the Common-wealth of Cheaters and Gut-purses one doth the fact another is seed to bring it out and to procure restitution both are of the trade both conspire to the fraud the actor falls not out with the reuealer but diuides with him that cunning spoile One malicious miscreant sets the Deuill on worke to the inflicting of disease or death another vpon agreement for a further spirituall gaine takes him off There is a Deuill in both And if there seeme more bodily fauour there is no lesse spirituall danger in the latter In the one Satan wins the agent the suitor in the other It will bee no cause of discord in hell that one deuill giues ease to the body which another tormented that both may triumph in the gaine of a soule O God that any creature which beares thine Image should not abhorre to bee beholden to the powers of hell for aid for aduice Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that men goe to inquire of the God of Ekron Can men bee so sottish to thinke that the vowed enemie of their soules can offer them a bait without an hooke What euill is there in the City which the Lord hath not done what is there which he cannot as easily redresse He wounds he heales againe And if he will not it is the Lord let him doe what seemes good in his eies If he doe not deliuer vs he will crowne our faithfulnesse in a patient perseuerance The wounds of a God no better then the salues of Satan Was it possible that the wit of Enuy could deuise so hie a slander Beelzebub was a God of the heathen therefore herein they accuse him for an Idolater Beelzebub was a Deuill to the Iewes therefore they accuse him for a coniurer Beelzebub was the chiefe of Deuils therefore they accuse him for an Archexorcist for the worst kind of Magician Some professors of this blacke Art though their worke be deuillish yet they pretend to doe it in the name of Iesus and will presumptuously seeme to do that by command which is secretly transacted by agreement the Scribes accuse Christ of a direct compact with the Deuill and suppose both a league and familiarity which by the law of Moses in the very hand of Saul was no other then deadly Yea so deepe doth this wound reach that our Sauiour searching it to the bottome findes no lesse in it then the sinne against the Holy Ghost inferring hereupon that dreadfull sentence of the irremissiblenesse of that sinne vnto death And if this horrible crimination were cast vpon thee O Sauiour in whom the Prince of this world found nothing what wonder is it if wee thy sinfull seruants bee branded on all sides with euill tongues Yea which is yet more how plaine is it that these men forced their tongue to speake this slander against their owne heart Else this blasphemie had beene onely against the sonne of man not against the holy Ghost but now that the searcher of hearts finds it to bee no lesse then against the blessed Spirit of God the spight must needs be obstinate their malice doth wilfully crosse their conscience Enuie neuer regards how true but how mischieuous So it may gall or kill it cares little whether with truth or falshood For vs Blessed are we when men reuile vs and say all manner of euill of vs for the name of Christ For them What reward shall be giuen to thee thou false tongue Euen sharpe arrowes with hot burning coles Yea those very coles of hell from which thou wert enkindled There was yet a third sort that went a mid way betwixt wonder and censure These were not so malicious as to impute the miracle to a Satanicall operation they confesse it good but not enough and therefore vrge Christ to a further proofe Though thou hast cast out this dumbe Deuill yet this is no sufficient argument of thy diuine power We haue yet seene nothing from thee like those ancient miracles of the times of our
internall impulsion Caried by the same power that vnbound him for the oportunity of his Tyranny for the horrour of the place for the affamishment of his body for the auoidance of all meanes of resistance Solitary deserts are the delights of Satan It is an vnwise zeale that moues vs to doe that to our selues in an opinion of merit and holinesse which the Deuill wishes to doe to vs for a punishment and conueniencie of tentation The euill spirit is for solitarinesse God is for societie He dwels in the assembly of his Saints yea there hee hath a delight to dwell Why should not wee account it our happinesse that we may haue leaue to dwell where the author of all happinesse loues to dwell There cannot bee any misery incident into vs whereof our gracious Redeemer is not both conscious and sensible without any intreatie therefore of the miserable Demoniack or suit of any friend the God of spirits takes pitie of his distresse and from no motion but his owne commands the ill spirit to come forth of the man O admirable president of mercy preuenting our requests exceeding our thoughts forcing fauours vpon our impotence doing that for vs which we should and yet cannot desire If men vpon our instant solicitations would giue vs their best aide it were a iust praise of their bounty but it well became thee O God of mercy to goe without force to giue without suit And doe wee thinke thy goodnesse is impaired by thy glory If thou wert thus commiseratiue vpon earth art thou lesse in heauen How doest thou now take notice of all our complaints of all our infirmities How doth thine infinite pitie take order to redresse them What euill can befall vs which thou knowest not feelest not relieuest not How safe are wee that haue such a Guardian such a Mediator in heauen Not long before had our Sauiour commanded the winds and waters and they could not but obey him now he speakes in the same language to the euill spirit hee intreats not he perswades not hee commands Command argues superioritie Hee onely is infinitely stronger then the strong one in possession Else where powers are matcht though with some inequalitie they tugge for the victory and without a resistance yeeld nothing There are no fewer sorts of dealing with Satan then with men Some haue dealt with him by suit as the old Satanian hereticks and the present Indian Sauages sacrificing to him that hee hurt not Others by couenant conditioning their seruice vpon his assistance as Witches and Magicians Others by insinuation of implicite compact as charmers and Figure-casters Others by abduration as the sonnes of Scena and moderne Exorcists vnwarrantably charging him by an higher name then their owne None euer offered to deale with Satan by a direct and primary command but the God of spirits the great Archangell when the strife was about the body of Moses commanded not but imprecated rather The Lord rebuke thee Satan It is onely the God that made this spirit an Angell of light that can command him now that he hath made himselfe the Prince of darknesse If any created power dare to vsurpe a word of command he laughs at their presumption and knows them his vassals whom hee dissembles to feare as his Lords It is thou onely O Sauiour at whose becke those stubborne Principalities of hell yeeld and tremble no wicked man can bee so much a slaue to Satan as Satan is to thee the interposition of the grace may defeat that dominion of Satan thy rule is absolute and capable of no let What need wee to feare whiles wee are vnder so omnipotent a Commander The waues of the deepe rage horribly yet the Lord is stronger then they Let those Principalities and Powers doe their worst Those mighty aduersaries are vnder the command of him who loued vs so well as to bleed for vs What can wee now doubt off His power or his will How can wee professe him a God and doubt of his power How can wee professe him a Sauiour and doubt of his will Hee both can and will command those infernall powers we are no lesse safe then they are malicious The Deuill saw Iesus by the eyes of the Demoniack For the same saw that spake but it was the ill spirit that said I beseech thee torment mee not It was sore against his will that hee saw so dreadfull an obiect The ouer-ruling power of Christ dragged the foule spirit into his presence Guiltinesse would faine keepe out of sight The limmes of so wofull an head shall once call on the Hils and Rocks to hide them from the face of the Lambe such Lyon-like terrour is in that milde face when it lookes vpon wickednesse Neither shall it bee one day the least part of the torment of the damned to see the most louely spectacle that heauen can afford Hee from whom they fled in his offers of grace shall be so much more terrible as hee was and is more gracious I maruell not therefore that the Deuill when hee saw Iesus cryed out I could maruell that hee fell downe that hee worshipped him That which the proud spirit would haue had Christ to haue done to him in his great Duell the same he now doth vnto Christ fearfully seruilely forcedly Who shall henceforth bragge of the externall homage hee performes to the Sonne of God when hee sees Satan himselfe fall downe and worship What comfort can there be in that which is common to vs with Deuils who as they beleeue and tremble so they tremble and worship The outward bowings is the body of the action the disposition of the soule is the soule of it therein lies the difference from the counterfeit stoopings of wicked men and spirits The religious heart serues the Lord in feare and reioyces in him with trembling What it doth is in way of seruice In seruice to his Lord whose soueraignty is his comfort and protection In the feare of a son not of a slaue In feare tempered with ioy In a ioy but allayed with trembling whereas the prostration of wicked men and deuils is onely an act of forme or of force as to their Iudge as to their Tormentor not as to their Lord in meere seruility not in reuerence in an vncomfortable dulnesse without all delight in a perfect horror without capacitie of ioy These worship without thankes because they fall downe without the true affections of worship Who so maruels to see the Deuill vpon his knees would much more maruell to heare what came from his mouth Iesu the sonne of the most high God A confession which if we should heare without the name of the Author we should aske from what Saint it came Behold the same name giuen to Christ by the Deuill which was formerly giuen him by the Angell Thou shalt call his name Iesus That awfull name whereat euery knee shall bow in heauen in earth and vnder the earth is called vpon by this prostrate Deuill and lest that
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
forth their hands to wickednesse No man will put his hand into a fiery crucible to fetch gold thence because hee knowes it will burne him Did wee as truely beleeue the euerlasting burning of that infernall fire we durst not offer to fetch pleasures or profits out of the midst of those flames This degree of torment they grant in Christs power to command they knew his power vnresistible had hee therefore but said Backe to hell whence hee came they could no more haue staid vpon earth then they can now climbe into heauen O the wonderfull dispensation of the Almighty who though hee could command all the euill spirits downe to their dungeons in an instant so as they should haue no more opportunity of temptation yet thinkes fit to retaine them vpon earth It is not out of weaknesse or improuidence of that diuine hand that wicked spirits tyrannize here vpon earth but out of the most wise and most holy ordination of God who knowes how to turne euill into good how to fetch good out of euill and by the worst instruments to bring about his most iust decrees Oh that wee could adore that awfull and infinite power and cheerefully cast our selues vpon that prouidence which keepes the Keyes euen of hell it selfe and either lets out or returnes the Deuils to their places Their other suit hath some maruell in mouing it more in the grant That they might be suffered to enter into the Herd of Swine It was their ambition of some mischiefe that brought forth this desire that since they might not vexe the body of man they might yet afflict men in their goods The malice of these enuious spirits reacheth from vs to ours It is sore against their wils if wee be not euery way miserable if the Swine were legally vncleane for the vse of the table yet they were naturally good Had not Satan knowne them vsefull for man he had neuer desired their ruine But as Fencers will seeme to fetch a blow at the legge when they intend it at the head so doth this Deuill whiles he driues at the Swine hee aimes at the soules of these Gadarens by this meanes he hoped well and his hope was not vaine to worke in these Gergesens a discontentment at Christ an vnwillingnesse to entertaine him a desire of his absence he meant to turne them into Swine by the losse of their Swine It was not the rafters or stones of the house of Iobs children that hee bore the grudge to but to the owners nor to the liues of the children so much as the soule of their father There is no affliction wherein hee doth not strike at the heart which whiles it holds free all other dammages are light but a wounded spirit whether with sinne or sorrow who can beare What euer becomes of goods or limmes happy are wee if like wise souldiers we guard the vitall parts whiles the soule is kept sound from impatience from distrust our enemy may afflict vs he cannot hurt vs. They sue for a sufferance not daring other then to grant that without the permission of Christ they could not hurt a very swine If it be fearfull to thinke how great things euill spirits can doe with permission it is comfortable to thinke how nothing they can doe without permission Wee know they want not malice to destroy the whole frame of Gods worke but of all man of all men Christians but if without leaue they cannot set vpon an hogge what can they doe to the liuing Images of their Creator They cannot offer vs so much as a suggestion without the permission of our Sauiour And can hee that would giue his owne most precious blood for vs to saue vs from euill wilfully giue vs ouer to euill It is no newes that wicked spirits wish to doe mischiefe it is newes that they are allowed it If the owner of all things should stand vpon his absolute command who can challenge him for what hee thinkes fit to doe with his creature The first Fole of the Asse is commanded vnder the law to haue his necke broken what is that to vs The creatures doe that they were made for if they may serue any way to the glory of their Maker But seldome euer doth God leaue his actions vnfurnished with such reasons as our weaknesse may reach vnto There were sects amongst these Iewes that denied spirits they could not bee more euidently more powerfully conuinced then by this euent Now shall the Gadarens see from what a multitude of deuils they were deliuered and how easie it had beene for the same power to haue allowed those spirits to seize vpon their persons as well as their Swine Neither did God this without a iust purpose of their castigation His iudgements are righteous where they are most secret though wee cannot accuse these inhabitants of ought yet hee could and thought good thus to mulct them And if they had not wanted grace to acknowledge it it was no small fauour of God that hee would punish them in their Swine for that which hee might haue auenged vpon their bodies and soules Our goods are furthest off vs If but in these we smart wee must confesse to finde mercy Sometimes it pleaseth God to grant the suits of wicked men and spirits in no fauour to the suitors He grants an ill suit and withholds a good He grants an ill suit in iudgement and holds backe a good one in mercy The Israelites aske meat hee giues Quailes to their mouthes and leannesse to their soules The chosen vessell wishes Satan taken taken off and heares onely My grace is sufficient for thee Wee may not euermore measure fauour by condescent These Deuils doubtlesse receiue more punishment for that harmefull act wherein they are heard If wee aske what is either vnfit to receiue or vnlawfull to begge it is a great fauour of our God to bee denied Those spirits which would goe into the Swine by permission goe out of the man by command they had stayed long and are eiected suddenly The immediate works of God are perfect in an instant and doe not require the aide of time for their maturation No sooner are they cast out of the man then they are in the Swine They will leese no time but passe without intermission from one mischiefe to another If they hold it a paine not to be doing or of euill Why is not our delight to bee euer doing good The impetuousnesse was no lesse then the speed The Herd was caried with violence from a steepe downe place into the lake and was choaked It is no small force that could doe this but if the Swine had beene so many mountaines these spirits upon Gods permission had thus transported them How easily can they carie those soules which are vnder their power to destruction Vncleane beasts that wallow in the mire of sensualitie brutish drunkards transforming themselues by excesse euen they are the Swine whom the Legion caries headlong to the pit of perdition The
vncertainty Israel is silent yet whiles their mouth was shut their eares were open It was a faire motion of Elijah I am onely remaining a Prophet of the Lord Baals Prophets are foure hundred fifty Let them choose one bullocke let me choose another Their deuotion shall be combined mine single The God that consumes the sacrifice by fire from heauen let him be God Israel cannot but approue it the Prophets of Baal cannot refuse it they had the appearance of the aduantage in their number in the fauor of King and people Oh strange disputation wherein the argument which must be vsed is fire the place whence it must be fetcht heauen the mood and figure deuotion the conclusion death to the ouercomne Had not Elijah by diuine instinct beene assured of the euent he durst not haue put religion vpon such hazard That God commanded him this tryall who meant confusion to the authors of Idolatry victory to the truth His power shall be approued both by fire and by water first by fire then by water There was no lesse terror in the fire then mercy in the raine It was fit they should be first humbled by his terrors that they might bee made capable of his mercy and by both might be wonne to repentance Thus still the fears of the law make way for the influences of grace neither do those sweet and heauenly dewes descend vpon the soule till way bee made for them by the terrible flashes of the law Iustly doth Elijah vrge this triall Gods sacrifices were vsed to none but heauenly fires whereas the bale and earthly religion of the heathen contented it selfe with grosse and naturall flames The Prophets of Baal durst not though with faint and guilty hearts but imbrace the condition they dresse their bullocke and lay it ready vpon the wood and send out their cries to Baal from morning vntill mid-day O Baal heare vs What a yelling vvas here of foure hundred and fifty throats tearing the skies for an answer What leaping was here vpon the altar as if they would haue climbed vp to fetch that fire vvhich would not come downe alone Mount Carmel might giue an Eccho to their voice heauen gaue none In vaine doe they roare out and vveary themselues in imploring a dumbe a deafe deitie Graue and austere Elijah holds it not too light to flout their zealous deuotion he laughes at their teares and plaies vpon their earnest Cry aloud for he is a God either be is talking or he is pursuing or hee is trauelling or he is sleeping and must be awaked Scornes and taunts are the best answers for serious Idolatry Holinesse will beare vs out in disdainfull scoffes and bitternesse against vvilfull superstition No lesse in the indignation at these insulting frumps then zeale of their owne safety and reputation doe these Idolatrous Prophets now rend their throats with inclamations and that they may assure the beholders they were not in iest they cut and slash themselues vvith kniues and lancers and solicit the fire with their blood How much painfulnesse there is in mis-religion I doe not finde that the true God euer required or accepted the selfe-tortures of his seruants He loues true inward mortification of our corruptions he loues the subduing of our spirituall insurrections by due exercises of seuere restraint he takes no pleasure in our blood in our carcasses They mistake God that thinke to please him by destroying that nature vvhich hee hath made and measure truth by rigour of outward extremities Elijah drew no blood of himselfe the Priests of Baal did How faine would the Deuill vvhom these Idolaters adored haue answered the suit of his suppliants What vvould that ambitious spirit haue giuen that as he was cast downe from heauen like lightning so now he might haue falne downe in that forme vpon his altar God forbids it All the powers of darknesse can no more shew one flash of fire in the ayre then auoid the vnquenchable fire in hell How easie vvere it for the power of the Almighty to cut short all the tyrannicall vsurpations of that vvicked one if his vvisdome and iustice did not finde the permission thereof vsefull to his holy purposes These Idolaters now towards euening grew so much more vehement as they vvere more hopelesse and at last when neither their shrikes nor their vvounds nor their mad motions could preuaile they sit downe hoarse and vveary tormenting themselues afresh vvith their despaires and with the feares of better successe of their aduersarie vvhen Elijah cals the people to him the vvitnesses of his sincere proceedings and taking the opportunity both of the time the iust houre of the euening sacrifice and of the place a ruined Altar of God now by him repaired conuinces Israel vvith his miracle and more cuts these Baalites with enuie then they had cut themselues with their lancers Oh holy Prophet why didst thou not saue this labor what needed these vnseasonable reparations Was there not an altar was there not a sacrifice ready prepared to thine hand that which the Prophets of Baal had addressed stood still waiting for that fire from thee which the founders threatned in vaine the stones were not more impure either for their touch or their intentions yet such was thy detestation of Idolatry that thou abhorredst to meddle with ought which their wickednes had defiled Euen that altar whose ruines thou didst thus repaire was mis-erected though to the name of the True God yet didst thou finde it better to make vp the breaches of that altar which was mis-consecrated to the seruice of thy God then to make vse of that pile which was idolatrously deuoted to a false god It cannot bee but safe to keepe aloofe from participation with Idolaters euen in those things which not onely in nature but in vse are vncleane Elijah layes twelue stones in his repaired altar according to the number of the Tribes of the sonnes of Iacob Alas ten of these were peruerted to Baal The Prophet regards not their present Apostacie hee regards the ancient couenant that was made with their father Israel he regards their first station to which he would reduce them he knew that the vnworthinesse of Israel could not make God forgetfull he would by this monument put Israel in minde of their owne degeneration and forgetfulnesse He employes those many hands for the making a large trench round about the altar and causes it to be filled with those precious remainders of water which the people would haue grudged to their owne mouthes neither would easily haue parted with but as those that poure down a paile full into a dry pump in the hope of fetching more The altar the trench is full A barrell full is poured out for each of the Tribes that euery Tribe might be afterwards replenished Ahab and Israel are no lesse full of expectation and now when Gods appointed houre of the euening sacrifice was come Elijah comes confidently to his altar and looking vp into heauen sayes
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
still the further we goe the worse My Refuter surpasses himselfe in the prizes that he playes for his Pope Gregory the seuenth who first hee saith did not ruine this liberty of mariages Let Vincentius and Radulphus de Diceto and Sigebert speake for vs both b b Chron. Sigebert Anno 1074. Polydor. Virg. Exemple post homines natos importunissimo Ex qua re tam graue oritur scandalum vt nullius haeresis tempore sancta Ecclesia grauiore schismate scissa sit Sigeb ibid. Refut p. 288. Vxoratos Sacerdotes à diuino c. Hee remoued maried Priests from their function and forbade the people to heare their Masses a new example and as many thought inconsiderately preiudiciall against the iudgement of the holy Fathers c. But hee fully preuailed not saith my Refuter What thanke is that to him hee did his best and kindled those coales that could neuer be quenched Hee ledde the way to his Vrban the second and Paschal the second They followed him and preuailed The broyles were his if not the victory Gratum opus scortatoribus faith Auentine Auentine saith my Refuter a late Gospelling brother For vs we are glad of the fraternity of so worthy an Author whom Beatus Rhenanus gratulates to his Germany and cals c c Most learned Auentine Eruditissimum Auentinum and d d Excelling in the knowledge of all varietie of learning Variarum cognitione disciplinarum praestantem and Erasmus e e A man of vnweariable paines and deepe reading Hominem studio indefatigabili ac recondita lectionis Lastly whom his iust Epitaph stiles f f A most diligent and accurate searcher of antiquities Refut p. 289. Rerum antiquarum indagatorem sagacissimum But the truth is no man by his Historie can tell his Religion The Canons of Augusta praise him for the light hee giues to the institutions of their Monasteries And when he speakes of the Shrines of Berg Valentia and Halle I am sure he mentions them with too Popish deuotion when of Io. Husse and Ierome of Prage he taxes them with crimen irreligiositatis Yet this man borne Anno 1466. when he but speakes a famous truth of Hildebrand and the German Clergie he is become a late Gospelling brother Still let vs haue Brethren that care more for their honesty then their faction Neither yet to giue the Deuill his due doe wee thinke so ill of those enemies of maried chastitie that they did purposely enact Lawes of vnmaried loosenesse but that all abominable filthinesse did follow vpon the restraint of lawfull remedies who sees not g g Porro continentiam paucis tenentibus aliquibus eam modò causa queslâ—â— ac iactantia simulantibus multis incontinentiam periurio aut mâ—ltiplicum adulterio cumulantibus c. Sigeb An. 1074. Refut p. 291. Sigebert himselfe their owne Monk freely acknowledges it Iohn Haywood our old Epigrammatist told Queene Mary her Clergie was sawcy if they had not Wiues they would haue Lemans Where there is not the gift of holy continency how could it be otherwise Where the water is dammed vp and yet the streame runnes full how can it choose but rise ouer the bankes There is purity therefore out of Wedlocke but not out of Continence And what needed my Detector to trauell so farre as England for an example of incontinency in a King Henry or any wife of his whether falsely or truely obiected vvhen he might haue looked neere the centre of their Church and haue found his owne Pope Iohn in the very time now questioned for this prohibition h h Io. autem Papa se cum vxore iniusdam oblectâ—â—s à Diabolo in tempore percutitur Sigeb An. 963. The brand of Loue. Brand of Hell Refut p. 293. killed by the Deuill in the act of adultery vvith another mans wife This end of the Wallet hangs behind him SECT VIII HIldebrand as I learned of Auentine is as much as Titio Amoris But how little he differed in name or nature from Hellebrand Titio infernalis as Chemnitius cals him his History shewes too well And is it possible that any man should rise vp after so many hundred yeares to Canonize Saint Hildebrand euen in that for which hee condemned himselfe My Reader must know the man a little from the witnesse of his owne Conclaue his Cardinall Benno Arch-priest of the Romane Church then liuing Others besides tell of his beginnings in wicked Necromancie and murderous vnderminings and tyrannicall swaying of the Keyes ere he had them Benno tels how hee got them how he vsed them gotten Hee got them by fraud money violence vsed them with tyranny There was a knot a succession of Necromancers in those dayes Gerbertus which was Syluester the second was the Master of the Schoole His chiefe Schollers in the Black Art were Theophylactus afterwards changed into Pope Benedict and Laurentius and Gratianus These were the Tutors of Hildebrands yonger times of whom he learned both magicke and Policy It is a world to see what worke these Magicians made like the ill spirits they raised in Church and Commonwealth opposing Emperors setting vp what Popes they pleased poisoning whom they disliked at last it came to Hildebrands turne to take the Chaire i i Benno Cardiâ— vita Hildebr To which purpose he separated first the Bishops from the Cardinals auerse from him when he had done he compelled them by terrour and force to sweare vnto his part which done he was elected in spight of the Canons onely by Lay-persons by Souldiers he expelled the Cardinals rashly excommunicated the Emperour of his owne head without any Canonicall accusation without subscription of any Cardinall hyred a bloody Villaine to murder the Emperor consulted with the Oracle of his breaden God which because it answered not he cast it into the fire he exercised most horrible cruelties vpon many hanging vp men at his pleasure vnconuicted in a word quantis haeresibus mundum corruperit c saith Benno in his conclusion His heresies his periuries can scarce be described by many Pens Clamat tamen altiùs c. But the Christian blood shed by his instigation and command saith hee cryes yet lowder to God yea the blood of the Church which the sword of his tongue in a miserable prodition hath shed cryes out against him for which things the Church did most iustly depart from all communion with him Thus Benno who yet to make amends k k So our Rogerus Cestrens l. 7. Papa Hildebranduâ— laborans in extreâ—â—is vocaâ—â— adse Carâ—inâ—lâ—â— quem plus dilexrat confessus est se suscitasse odium schisma inter Imperatorem alios Christianos vnde dissoluit vincula bannorum obiit Refut p. 295. vsque ad 306. tells vs that Hildebrand vpon his death-bed repented of these lewd courses and sent to the Emperor and the Church to cry them mercy confessing as Sigebert reports that hee had by the swasion of the Deuill raised these
wicked tumults Yet this is the man whom Bellarmine will iustifie by seuen and twenty Authors and C.E. can adde two more to the heape yea in those very things for which he condemned himselfe Reader if one of his euill spirits should haue stept into Peters chaire doe yee thinke he could haue wanted Proctors But how good an account we were like to haue of seuen and twenty Authors if it would require the cost to examine them appeares in that l l Lamb. Schefnab Hist rerum German Lambertus Schafnaburgensis which is cited for the man that magnifies the miracles of this Gregory sayes not one such word of him but speakes indeed the like of one Anno Archbishop of Coleine who liued and dyed in the time of Gregory As for Gregories miracles Benno the Cardinall tels vs what they were that he raised Deuils familiarly that he shaked sparkes of fire out of his sleeue by his Magicke A tricke that well beseemed an Hellebrand who set all the world on fire by his wicked impetuosity We will not enuy Rome this Saint let them enioy him let them celebrate him and cry downe Henry the Emperor and all that opposed him Still may such as these bee the Tutelar gods of that holy Citie For vs it is comfort enough to vs that our mariages had such a persecutor That the Churches did hereupon ring of him for Antichrist Auentine is my Author Refut p. 306. vsque ad 309. Pro concione c. in their Sermons saith he they did curse Hildebrand they cryed out on him as a man transported with hatred and ambition Antichristum esse praedicant Antichristi negotium agitat They declared him to be Antichrist They said that vnder the colourable title of Christ he did the seruice of Antichrist That he sits in Babylon in the Temple of God and is aduanced aboue all that is called God So he And little better is that which his m m Lamb. Schefnab lib. de Rebus German Schafnaburgensis so much extolled by C. E. recordeth Aduersus hoc decretum infremuit tot a factio Clericorum c. Against this Decree saith hee all the whole faction of Clergy-men fretted and mutined accusing him as an Heretike and a man of peruerse opinion who forgetting the word of Christ which said All men cannot receiue this did by a violent exaction compell men to liue in the fashion of Angels To which if I should adde the sentence of the Synod of Wormes and that of Brixia my Reader would easily see that it is not the applause of some deuoted Pen that can free him from these foule imputations of deserued infamie That vntruth then cleared another belike hangs vpon the score My Refuter charges me with falshood in saying Refut p. 307. That Gregory the seuenth was deposed by the French and German Bishops Only the Germans hee saith were Actors in that Tragedy But if not at Wormes yet let him tell me what was done at Brixia and by whom Quamobrem Italiae Germaniae Galliae Pontifices c. Wherfore saith Auentinus the Bishops of Italy Germany and France the seuenth of the Kalends of Iuly met at Brixia in Bauaria and sentenced Hildebrand to haue spoken and done against Christian piety c. and condemned him of heresie impiety Refut p. 310 311 sacriledge c. And that my Refuter may find himselfe answered at once to the last of his Cauils wherein hee pleads that this deposition was not so much as pretended for the inhibition of these mariages but for other causes let him see the Copy of the iudgement passed against him in the said councell wherein after the accusation of his Simoniacal climing into the Chaire the vice which he pretended most to persecute in others his forceable possession The vertues of C. E's Saint his heresie his machinations against the Emperour his peruerting of the Lawes both of God and Men his false doctrines sacriledges periuries lyes murders by him suborned commended his tyranny his setting of discord betwixt Brethren Friends Cousins It followes Inter coniuges diuortia facit suauis homo sacerdotes qui vxores habent legitimos sacrificos esse pernegat interim tamen scortatores adulteros incestuosos aris ad mouet c. He causes diuorces betwixt Man and Wife The fine man denies those Priests which haue lawfull Wiues to be Priests at all in the meane time hee admits to the Altar whore-mongers adulterers incestuous persons c. Nos ergo We therefore by the authority of Almighty God pronounce him deposed from his Popedome Thus Auentine specifies the Decree which alone without Commentary without inforcement answers all the friuolous exceptions of my wordy Aduersary So as now to returne his Epilogue he hath sent backe my ten pretended lyes Refut p. 316. with the vnreasonable and inuerted vsury of well-neere an hundred Pauperis est numerare SECT IX FRom foraine parts I returne at last to our owne so I feare hath C. E. done long since lurking somewhere in England for no good These Fugitiues loue not home more then their home hath cause to hate them His cauils of the wondrous contradiction betwixt my Margin and my Text Refut p. 317. are too childish to bee honored with an answer My Text was The bickerings of our English Clergy with their Dunstans about this time are memorable My Margin cites Henry of Huntingdon affirming Anselme to be the first that forbad mariage Betwixt these two saith my Refuter was an hundred yeares difference I grant it But had my words been thus if my Detector were not disposed to seeke a knot in a Rush he had easily noted that in a generall suruay of all Ages the phrase About that time admits much latitude and will easily stretch without any straine to one whole Century of yeares Had the Quotation been as he pleadeth this answer were sufficient But my words need no such reconciliation I stand to the censure and disclaime the mercy of any Reader For that citation of Anselme hath plaine reference to the following words Our Histories testifie how late how repiningly our Clergie stooped vnder this yoke it is for this that my Margin points to Henry Huntingdon and Fabian reporting Anselme the first man that prohibited these mariages What contradiction now can his acutenesse detect in these two The English Clergie had bickerings with their Dunstans and stooped late and repiningly to this yoke vnder Anselme See Reader and admire the equall Truth and Logicke of a Catholique Priest and iudge how well he bestoweth his Pages SECT X. Refut p. 318. IT is true Dunstan was the man who first with his other * * Oswal and Ethelwold two Cousins and partners in canonization opposed any appendance of the maried Clergy He wrought it with good King Edgar by dreames and visions and miracles Hee who when the Deuill came to tempt him to lust a a Gul. Malmesb. Jt. Legend c. caught him by
that Story whereon the faith and saluation of all the World dependeth Wee cannot so much as doubt of this truth and bee saued no not the number of the moneth not the name of the Angell is concealed Euery particle imports not more certainty than excellence The time is the sixth moneth after Iohns Conception the prime of the Spring Christ was conceiued in the Spring borne in the Solstice Hee in whom the World receiued a new life receiues life in the same season wherein the World receiued his first life from him and hee which stretches out the dayes of his Church and lengthens them to Eternitie appeares after all the short and dimme light of the Law and inlightens the World with his glory The Messenger is an Angell A man was too meane to carry the newes of the Conception of God Neuer any businesse was conceiued in Heauen that did so much concerne the earth as the Conception of the God of Heauen in Wombe of earth No lesse than an Arch-Angell was worthy to beare this tydings and neuer any Angell receiued a greater honour than of this Embassage It was fit our reparation should answer our fall an euill Angell was the first motioner of the one to Eue a Virgin then espoused to Adam in the Garden of Eden A good Angel is the first reporter of the other to Mary a Virgin espoused to Ioseph in that place which as the Garden of Galile had a name from flourishing No good Angel could be the Author of our restauration as that euill Angell was of our ruine But that which those glorious spirits could not doe themselues they are glad to report as done by the God of Spirits Good newes reioyces the bearer With what ioy did this holy Angell bring the newes of that Sauiour in whom wee are redeemed to life himselfe established in life and glory The first Preacher of the Gospell was an Angell that office must needs be glorious that deriues it selfe from such a Predecessor God appointed his Angell to be the first Preacher and hath since called his Preachers Angels The message is well suited An Angell comes to a Virgin Gabriel to Mary He that was by signification the strength of God to her that was by signification exalted by God to the conceiuing of him that was the God of strength To a Maid but espoused a Maid for the honour of Virginitie espoused for the honour of Marriage The marriage was in a sort made not consummate through the instinct of him that meant to make her not an example but a miracle of women In this whole worke God would haue nothing ordinary It was fit that she should be a marryed Virgin which should bee a Virgin-mother Hee that meant to take mans nature without mans corruption would bee the Sonne of man without mans seed would bee the seed of the woman without man and amongst all women of a pure Virgin but amongst Virgins of one espoused that there might be at once a Witnesse and a Guardian of her fruitfull Virginity If the same God had not bin the author of Virginity and Marriage he had neuer countenanced Virginity by Marriage Whither doth this glorious Angell come to finde the Mother of him that was God but to obscure Galile A part which euen the Iewes themselues despised as forsaken of their priuiledges Out of Galile ariseth no Prophet Behold an Angell comes to that Galile out of which no Prophet comes and the God of Prophets and Angels descends to bee conceiued in that Galile out of which no Prophet ariseth He that filleth all places makes no difference of places It is the person which giues honour and priuiledge to the place not the place to the person as the presence of God makes the Heauen the Heauen doth not make the honour glorious No blind corner of Nazareth can hide the blessed Virgin from the Angell The fauours of God will finde out his children wheresoeuer they are with-drawne It is the fashion of God to seeke out the most despised on whom to bestow his honours we cannot runne away as from the iudgements so not from the mercies of our God The cottages of Galile are preferred by God to the famous Palaces of Ierusalem he cares not how homely he conuerse with his owne Why should we be transported with the outward glory of places whiles our God regards it not We are not of the Angels diet if we had not rather be with the blessed Virgin at Nazareth than with the proud Dames in the Court of Ierusalem It is a great vanitie to respect any thing aboue goodnesse and to dis-esteeme goodnesse for any want The Angell salutes the Virgin he prayes not to her Hee salutes her as a Saint he prayes not to her as a Goddesse For vs to salute her as he did were grosse presumption For neither are we as he was neither is she as she was If he that was a spirit saluted her that was flesh and bloud here on earth it is not for vs that are flesh and bloud to salute her which is a glorious spirâ—t in Heauen For vs to pray to her in the Angels salutation were to abuse the Virgin the Angell the Salutation But how gladly doe we second the Angell in the praise of her which was more ours than his How iustly doe we blesse her whom the Angell pronounceth blessed How worthily is she honoured of men whom the Angell proclaimeth beloued of God O blessed Mary hee cannot blesse thee he cannot honour thee too much that deifies thee not That which the Angell said of thee thou hast prophesied of thy selfe we beleeue the Angell and thee All Generations shall call thee blessed by the fruit of whose wombe all Generations are blessed If Zachary were amazed with the sight of this Angell much more the Virgin That very Sex hath more disaduantage of feare if it had bin but a man that had come to her in that secrecie and suddennesse she could not but haue bin troubled how much more when the shining glory of the person doubled the astonishment The troubles of holy mindes end euer in comfort Ioy was the errand of the Angell and not terrour Feare as all passions disquiets the heart and makes it for the time vnfit to receiue the messages of God Soone hath the Angell cleared these rroublesome mists of passions and sent out the beames of heauenly consolation in the remotest corner of her soule by the glad newes of her Sauiour How can ioy but enter into her heart out of whose wombe shall come saluation What roome can feare finde in that brest that is assured of fauour Feare not MARY for thou hast found fauour with God Let those feare who know they are in displeasure or know not they are gracious Thine happy estate cals for confidence and that confidence for ioy What should what can they feare who are fauoured of him at whom the Deuils tremble Not the presence of the good Angels but the temptations of the euill
strike many terrors into our weaknesse we could not be dismayed with them if wee did not forget our condition Wee haue not receiued the spirit of bondage to feare againe but the spirit of Adoption whereby wee cry Abba Father If that Spirit O God witnesse with our spirits that wee are thine how can wee feare any of those spirituall wickednesses Giue vs assurance of thy fauour and let the powers of Hell doe their worst It was no ordinarie fauour that the Virgin found in Heauen No mortall Creature was euer thus graced that hee should take part of her nature that was the God of nature that hee which made all things should make his humane body of hers that her wombe should yeeld that flesh which was personally vnited to the Godhead that shee should beare him that vpholds the world Loe thou shalt conceiue and beare a Sonne and shalt call his name Iesus It is a question whether there be more wonder in the Conception or in the Fruit the Conception of the Virgin or Iesus conceiued Both are maruellous but the former doth not more exceed all other wonders than the latter exceedeth it For the childe of a virgin is the reimprouement of that power which created the World but that God should bee incarnate of a Virgin was an abasement of his Maiestie and an exaltation of the creature beyond all example Well was that Child worthy to make the Mother blessed Here was a double Conception one in the wombe of her body the other of the soule If that were more miraculous this was more beneficiall That was here priuiledge the was her happinesse If that were singular to her this is common to all his chosen There is no renewed heart wherein thou O Sauiour art not formed againe Blessed bee thou that hast herein made vs blessed For what wombe can conceiue thee and not partake of thee Who can partake of thee and not be happie Doubtlesse the Virgin vnderstood the Angell as hee meant of a present Conception which made her so much more inquisitiue into the manner and meanes of this euent How shall this bee since I know not a man That shee should conceiue a Son by the knowledge of man after her Marriage consummate could haue bin no wonder But how then should that Sonne of hers bee the Sonne of God This demand was higher how her present Virginity should bee instantly fruitfull might bee well worthy of admiration of inquirie Here was desire of information not doubts of infidelitie yea rather this question argues Faith It takes for granted that which an vnbeleeuing heart would haue stuck at She sayes not who and whence art thou what Kingdome is this where and when shall it bee erected But smoothly supposing all those strang things would be done shee insists onely in that which did necessarily require a further intimation and doth not distrust but demand Neither doth shee say this cannot be nor how can this be but how shall this be so doth the Angel answer as one that knew he needed not to satisfie curiositie but to informe iudgement and vphold faith Hee doth not therefore tell her of the manner but of the Author of this act The Holy Ghost shall come vpon thee and the power of the most High shall ouer-shaddow thee It is enough to know who is the vndertaker and what he will doe O God what doe wee seeke a cleere light where thou wilt haue a shaddow No Mother knowes the manner of her naturall Conception what presumption shall it be for flesh and bloud to search how the Sonne of God tooke flesh and bloud of his Creature It is for none but the Almighty to know those workes which hee doth immediatly concerning himselfe those that concerne vs hee hath reuealed Secrets to God things reuealed to vs. This answer was not so full but that a thousand difficulties might arise out of the particularities of so strange a message yet after the Angels Solution wee heare of no more Obiections no more Interrogations The faithfull heart when it once vnderstands the good pleasure of God argues no more but sweetly rests it selfe in a quiet exspectation Behold the Seruant of the Lord bee it to mee according to thy Word There is not a more noble proofe of our Faith than to captiuate all the powers of our vnderstanding and will to our Creator and without all sciscitations to goe blindfold whither he will leade vs All disputations with God after his will knowne arise from infidelitie Great is the Mysterie of godlinesse and if wee will giue Nature leaue to cauill we cannot bee Christians O God thou art faithfull thou art powerfull It is enough that thou hast said it In the humilitie of our obedience wee resigne our selues ouer to thee Behold the Seruants of the Lord bee it vnto vs according to thy Word How fit was her wombe to conceiue the flesh of the Sonne of God by the power of the Spirit of God whose brest had so soone by the power of the same Spirit conceiued an assent to the will of God and now of an Hand-mayd of God shee is aduanced to the Mother of God No sooner hath shee said bee it done than it is done the Holy Ghost ouer-shaddowes her and formes her Sauiour in her owne bodie This very Angell that talkes with the blessed Virgin could scarce haue bin able to expresse the ioy of her heart in the sense of this diuine burden Neuer any mortall Creature had so much cause of exultation How could shee that was full of God bee other than full of ioy in that God Griefe growes greater by concealing Ioy by expression The Holy Virgin had vnderstood by the Angell how her Cousin Elizabeth was no lesse of kinne to her in condition the fruitfulnesse of whose age did somewhat suit the fruitfulnesse of her Virginitie Happinesse communicated doubles it selfe Here is no strayning of courtesie The blessed Maid whom vigor of age had more fitted for the way hastens her iourney into the Hill-countrey to visit that gracious Matron whom God had made a signe of her miraculous Conception Only the meeting of Saints in Heauen can paralell the meeting of these two Cosins The two Wonders of the World are met vnder one roofe and congratulate their mutuall happinesse When wee haue Christ spiritually conceiued in vs wee cannot bee quiet till wee haue imparted our ioy Elizabeth that holy Matron did no sooner wel-come her blessed Cosin than her Babe wel-comes his Sauiour Both in the retyred Closets of their Mothers Wombe are sensible of each others presence the one by his omniscience the other by instinct He did not more fore-runne Christ than ouer-runne Nature How should our hearts leape within vs when the Sonne of God vouchsafes to come into the secret of our soules not to visit vs but to dwell with vs to dwell in vs THe birth of CHRIST AS all the actions of men so especially the publike actions of publike men are ordered by God