the style of bonus civis a good Patriot as men whose parts may be useful to the weal-publick yet I say such men are no better then the bane of their Country the stain of their Age. Turpis est pars quae suo toti non convenit as Gerson well it is an ill member for which all the body fares the worse Hear this then ye glorious sinners that brag of your good affections and faithful services to your dear Country your hearts your heads your purses your hands ye say are prest for the publick good yea but are your hearts Godless are your lives filthy let me tell you your sins doe more disservice to your Nation then your selves are worth All your valour wisdome subsidiary helps cannot counterpoise one dram of your wickedness Talk what ye will Sin is a shame to any people saith wise Solomon ye bring both a curse and a dishonour upon your Nation It may thank you for the hateful style of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a froward generation This for our first Observation Never Generation was so straight as not to be distorted with some powerful sins but there are differences and degrees in this distortion Even in the very first world were Giants as Moses tells us Gen. 6. 4. which as our Mythologists adde did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bid battel to Heaven In the next there were mighty hunters proud Babel-builders after them followed beastly Sodomites It were easie to draw down the pedigree of evils through all times till we come to these last which the holy Ghost marks out for perillous Yet some Generation is more eminently sinful then other as the Sea is in perpetual agitation yet the Spring-tides rise higher then their fellows Hence Saint Peter notes this his Generation with an emphasis of mischief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is a transcendencie of evil What Age may compare with that which hath embrued their cruel hands in the blood of the Son of God That roaring Lion is never still but there are times wherein he rageth more as he did and doth in the first in the last dayes of the Gospel The first that he might block up the way of saving Truth the last for that he knows his time is short There are times that are poisoned with more contagious Heresies with more remarkable villanies It is not my meaning to spend time in abridging the sacred Chronologies of the Church and to deduce along the cursed successions of damnable Errours from their hellish original only let me touch at the notable difference betwixt the firâ—t and the last world In the first as Epiphanius observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was neither diversity of opinion nor mention of Heresie nor act of Idolatry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only piety and impiety divided the world whereas now in the last which is the wrangling and techy dotage of the decrepit world here is nothing but unquiet clashings of Opinion nothing but foul Heresie either maintained by the guilty or imputed to the innocent nothing but gross Idolatry in Paganisme in mis-believing Christianity and woe is me that I must say it a coloured Impiety shares too much of the rest My speech is glided ere I was aware into the third Head of our discourse and is suddenly faln upon the practice of that which S. Peter's example here warrants the censure of ill-deserving times which I must crave leave of your Honorable and Christian patience with an holy and just freedome to prosecute It is the peevish humour of a factious eloquence to aggravate the evils of the times which were they better then they are would be therefore cried down in the ordinary language of male contented spirits because present But it is the warrantable and necessary duty of S. Peter and all his true Evangelical successors when they meet with a froward Generation to call it so How commonly do we cry out of those querulous Michaiahs that are still prophesying evil to us and not good No theme but sins no sawce but vineger Might not one of these galled Jewes of S. Peter's Auditory have started up and have thus challenged him for this tartness What means this hard censure why do you slander the time Solomon was a wise man and he sayes Say not thou What is the cause that the former dayes were better then these for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this this is but a needless rigour this is but an envious calumny The Generation were not untoward if your tongue were not uncharitable The Apostle feares none of these currish oblatrations but contemning all impotent misacceptions calls them what he finds them A froward generation And well might he doe so his great Master did it before him an evil and adulterous generation and the Harbinger of that great Master fore-ran him in that censure O generation of Vipers Mat. 3. 7. and the Prophets led the same way to him in every page And why do not we follow Peter in the same steps wherein Peter followed Christ and Christ his Fore-runner and his Fore-runner the Prophets Who should tell the times of their sins if we be silent Pardon me I beseech you most Noble reverend and beloved hearers necessity is laid upon me in this day of our publick mourning I may not be as a man in whose mouth are no reproofs Oh let us be thankful for our Blessings wherein through the mercy of God we outstrip all the nations under Heaven but withall let us bewail our sins which are so much more grievous because ours Would to God it were no less unjust then unpleasing to complain of this as an untoward Generation There be four things that are wont both to make up and evince the pravity of any Generation woe is me that they are too apparently met in this multitude of sins magnitude of sins boldness of sin impunity of sinning Take a short view of them all You shall see that the Multitude is such as that it hath covered the earth the Magnitude such as hath reach'd to Heaven the Boldness such as out-faceth the Gospel the Impunity such as frustrates the wholesome Laws under which we live For the Multitude where is the man that makes true conscience of any the Laws of his God And if every man violate all the laws of God what do all put together Our Forefathers sins were but as drops ours are as torrents Instance in some few Cannot we our selves remember since a debauch'd Drunkard was an Owle among birds a beast of men a monster of beasts abhorred of men shouted at by children Is this sight now any news to us Is not every Tavern a stye of such swine Is not every street indented with their shameful staggerings Is there not now as much spent in wanton Smoak as our honâ—st â—orefathers spent in substantial Hospitality Cannot we remember since Oathes were so geason and uncouth that their sound startled the hearer as amazed at the strange language of treason against the
held on in a Line never interrupted Even in a forlorn and miserable Church there may be a personall succession How little were the Jewes better for this when they had lost the Urim and Thummim sincerity of Doctrine and Manners This stayed with them even whiles they and their Sons crucified Christ What is more ordinary then wicked Sons of holy Parents It is the succession of Truth and Holiness that makes or institutes a Church whatever become of the persons Never times were so barren as not to yeeld some good The greatest dearth affords some few good Eares to the Gleaners Christ would not have come into the world but he would have some faithful to entertain him He that had the disposing of all times and men would cast some holy ones into his own times There had been no equality that all should either over-run or follow him and none attend him Zachary and Elizabeth are just both of Aarons blood and John Baptist of theirs whence should an holy seed spring if not of the Loyns of Levi It is not in the power of Parents to traduce Holinesse to their Children it is the blessing of God that feoffes them in the Vertues of their Parents as they feoffe them in their sinnes There is no certainty but there is likelihood of an holy Generation when the Parents are such Elizabeth was just as well as Zachary that the fore-runner of a Saviour might be holy on both sides If the stock and the griffe be not both good there is much danger of the fruit It is an happy match when the Husband and the Wife are one not onely in themselves but in God not more in flesh then in the spirit Grace makes no difference of sexes rather the weaker carries away the more honour because it hath had lesse helps It is easie to observe that the New Testament affordeth more store of good women then the old Elizabeth led the ring of this mercy whose barrenness ended in a miraculous fruit both of her body and of her time This religious pair made no lesse progress in vertue then in age and yet their vertue could not make their best age fruitfull Elizabeth was barren A just soul and a barren womb may well agree together Amongst the Jews barrenness was not a defect only but a reproach yet while this good woman was fruitful of holy obedience she was barren of children As John which was miraculously conceived by man was a fit fore-runner of him that was conceived by the Holy Ghost so a barren Matron was meet to make way for a Virgin None but a son of Aaron might offer incense to God in the Temple and not every son of Aaron and not any one at all seasons God is a God of order and hates confusion no lesse then irreligion Albeit he hath not so streightned himself under the Gospel as to tie his service to persons or places yet his choice is now no lesse curious because it is more large He allows none but the authorised he authoriseth none but the worthy The incense doth ever smell of the hand that offers it I doubt not but that perfume was sweeter which ascended up from the hand of a just Zacharie The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to God There were courses of ministration in the Legal services God never purposed to burthen any of his creatures with devotion How vain is the ambition of any soul that would load it self with the universal charge of all men How thankless is their labour that do wilfully overspend themselves in their ordinary vocations As Zacharie had a course in Gods house so he carefully observed it the favour of these respites doubled his diligence The more high and sacred our calling is the more dangerous is neglect It is our honour that we may be allowed to wait upon the God of heaven in these immediate services Woe be to us if we flacken those duties wherein God honours us more then we can honour him Many sons of Aaron yea of the same family served at once in the Temple according to the variety of imployments To avoid all difference they agreed by lot to assign themselves to the several offices of each day the lot of this day called Zacharie to offer Incense in the outer Temple I doe not finde any prescription they had from God of this particular manner of designment Matters of good order in holy affairs may be ruled by the wise institution of men according to reason and expediencie It fell out well that Zacharie was chosen by lot to this ministration that Gods immediate hand might be seen in all the passages that concerned his great Prophet that as the person so the occasion might be of Gods own chusing In lots and their seeming casual disposition God can give a reason though we can give none Morning and Evening twice a day their Law called them to offer Incense to God that both parts of the day might be consecrate to the maker of time The outer Temple was the figure of the whole Church upon earth like as the Holy of holiest represented Heaven Nothing can better resemble our faithful prayers then sweet perfume these God looks that we should all his Church over send up unto him Morning and Evening The elevations of our hearts should be perpetual but if twice in the day we do not present God with our solemn invocations we make the Gospel lesse officious then the Law That the resemblance of prayers and incense might be apparent whiles the Priest sends up his incense within the Temple the people must send up their prayers without Their breath and that incense though remote in the first rising met ere they went up to heaven The people might no more goe into the Holy place to offer up the incense of prayers unto God then Zacharie might goe into the Holy of holies Whiles the partition wall stood betwixt Jews and Gentiles there were also partitions betwixt the Jews and themselves Now every man is a Priest unto God every man since the veil was rent prayes within the Temple What are we the better for our greater freedome of accesse to God under the Gospel if we doe not make use of our priviledge Whiles they were praying to God he sees an Angel of GOD as Gideon's Angel went up in the smoak of the sacrifice so did Zacharie's Angel as it were come down in the fragrant smoak of his incense It was ever great news to see an Angel of God but now more because God had long withdrawn from them all the means of his supernaturall revelations As this wicked people were strangers to their God in their conversation so was God grown a stranger to them in his apparitions yet now that the season of the Gospel approached he visited them with his Angels before he visited them by his Son He sends his Angel to men in the form of man before he sends his Son to take humane form The presence of Angels
is no novelty but their apparition they are alwaies with us but rarely seen that we may awfully respect their messages when they are seen In the mean time our faith may see them though our senses doe not their assumed shapes doe not make them more present but visible There is an order in that heavenly Hierarchie though we know it not This Angel that appeared to Zacharie was not with him in the ordinary course of his attendances but was purposely sent from God with this message Why was an Angel sent and why this Angel It had been easie for him to have raised up the prophetical spirit of some Simeon to this prediction The same Holy Ghost which revealed to that just man that he should not see death ere he had seen the Messias might have as easily revealed unto him the birth of the forerunner of Christ and by him to Zacharie but God would have this voice which should goe before his Son come with a noise He would have it appear to the world that the harbinger of the Messiah should be conceived by the marvellous power of that God whose coming he proclaimed It was fit the first Herald of the Gospel should begin in wonder The same Angel that came to the Blessed Virgin with the news of Christs conception came to Zacharie with the news of John's for the honour of him that was the greatest of them which were born of women and for his better resemblance to him which was the seed of the woman Both had the Gospel for their errand one as the messenger of it the other as the Author both are foretold by the same mouth When could it be more fit for the Angel to appear unto Zacharie then when prayers and incense were offered by him Where could he more fitly appear then in the Temple In what part of the Temple more fitly then at the Altar of Incense and whereabout rather then on the right side of the Altar Those glorious spirits as they are alwaies with us so most in our devotions and as in all places so most of all in Gods house They rejoice to be with us whiles we are with God as contrarily they turn their faces from us when we goe about our sins He that had wont to live and serve in the presence of the master was now astonished at the presence of the servant So much difference there is betwixt our faith and our senses that the apprehension of the presence of the God of spirits by faith goes down sweetly with us whereas the sensible apprehension of an Angel dismayes us Holy Zacharie that had wont to live by faith thought he should dye when his sense began to be set on work It was the weaknesse of him that served at the Altar without horror to be daunted with the face of his fellow-servant In vain doe we look for such Ministers of God as are without infirmities when just Zacharie was troubled in his devotions with that wherewith he should have been comforted It was partly the suddenness and partly the glory of the apparition that affrighted him The good Angel was both apprehensive and compassionate of Zacharie's weakness and presently incourages him with a cheerful excitation Fear not Zacharias The blessed spirits though they doe not often vocally expresse it doe pity our humane frailties and secretly suggest comfort unto us when we perceive it not Good and evil Angels as they are contrary in estate so also in disposition The good desire to take away fear the evil to bring it It is a fruit of that deadly enmity which is betwixt Satan and us that he would if he might kill us with terror whereas the good spirits affecting our relief and happinesse take no pleasure in terrifying us but labour altogether for our tranquillity and chearfulnesse There was not more fear in the face then comfort in the speech Thy prayer is heard No Angel could have told him better newes Our desires are uttered in our praiers What can we wish but to have what we would Many good suits had Zachary made and amongst the rest for a Son Doubtlesse it was now some space of years since he made that request For he was now stricken in age and had ceased to hope yet had God laid it up all the while and when he thinks not of it brings it forth to effect Thus doth the mercy of our God deale with his patient and faithfull suppliants In the fervour of their expectation he many times holds them off and when they least think of it and have forgotten their own suits he graciously condescends Delay of effect may not discourage our faith It may be God hath long granted ere we shall know of his grant Many a father repents him of his fruitfulnesse and hath such sons as he wishes unborn but to have so gracious and happy a son as the Angel foretold could not be lesse comfort then honor to the age of Zacharie The proof of children makes them either the blessings or crosses of their parents To heare what his son should be before he was to heare that he should have such a son a son whose birth should concern the joy of many a son that should be great in the sight of the Lord a son that should be sacred to God filled with God beneficial to man an harbinger to him that was God and man was news enough to prevent the Angel and to take away that tongue with amazement which was after lost with incredulity The speech was so good that it found not a sudden belief This good news surprised Zachary If the intelligence had taken leisure that his thoughts might have had time to debate the matter he had easily apprehended the infinite power of him that had promised the pattern of Abraham and Sara and would soon have concluded the appearance of the Angel more miraculous then his prediction Whereas now like a man masked with the strangenesse of that he saw and heard he misdoubts the message and asks How shall I know Nature was on his side and alledged the impossibility of the event both from age and barrennesse Supernaturall tidings at the first hearing astonish the heart and are entertained with doubts by those which upon further acquaintance give them the best welcome The weak apprehensions of our imperfect faith are not so much to be censured as pittied It is a sure way for the heart to be prevented with the assurance of the omnipotent power of God to whom nothing is impossible so shall the hardest point of faith goe down easily with us If the eye of our minde look upward it shall meet with nothing to avert or interrupt it but if right forward or downward or round about every thing is a block in our way There is a difference betwixt desire of assurance and unbelief We cannot be too carefull to raise up our selves arguments to settle our faith although it should be no faith if it had no feet to stand
upon but discursive In matters of faith if reasons may be brought for the conviction of the gain-sayers it is well if they be helps they cannot be grounds of our belief In the most faithful heart there are some sparks of infidelity so to believe that we should have no doubt at all is scarce incident unto flesh and blood It is a great perfection if we have attained to overcome our doubts What did mislead Zacharie but that which uses to guide others Reason I am old and my wife is of great age As if years and drie loines could be any let to him which is able of very stones to raise up children unto Abraham Faith and reason have their limits where reason ends faith begins and if reason will be encroaching upon the bounds of faith she is straight taken captive by infidelity We are not fit to follow Christ if we have not denied our selves and the chief piece of our selves is our reason We must yield God able to doe that which we cannot comprehend and we must comprehend that by our faith which is disclaimed by reason Hagar must be driven out of doors that Sara may rule alone The authority of the reporter makes way for belief in things which are otherwise hard to passe although in the matters of God we should not so much care who speaks as what is spoken and from whom The Angel tells his name place office unasked that Zacharie might not think any news impossible that was brought him by an heavenly messenger Even where there is no use of language the spirits are distinguished by names and each knows his own appellation and others He that gave leave unto man his Image to give names unto all his visible and inferiour creatures did himself put names unto the spiritual and as their name is so are they mighty and glorious But lest Zacharie should no lesse doubt of the stile of the messenger then of the errand it self he is at once both confirmed and punished with dumbness That tongue which moved the doubt must be tyed up He shall ask no more questions for forty weeks because he asked this one distrustfully Neither did Zacharie lose his tongue for the time but his ears also he was not onely mute but deaf For otherwise when they came to ask his allowance for the name of his Son they needed not to have demanded it by signs but by words God will not passe over slight offences and those which may plead the most colourable pretences in his best children without a sensible check it is not our holy entireness with God that can bear us out in the least sin yea rather the more acquaintance we have with his Majesty the more sure we are of correction when we offend This may procure us more favour in our well-doing not lesse justice in evil Zacharie staied and the people waited whether some longer discourse betwixt the Angel and him then needed to be recorded or whether astonishment at the apparition and news withheld him I inquire not the multitude thought him long yet though they could but see afar off they would not depart till he returned to blesse them Their patient attendance without shames us that are hardly perswaded to attend within whiles both our senses are imploied in our divine services and we are admitted to be co-agents with our Ministers At last Zacharie comes out speechlesse and more amazes them with his presence then with his delay The eyes of the multitude that were not worthy to see his vision yet see the signs of his vision that the world might be put into the exspectation of some extraordinary sequell GOD makes way for his voice by silence His speech could not have said so much as his dumbness Zacharie would fain have spoken and could not with us too many are dumb and need not Negligence Fear Partiality stop the mouthes of many which shall once say Woe to me because I held my peace His hand speaks that which he cannot with his tongue and he makes them by signs to understand that which they might read in his face Those powers we have we must use But though he have ceased to speak yet he ceased not to minister He takes not this dumbness for a dismission but stayes out the eight daies of his course as one that knew the eyes and hands and heart would be accepted of that God which had bereaved him of his tongue We may not straight take occasions of withdrawing our selves from the publick services of our God much lesse under the Gospel The Law which stood much upon bodily perfection dispensed with age for attendance The Gospel which is all for the Soul regards those inward powers which whiles they are vigorous exclude all excuses of our ministration The Annunciation of CHRIST THE Spirit of GOD was never so accurate in any description as that which concerns the Incarnation of GOD. It was fit no circumstance should be omitted in that Story whereon the faith salvation of all the World dependeth We cannot so much as doubt of this truth and be saved no not the number of the moneth not the name of the Angel is concealed Every particle imports not more certainty then excellence The time is the sixth moneth after John's Conception the prime of the Spring Christ was conceived in the Spring born in the Solstice He in whom the World received a new life receives life in the same season wherein the World received his first life from him and he 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 enlightens the World with his glory The Messenger is an Angel A man was too mean to carry the news of the Conception of God Never any businesse was conceived in Heaven that did so much concerne the earth as the Conception of the GOD of Heaven in Womb of earth No lesse then an Arch-Angel was worthy to bear this tydings and never any Angel received a greater honour then of this Embassage It was fit our reparation should answer our fall An evil Angel was the first motioner of the one to Eve a Virgin then espoused to Adam in the Garden of Eden a good Angell is the first reporter of the other to Mary a Virgin espoused to Joseph in that place which as the Garden of Galilee had a name from flourishing No good Angel could be the Author of our restauration as that evil Angel was of our ruine But that which those glorious Spirits could not doe themselves they are glad to report as done by the God of Spirits Good news rejoices the bearer With what joy did this holy Angel bring the news of that Saviour in whom we are redeemed to life himself established in life and glory The first Preacher of the Gospel was an Angel That office must needs be glorious that derives it self from such a Predecessor God appointed his Angel to be the first
service Those that will goe no further then they are dragged in their Religious exercises are no whit of kin to her whom all Generations shall call blessed The childe Jesus in the minority of his age went up with his Parents to the holy solemnity not this year only but in all likelihood others also He in the power of whose Godhead and by the motion of whose Spirit all others ascended thither would not himself stay at home In all his examples he meant our instruction This pious act of his nonage intended to lead our first years into timely Devotion The first liquor seasons the vessel for a long time after It is every way good for a man to bear God's yoke even from his infancy it is the policie of the Devil to discourage early holinesse He that goes out betimes in the morning is more like to dispatch his journey then he that lingers till the day be spent This Blessed Family came not to look at the Feast and be gone but they duly stai'd out all the appointed daies of unlevened bread They and the rest of Israel could not want houshold-businesses at home those secular affairs could not either keep them from repairing to Jerusalem or send them away immaturely Worldly cares must give place to the sacred Except we will depart unblest we must attend God's services till we may receive his dismission It was the fashion of those times and places that they went up and so returned by troups to those set meetings of their holy Festivals The whole Parish of Nazareth went and came together Good fellowship doth no way so well as in the passage to Heaven much comfort is added by society to that journey which is of it self pleasant It is an happy word Come let us goe up to the house of the Lord. Mutual incouragement is none of the least benefits of our holy assemblies Many sticks laid together make a good fire which if they lie single lose both their light and heat The Feast ended what should they do but return to Nazareth God's services may not be so attended as that we should neglect our particular callings Himself cals us from his own House to ours and takes pleasure to see a painful Client They are foully mistaken that think God cares for no other trade but devotion Piety and diligence must keep meet changes with each other Neither doth God lesse accept of our return to Nazareth then our going up to Jerusalem I cannot think that the Blessed Virgin or good Joseph could be so negligent of their Divine charge as not to call the child Jesus to their setting forth from Jerusalem But their back was no sooner turned upon the Temple then his face was towards it He had businesse in that place when theirs was ended there he was both worshipped and represented He in whom the Godhead dwelt bodily could doe nothing without God his true Father led him away from his supposed Sometimes the affairs of our ordinary vocation may not grudge to yield unto spirituall occasions The Parents of Christ knew him well to be of a disposition not strange nor sullen Stoicall but sweet and sociable and therefore they supposed he had spent the time and the way in company of their friends and neighbours They do not suspect him wandered into the solitary fields but when evening came they go to seek him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance If he had not wonted to converse formerly with them he had not now been sought amongst them Neither as God nor man doth he take pleasure in a stern froward austerity and wilde retiredness but in a milde affableness and amiable conversation But O Blessed Virgin who can express the sorrows of thy perplexed Soul when all that evening search could afford thee no news of thy Son Jesus Was not this one of those swords of Simeon which should pierce through thy tender breast How didst thou chide thy credulous neglect in not observing so precious a charge and blame thine eyes for once looking beside this object of thy love How didst thou with thy careful Husband spend that restless night in mutual expostulations and bemoanings of your loss How many suspicious imaginations did that while rack thy grieved spirit Perhaps thou mightest doubt lest they which laid for him by Herod's command at his birth had now by the secret instigation of Archelaus surprised him in his childhood or it may be thou thoughtest thy Divine Son had now withdrawn himself from the earth and returned to his heavenly Glory without warning or peradventure thou studiedst with thy self whether any carelesness on thy behalf had not given occasion to this absence O dear Saviour who can miss and not mourn for thee Never any soul conceived thee by faith that was less afflicted with the sense of thy desertion then comforted with the joy of thy presence Just is that sorrow and those tears seasonable that are bestowed upon thy losse What comfort are we capable of whiles we want thee What relish is there in these earthly delights without thee What is there to mitigate our passionate discomforts if not from thee Let thy self loose O my soul to the fulness of sorrow when thou findest thy self bereaved of him in whose presence is the fulness of joy and deny to receive comfort from any thing save from his return In vain is Christ sought among his kindred according to the flesh So far are they still from giving us their aide to finde the true Messias that they lead us from him Back again therefore are Joseph and Mary gone to seek him at Jerusalem She goes about in the City by the streets and by the open places and seeks him whom her soul loveth she sought him for the time and found him not Do we think she spared her search The evening of her return she hastes to the Inne where she had left him where missing him she inquires of every one she met Have you not seen him whom my soul loveth At last the third day she finds him in the Temple One day was spent in the journey towards Galilee another in the return to Jerusalem the third day recovers him He who would rise again the third day and be found amongst the living now also would the third day be found of his Parents after the sorrow of his absence But where wert thou O blessed Jesu for the space of these three daies where didst thou bestow thy self or who tended thee whiles thou wert thus alone at Jerusalem I know if Jerusalem should have been as unkind to thee as Bethleem thou couldst have commanded the Heavens to harbour thee and if men did not minister to thee thou couldst have commanded the service of Angels But since the form of a Servant called thee to a voluntary homeliness whether it pleased thee to exercise thy self thus early with the difficulties of a stranger or to provide miraculously for thy self I inquire not since thou revealest not only this I
this Jesus a power to apply his merits and obedience we are no whit the safer no whit the better only we are so much the wiser to understand who shall condemn us This piece of the clause was spoken like a Saint Jesus the Son of the most high God the other piece like a Devil What have I to doe with thee If the disclamation were universall the latter words would impugne the former for whiles he confesses Jesus to be the Son of the most high God he withall confesses his own inevitable subjection Wherefore would he beseech if he were not obnoxious He cannot he dare not say What hast thou to doe with me but What have I to doe with thee Others indeed I have vexed thee I fear In respect then of any violence of any personal provocation What have I to doe with thee And dost thou ask O thou evil spirit what hast thou to doe with Christ whiles thou vexest a servant of Christ Hast thou thy name from knowledge and yet so mistakest him whom thou confessest as if nothing could be done to him but what immediately concerns his own person Hear that great and just Judge sentencing upon his dreadfull Tribunal Inasmuch as thou didst it unto one of these little ones thou didst it unto me It is an idle misprision to sever the sense of an injury done to any of the Members from the Head He that had humility enough to kneel to the Son of God hath boldnesse enough to expostulate Art thou come to torment us before our time Whether it were that Satan who useth to enjoy the torment of sinners whose musick it is to hear our shrieks and gnashings held it no small piece of his torment to be restrained in the exercise of his tyranny or whether the very presence of Christ were his rack for the guilty spirit projecteth terrible things and cannot behold the Judge or the executioner without a renovation of horrour or whether that as himself professeth he were now in a fearfull expectation of being commanded down into the deep for a further degree of actual torment which he thus deprecates There are tortures appointed to the very spiritual natures of evil Angels Men that are led by Sense have easily granted the body subject to torment who yet have not so readily conceived this incident to a spiritual substance The Holy Ghost hath not thought it fit to acquaint us with the particular manner of these invisible acts rather willing that we should herein fear then enquire But as all matters of Faith though they cannot be proved by Reason for that they are in a higher sphere yet afford an answer able to stop the mouth of all Reason that dares bark against them since truth cannot be opposite to it self so this of the sufferings of Spirits There is therefore both an intentional torment incident to Spirits and a reall For as in Blessedness the good Spirits finde themselves joyned unto the chief good and hereupon feel a perfect love of God and unspeakable joy in him and rest in themselves so contrarily the evil Spirits perceive themselves eternally excluded from the presence of God and see themselves setled in a wofull darkness and from the sense of this separation arises an horrour not to be expressed not to be conceived How many men have we known to torment themselves with their own thoughts There needs no other gibbet then that which their troubled spirit hath erected in their own heart And if some pains begin at the Body and from thence afflict the Soul in a copartnership of grief yet others arise immediately from the Soul and draw the Body into a participation of misery Why may we not therefore conceive mere and separate Spirits capable of such an inward excruciation Besides which I hear the Judge of men and Angels say Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels I hear the Prophet say Tophet is prepared of old If with fear and without curiosity we may look upon those flames why may we not attribute a spiritual nature to that more then natural fire In the end of the world the Elements shall be dissolved by fire and if the pure quintessential matter of the skie and the element of fire it self shall be dissolved by fire then that last fire shall be of another nature then that which it consumeth What hinders then but that the Omnipotent God hath from eternity created a fire of another nature proportionable even to Spiritual essences Or why may we not distinguish of fire as it is it self a bodily creature and as it is an instrument of Gods justice so working not by any material virtue or power of its own but by a certain height of supernatural efficacy to which it is exalted by the Omnipotence of that supreme and righteous Judge Or lastly why may we not conceive that though Spirits have nothing material in their nature which that fire should work upon yet by the judgement of the Almighty Arbiter of the world justly willing their torment they may be made most sensible of pain and by the obedible submission of their created nature wrought upon immediately by their appointed tortures besides the very horrour which ariseth from the place whereto they are everlastingly confined For if the incorporeal Spirits of living men may be held in a lothed or painful body and conceive sorrow to be so imprisoned why may we not as easily yield that the evil spirits of Angels or men may be held in those direfull flames and much more abhor therein to continue for ever Tremble rather O my Soul at the thought of this wofull condition of the evil 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 Majesty of our God And withall admire and magnifie that infinite Mercy to the miserable generation of man which after this holy severity of justice to the revolted Angels so graciously forbears our hainous iniquities and both suffers us to be free for the time from these hellish torments and gives us opportunity of a perfect freedome from them for ever Praise the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name who forgiveth all thy sins and healeth all thine infirmities who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and compassions There is no time wherein the evil spirits are not tormented there is a time wherein they exspect to be tormented yet more Art thou come to torment us before our time They knew that the last Assises are the prefixed terme of their full execution which they also understood to be not yet come For though they knew not when the Day of Judgement should be a point concealed from the glorious Angels of Heaven yet they knew when it should not be and therefore they say Before the time Even the very evil spirits confesse and fearfully attend a set
when I see those Devils which are many in substance are one in name action habitation Who can too much brag of unity when it is incident unto wicked spirits All the praise of concord is in the subject if that be holy the consent is Angelical if sinfull devilish What a fearfull advantage have our spiritual enemies against us If armed troops come against single straglers what hope is there of life of victory How much doth it concern us to band our hearts together in a communion of Saints Our enemies come upon us like a torrent Oh let us not run asunder like drops in the dust All our united forces will be 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 have reckoned a Legion at the lowest have counted it six thousand others have more then doubled it Though here it is not strict but figurative yet the letter of it implies 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 think are they who all the world over 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 evil no torment for evil Be sure ye godly ye shall not want combatants to trie your strength and skill Awaken your courages to resist and stir up your hearts make sure the means of your safety There are more with us then against us The God of Heaven is with us if we be with him and our Angels behold the face of God If every Devil were a Legion we are safe Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we shall fear no evil Thou O Lord shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of our enemies and thy right hand shall save us Conflict All this number is not for sight for rest but for motion for action Neither was there ever hour since the first blow given to our first Parents wherein there was so much as a truce betwixt these adversaries As therefore strong frontier Towns when there is a peace concluded on both parts break up their garrison open their gates neglect their Bulwarks but when they hear of the enemy mustering his forces in great and unequal numbers then they double their guard keep Sentinell repair their Sconces so must we upon the certain knowledge of our numerous and deadly enemies in continual aray against us addresse our selves alwaies to a wary and strong resistance I do not observe the most to think of this ghostly hostility Either they do not find there are Tentations or those Tentations hurtful they see no worse then themselves and if they feel motions of evil arising in them they impute it to fancy or unreasonable appetite to no power but Nature's and those motions they follow without sensible hurt neither see they what harm it is to sin Is it any marvell that carnal eyes cannot discern spiritual Objects that the World who is the friend the vassal of Satan is in no war with him Elisha's servant when his eyes were opened saw troops of spiritual souldiers which before he discerned not If the eyes of our Souls be once enlightned by supernatural knowledge and the clear beams of Faith we shall as plainly descry the invisible powers of wickednesse as now our bodily eyes see Heaven and Earth They are though we see them not we cannot be safe from them if we do not acknowledge not oppose them The Devils are now become great suitors to Christ That he would not command them into the deep that he would permit their entrance into the swine What is this deep but hell both for the utter separation from the face of God and for the impossibility of passage to the region of Rest and Glory The very evil spirits then fear and expect a further degree of torment they know themselves reserved in those chains of darknesse for the judgment of the great Day There is the same wages due to their sins to ours neither are the wages paid till the work be done They tempting men to sin must needs sin grievously in tempting as with us men those that mislead into sin offend more then the actors Not till the upshot therefore of their wickednesse shall they receive the full measure of their condemnation This day this deep they tremble at what shall I say of those men that fear it not It is hard for men to believe their own unbelief If they were perswaded of this fiery dungeon this bottomlesse deep wherein every sin shall receive 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 he knows it will burn him Did we as truly believe the everlasting burning of that infernal fire we durst not offer to fetch Pleasures or Profits out of the midst of those flames This degree of torment they grant in Christ's power to command they knew his power unresistible had he therefore but said Back to hell whence ye came they could no more have stai'd upon earth then they can now climbe into Heaven O the wonderfull dispensation of the Almighty who though he could command all the evil spirits down to their dungeons in an instant so as they should have no more opportunity of Temptation yet thinks fit to retain them upon earth It is not out of weaknesse or improvidence of that Divine hand that wicked spirits tyrannize here upon earth but out of the most wise and most holy ordination of God who knows how to turn evil into good how to fetch good out of evil and by the worst instruments to bring about his most just decrees Oh that we could adore that awfull and infinite power and chearfully cast our selves upon that Providence which keeps the Keyes even of Hell it self and either lets out or returns the Devils to their places Their other suit hath some marvell in moving it more in the grant That they might be suffered to enter into the Herd of Swine It was their ambition of some mischief that brought forth this desire that since they might not vex the body of man they might yet afflict men in their goods The Malice of these envious spirits reacheth from us to ours It is sore against their wills if we be not every way miserable If the Swine were Legally unclean for the use of the table yet they were naturally good Had not Satan known them usefull for man he had never desired their ruine But as Fencers will seem to fetch a blow at
the leg when they intend it at the head so doth this Devil whiles he drives at the Swine he aimes at the Souls of these Gadarens by this means he hoped well and his hope was not vain to work in these Gergesens a discontentment at Christ an unwillingnesse to entertain him a desire of his absence he meant to turn them into Swine by the losse of their Swine It was not the rafters or stones of the house of Job's children that he bore the grudge to but to the owners nor to the lives of the children so much as the Soul of their Father There is no Affliction wherein he doth not strike at the heart which whiles it holds free all other damages are light but a wounded spirit whether with sin or sorrow who can bear Whatever becomes of goods or limmes happy are we if like wise souldiers we guard the vital parts Whiles the Soul is kept sound from impatience from distrust our Enemy may afflict us he cannot hurt us 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 think how great things evil spirits can doe with permission it is comfortable to think how nothing they can doe without permission We know they want not malice to destroy the whole frame of God's work but of all man of all men Christians but if without leave they cannot set upon an Hog what can they doe to the living Images of their Creator They cannot offer us so much as a suggestion without the permission of our Saviour And can he that would give his own most precious blood for us to save us from evil wilfully give us over to evil It is no news that wicked spirits wish to do mischief it is news that they are allowed it If the owner of all things should stand upon his absolute command who can challenge him for what he thinks fit to doe with his creature The first Fole of the Asse is commanded under the Law to have his neck broken What is that to us The creatures doe that they were made for if they may serve any way to the glory of their Maker But seldome ever doth God leave his actions unfurnished with such reasons as our weaknesse may reach unto There were Sects amongst these Jews that denied Spirits They could not be more evidently more powerfully convinced then by this event Now shall the Gadarens see from what a multitude of Devils they were delivered and how easie it had been for the same power to have allowed these Spirits to seize upon their Persons as well as their Swine Neither did God this without a just purpose of their castigation His Judgements are righteous where they are most secret Though we cannot accuse these inhabitants of ought yet he could and thought good thus to mulct them And if they had not wanted Grace to acknowledge it it was no small favour of God that he would punish them in their Swine for that which he might have avenged upon their Bodies and Souls Our Goods are furthest off us If but in these we smart we must confesse to finde mercy Sometimes it pleaseth God to grant the suits of wicked men and spirits in no favour to the suitors He grants an ill suit and withholds a good He grants an ill suit in Judgement and holds back a good one in Mercy The Israelites ask meat he gives Quailes to their mouths and leannesse to their Souls The chosen vessel wishes Satan taken off and hears only My grace is sufficient for thee We may not evermore measure favours by condescent These Devils doubtless receive more punishment for that harmfull act wherein they are heard If we ask what is either unfit to receive or unlawfull to beg it is a great favour of our God to be denied Those spirits which would go into the Swine by permission go out of the man by command they had staied long and are ejected suddenly The immediate works of God are perfect in an instant and do not require the aid of time for their maturation No sooner are they cast out of the man then they are in the Swine They will lose no time but passe without intermission from one mischief to another If they hold it a pain not to be doing evil why is it not our delight to be ever doing good The impetuousnesse was no lesse then the speed The Herd was carried with violence from a steep-down place into the lake and was choaked It is no small force that could doe this but if the Swine had been so many Mountains these spirits upon God's permission had thus transported them How easily can they carry those Souls which are under their power to destruction Unclean beasts that wallow in the mire of sensuality brutish Drunkards transforming themselves by excesse even they are the Swine whom the Legion carries headlong to the pit of perdition The wicked spirits have their wish the Swine are choked in the waves What ease is this to them Good God that there should be any creature that seeks contentment in destroying in tormenting the good creatures of his Maker This is the diet of Hell Those Fiends feed upon spight towards man so much more as he doth more resemble his Creator towards all other living substances so much more as they may be more usefull to man The Swine ran down violently what marvell is it if their Keepers fled That miraculous work which should have drawn them to Christ drives them from him They run with the news the Country comes in with clamour The whole multitude of the Country about besought him to depart The multitude is a beast of many heads every head hath a several mouth and every mouth a several tongue and every tongue a several accent every head hath a several brain and every brain thoughts of their own so as it is hard to find a multitude without some division At least seldome ever hath a good motion found a perfect accordance it is not so infrequent for a multitude to conspire in evil Generality of assent is no warrant for any act Cōmon Errour carries away many who inquire not into the reason of ought but the practice The way to Hell is a beaten road through the many feet that tread it When Vice grows into fashion Singularity is a Vertue There was not a Gadarene found that either dehorted his fellows or opposed the motion It is a sign of people given up to judgment when no man makes head against projects of evil Alas what can one strong man do against a whole throng of wickednesse Yet this good comes of an unprevailing resistance that God forbears to plague where he findes but a sprinkling of Faith Happy are they who like unto the celestial bodies which being carried about with the sway of the highest sphere yet creep on their own waies keep on the courses of their own Holiness against the
and fears comes deliverance At their entrance into the ship at the arising of the tempest at the shutting in of the evening there was no news of Christ but when they have been all the night long beaten not so much with storms and waves as with their own thoughts now in the fourth watch which was near to the morning Jesus came unto them and purposely not till then that he might exercise their patience that he might inure them to wait upon Divine Providence in cases of extremity that their Devotions might be more whetted by delay that they might give gladder welcome to their deliverance O God thus thou thinkest fit to doe still We are by turns in our sea the windes bluster the billows swell the night and thy absence heighten our discomfort thy time and ours is set as yet it is but midnight with us can we but hold out patiently till the fourth watch thou wilt surely come and rescue us Oh let us not faint under our sorrows but wear out our three watches of tribulation with undaunted patience and holy resolution O Saviour our extremities are the seasons of thine aide Thou camest at last but yet so as that there was more dread then joy in thy presence Thy coming was both miraculous and frightfull Thou God of Elements passedst through the aire walkedst upon the waters Whether thou meantest to terminate this Miracle in thy body or in the waves which thou trodest upon whether so lightning the one that it should make no impression in the liquid waters or whether so consolidating the other that the pavemented waves yielded a firm causey to thy sacred feet to walk on I neither determine nor inquire thy silence ruleth mine thy power was in either miraculous neither know I in whether to adore it more But withall give me leave to wonder more at thy passage then at thy coming Wherefore camest thou but to comfort them and wherefore then wouldest thou passe by them as if thou hadst intended nothing but their dismay Thine absence could not be so grievous as thy preterition that might seem justly occasioned this could not but seem willingly neglective Our last conflicts have wont ever to be the sorest as when after some dreeping rain it powrs down most vehemently we think the weather is changing to serenity O Saviour we may not alwaies measure thy meaning by thy semblance sometimes what thou most intendest thou shewest least In our Afflictions thou turnest thy back upon us and hidest thy face from us when thou most mindest our distresses So Jonathan shot the arrows beyond David when he meant them to him So Joseph calls for Benjamin into bonds when his heart was bound to him in the strongest affection So the tender mother makes as if she would give away her crying childe whom she hugs so much closer in her bosome If thou passe by us whiles we are strugling with the tempest we know it is not for want of mercy Thou canst not neglect us Oh let not us distrust thee What Object should have been so pleasing to the eyes of the Disciples as their Master and so much the more as he shewed his Divine power in this miraculous walk But lo contrarily they are troubled not with his presence but with this form of presence The supernatural works of God when we look upon them with our own eyes are subject to a dangerous misprision The very Sun-beams to whom we are beholden for our sight if we eye them directly blinde us Miserable men we are ready to suspect Truths to run away from our safety to be afraid of our comforts to mis-know our best friends And why are they thus troubled They had thought they had seen a Spirit That there have been such apparitions of Spirits both good and evil hath ever been a Truth undoubtedly received of Pagans Jews Christians although in the blinde times of Superstition there was much collusion mixed with some verities Crafty men and lying spirits agreed to abuse the credulous world But even where there was not Truth yet there was Horror The very Good Angels were not seen without much fear their sight was construed to bode Death how much more the Evil which in their very nature are harmfull and pernicious We see not a Snake or a Toad without some recoiling of blood sensible reluctation although those creatures run away from us how much more must our hairs stand upright and our senses boggle at the sight of a Spirit whose both nature will is contrary to ours and protessedly bent to our hurt But say it had been what they mistook it for a Spirit why should they fear Had they well considered they had soon found that evil spirits are neverthelesse present when they are not seen and neverthelesse harmfull or malicious when they are present unseen Visibility addes nothing to their spight or mischief And could their eyes have been opened they had with Elisha's servant seen more with them then against them a sure though invisible guard of more powerfull Spirits and themselves under the protection of the God of Spirits so as they might have bidden a bold defiance to all the powers of Darkness But partly their Faith was yet but in the bud and partly the presentation of this dreadfull Object was suddain and without the respite of a recollection and settlement of their thoughts Oh the weakness of our frail Nature who in the want of Faith are affrighted with the visible appearance of those adversaries whom we professe daily to resist and vanquish and with whom we know the Decree of God hath matched us in an everlasting conflict Are not these they that ejected Devils by their command Are not these of them that could say Master the evil spirits are subdued to us Yet now when they see but an imagined spirit they fear What power there is in the eye to betray the heart Whiles Goliah was mingled with the rest of the Philistin hoast Israel camped boldly against them but when that Giant stalks out single between the two armies and fills and amases their eyes with his hideous stature now they run away for fear Behold we are committed with Legions of Evil spirits and complain not Let but one of them give us some visible token of his presence we shreek and tremble and are not our selves Neither is our weakness more conspicuous then thy mercy O God in restraining these spiritual enemies from these dreadfull and ghastly representations of themselves to our eyes Might those infernal Spirits have liberty to appear how and when and to whom they would certainly not many would be left in their wits or in their lives It is thy power and goodness to frail mankinde that they are kept in their chains and reserved in the darkness of their own spiritual being that we may both oppugn and subdue them unseen But oh the deplorable condition of reprobate souls If but the imagined sight of one of these Spirits of darkness can
contenting thy self in this that thou hast a Master to whom the land and water is alike Yet I hear not a check but a Call Come The suit of Ambition is suddainly quashed in the Mother of the Zebedees The suits of Revenge prove no better in the mouth of the two fiery Disciples But a suit of Faith though high and seemingly unfit for us he hath no power to deny How much lesse O Saviour wilt thou stick at those things which lie in the very road of our Christianity Never man said Bid me to come to thee in the way of thy commandements whom thou didst not both bid and inable to come True Faith rests not in great and good desires but acts and executes accordingly Peter doth not wish to goe and yet stand stillâ— but his foot answers his tongue and instantly chops down upon the waters To sit still and wish is for sluggish and cowardly spirits Formal volitions yea velleities of good whiles we will not so mucâ—â—â— step out of the ship of our Nature to walk unto Christ are but the faint motions of vain Hypocrisie It will be long enough ere the gale of good wishes can carry us to our Haven Ease slayeth the foolish O Saviour we have thy command to come to thee out of the ship of our natural corruption Let no Sea affray us let no tempest of Temptation withhold us No way can be but safe when thou art the End Lo Peter is walking upon the waves two hands uphold him the hand of Christ's Power the hand of his own Faith neither of them would doe it alone The hand of Christ's Power laid hold on him the hand of his Faith laid hold on the Power of Christ commanding Had not Christ's hand been powerfull that Faith had been in vain Had not that Faith of his strongly fixed upon Christ that Power had not been effectual to his preservation Whiles we are here in the world we walk upon the waters still the same hands bear us up If he let goe his hold of us we drown if we let goe our hold of him we sink and shreek as Peter did here who when he saw the winde boistrous was afraid and beginning to sink cried saying Lord save me When he wisht to be bidden to walk unto Christ he thought of the waters Bid me to come to thee on the waters he thought not of the windes which raged on those waters or if he thought of a stiffe gale yet that tempestuous and sudden gust was out of his account and exspectation Those evils that we are prepared for have not such power over us as those that surprise us A good water-man sees a dangerous billow coming towards him and cuts it and mounts over it with ease the unheedy is overwhelmed O Saviour let my haste to thee be zealous but not improvident ere I set my foot out of the ship let me foresee the Tempest when I have cast the worst I cannot either miscarry or complain So soon as he began to fear he began to sink whiles he believed the Sea was brass when once he began to distrust those waves were water He cannot sink whiles he trusts the power of his Master he cannot but sink when he misdoubts it Our Faith gives us as courage and boldness so success too our infidelity laies us open to all dangers to all mischiefs It was Peter's improvidence not to foresee it was his weakness to fear it was the effect of his fear to sink it was his Faith that recollects it self and breaks through his infidelity and in sinking could say Lord save me His foot could not be so swift in sinking as his heart in imploring he knew who could uphold him from sinking and being sunk deliver him and therefore he saies Lord save me It is a notable both sign and effect of true Faith in suddain extremities to ejaculate holy desires and with the wings of our first thoughts to flie up instantly to the throne of Grace for present succour Upon deliberation it is possible for a man that hath been carelesse and profane by good means to be drawn to holy dispositions but on the suddain a man will appear as he is whatever is most rife in the heart will come forth at the mouth It is good to observe how our surprisals finde us the rest is but forced this is natural Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh O Saviour no evil can be swifter then my thought my thought shall be upon thee ere I can be seized upon by the speediest mischief at least if I over-run not evils I shall overtake them It was Christ his Lord whom Peter had offended in distrusting it is Christ his Lord to whom he sues for deliverance His weakness doth not discourage him from his refuge O God when we have displeased thee when we have sunk in thy displeasure whither should we flie for aide but to thee whom we have provoked Against thee only is our sin in thee only is our help In vain shall all the powers of Heaven and earth conspire to relieve us if thou withhold from our succour As we offend thy Justice daily by our sins so let us continually relie upon thy Mercy by the strength of our Faith Lord save us The mercy of Christ is at once sought and found Immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him He doth not say Hadst thou trusted me I would have safely preserved thee but since thou wilt needs wrong my power and care with a cowardly diffidence sink and drown but rather as pitying the infirmity of his fearful Disciple he puts out the hand for his relief That hand hath been stretch'd forth for the aide of many a one that hath never ask'd it never any ask'd it to whose succour it hath not been stretched With what speed with what confidence should we flie to that soveraign bounty from which never any suitor was sent away empty Jesus gave Peter his hand but withall he gave him a check O thou of little faith why doubtedst thou As Peter's Faith was not pure but mixed with some distrust so our Saviours help was not clear and absolute but mixed with some reproof A reproof wherein there was both a censure and an expostulation a censure of his Faith an expostulation for his Doubt both of them sore heavy By how much more excellent and usefull a grace Faith is by so much more shamefull is the defect of it and by how much more reason here was of confidence by so much more blame-worthy was the Doubt Now Peter had a double reason of his confidence the command of Christ the power of Christ the one in bidding him to come the other in sustaining him whiles he came To misdoubt him whose will he knew whose power he felt was well worth a reprehension When I saw Peter stepping forth upon the waters I could not but wonder at his great Faith yet behold ere he can have measured many paces
begin a worse this Heavenly flame should but kindle that of Hell Thus unconceivably heavy was the revenge but what was the offence We have learned not to think any indignity light that is offered to the Son of God but we know these spiritual affronts are capable of degrees Had these Samaritans reviled Christ and his train had they violently assaulted him had they followed him with stones in their hands and blasphemies in their mouths it had been a just provocation of so horrible a vengeance Now the wrong was onâ—ly negative they received him not And that not out of any particular quarrell or dislike of his Person but of his Nation onely the men had been welcome had not their Country distasted All the charge that I hear our Saviour give to his Disciples in case of their rejection is If they receive you not shake off the dust of your feet Yet this was amongst their own and when they went on that sacred errand of publishing the Gospel of Peace These were strangers from the commonwealth of Israel This measure was not to Preachers but to Travellers only a mere inhospitality to misliked guests Yet no lesse revenge will serve them then fire from Heaven I dare say for you ye holy sons of Zebedee it was not your spleen but your zeal that was guilty of so bloody a suggestion your indignation could not but be stirred to see the great Prophet and Saviour of the world so unkindly repelled yet all this will not excuse you from a rash Cruelty from an inordinate Rage Even the best heart may easily be miscarried with a well-meant Zeal No affection is either more necessary or better accepted Love to any Object cannot be severed from hatred of the contrary whence it is that all creatures which have the concupiscible part have also the irascible adjoined unto it Anger and displeasure is not so much an enemy as a guardian and champion of Love Whoever therefore is rightly affected to his Saviour cannot but finde much regret at his wrongs O gracious and divine Zeal the kindely warmth and vitall temper of Piety whither hast thou withdrawn thy self from the cold hearts of men Or is this according to the just constitution of the old and decrepit age of the world into which we are fallen How many are there that think there is no wisdome but in a dull indifferency and chuse rather to freeze then burn How quick and apprehensive are men in cases of their own indignities how insensible of their Saviour's But there is nothing so ill as the corruption of the best Rectified zeal is not more commendable and usefull then inordinate and misguided is hatefull and dangerous Fire is a necessary and beneficial element but if it be once misplaced and have caught upon the beams of our houses or stacks of our corn nothing can be more direfull Thus sometimes Zeal turns Murder They that kill you shall think they doe God service sometimes Phrensie sometimes rude Indiscretion Wholesome and blessed is that zeal that is well grounded and well governed grounded upon the word of Truth not upon unstable fancies governed by wisdome and charity Wisdome to avoid rashnesse and excesse Charity to avoid just offence No motion can want a pretence Elias did so why not we He was an holy Prophet the occasion the place abludes not much there wrong was offered to a servant here to his Master there to a man here to a God and man If Elias then did it why not we There is nothing more perillous then to draw all the actions of Holy men into examples For as the best men have their weaknesses so they are not priviledged from letting fall unjustifiable actions Besides that they may have had perhaps peculiar warrants signed from Heaven whether by instict or speciall command which we shall expect in vain There must be much caution used in our imitation of the best patterns whether in respect of the persons or things else we shall make our selves Apes and our acts sinfull absurdities It is a rare thing for our Saviour to finde fault with the errous of zeal even where have appeared sensible weaknesses If Moses in a sacred rage and indignation brake the Tables written with Gods own hand I finde him not checked Here our meek Saviour turns back and frowns upon his furious suitors and takes them up roundly Ye know not of what spirit ye are The faults of uncharitablenesse cannot be swallowed up in zeal If there were any colour to hide the blemishes of this misdisposition it should be this crimson die But he that needs not our Lie will let us know he needs not our Injury and hates to have a good cause supported by the violation of our Charity We have no reason to disclaim our Passions Even the Son of God chides sometimes yea where he loves It offends not that our Affections are moved but that they are inordinate It was a sharp word Ye know not of what spirit ye are Another man would not perhaps have felt it a Disciple doth Tender hearts are galled with that which the carnal minde slighteth The spirit of Elias was that which they meant to assume and imitate they shall now know their mark was mistaken How would they have hated to think that any other but God's Spirit had stirred them up to this passionate motion now they shall know it was wrought by that ill spirit whom they professed to hate It is far from the good Spirit of God to stir up any man to private revenge or thirst of blood Not an Eagle but a Dove was the shape wherein he chose to appear Neither wouldst thou O God be in the whirlwinde or in the fire but in the soft voice O Saviour what do we seek for any precedent but thine whose name we challenge Thou camest to thine own thine own received thee not Didst thou call for fire from Heaven upon them didst thou not rather send down water from thy compassionate eyes and weep for them by whom thou must bleed Better had it been for us never to have had any spirit then any but thine We can be no other then wicked if our mercies be cruelty But is it the name of Elias O ye Zelots which ye pretend for a colour of your impotent desire Ye do not consider the difference betwixt his Spirit and yours His was extraordinary and heroical besides the instinct or secret command of God for this act of his far otherwise is it with you who by a carnal distemper are moved to this furious suggestion Those that would imitate Gods Saints in singular actions must see they goe upon the same grounds Without the same Spirit and the same warrant it is either a mockery or a sin to make them our Copies Elias is no fit pattern for Disciples but their Master The Son of Man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them Then are our actions and intentions warrantable and praise-worthy when they accord with
without them The very heathen Poet could say A Jove principium and which of those verse-mongers ever durst write a ballad without imploring of some Deity which of the heathens durst attempt any great enterprise insalutato numine without invocation and sacrifice Saul himself would play the Priest and offer a burnt-offering to the Lord rather then the Philistins should fight with him unsupplicated as thinking any devotion better then none and thinking it more safe to sacrifice without a Priest then to fight without Prayers Ungirt unblest was the old word as not ready till they were girded so not till they had prayed And how dare we rush into the affaires of God or the State how dare we thrust our selves into actions either perilous or important without ever lifting up our eyes and hearts unto the God of Heaven Except we would say as the devilish malice of Surius slanders that zealous Luther Nec propter Deum haec res coepta est nec propter Deum finietur c. This business was neither begun for God nor shall be ended for him How can God bless us if we implore him not how can we prosper if he bless us not How can we hope ever to be transfigured from a lump of corrupt flesh if we do not ascend and pray As the Samaritane woman said weakly we may seriously The well of mercies is deep if thou hast nothing to draw with never look to taste of the waters of life I fear the worst of men Turks and the worst Turks the Moores shall rise up in Judgement against many Christians with whom it is a just exception against any witness by their Law that he hath not prayed six times in each natural day Before the day break they pray for day when it is day they give God thanks for day at noon they thank God for half the day past after that they pray for a good Sun-set after that they thank God for the day passed and lastly pray for a good night after their day And we Christians suffer so many Suns and Moons to rise and set upon our heads and never lift up our hearts to their Creatour and ours either to ask his blessing or to acknowledg it Of all men under Heaven none had so much need to pray as Courtiers That which was done but once to Christ is alwaies done to them They are set upon the hill and see the glory of the Kingdomes of the earth But I fear it is seen of them as it is with some of the mariners the more need the less devotion Ye have seen the Place see the Attendants He would not have many because he would not have it yet know to all hence was his intermination and sealing up their mouths with a Nemini dicite Tell no man Not none because he would not have it altogether unknown and afterwards would have it known to all Three were a legal number in ore duorum aut trium in the mouth of two or three witnesses He had eternally possessed the glory of his Father without any witnesses in time the Angels were blessed with that sight and after that two bodily yet Heavenly witnesses were allowed Enoch and Elias Now in his humanity he was invested with glory he takes but three witnesses and those earthly and weak Peter James John And why these We may be too curious Peter because the eldest John because the dearest James because next Peter the zealousest Peter because he loved Christ most John because Christ most loved him James because next to both he loved and was loved most I had rather to have no reason but quia complacuit because it so pleased him Why may we not as well ask why he chose these twelve from others as why he chose these three out of the twelve If any Romanists will raise from hence any priviledge to Peter which we could be well content to yield if that would make them ever the honester men they must remember that they must take company with them which these Pompeian spirits cannot abide As good no privilege as any partners And withall they must see him more taxed for his errour in this act then honored by his presence at the act whereas the Beloved Disciple saw and erred not These same three which were witnesses of his Transfiguration in the mount were witnesses of his Agonie in the garden all three and these three alone were present at both but both times sleeping These were arietes gregis the Bell-wethers of the flock as Austin calls them Oh weak devotion of three great Disciples These were Paul's three pillars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 2. 9. Christ takes them up twice once to be witnesses of his greatest Glory once of his greatest extremity they sleep both times The other was in the night more tolerable this by day yea in a light above day Chrysostome would fain excuse it to be an amazedness not a sleep not considering that they slept both at that Glory and after in the Agonie To see that Master praying one would have thought should have fetcht them on their knees especially to see those Heavenly affections look out at his Eyes to see his Soul lifted up in his Hands in that transported fashion to Heaven But now the hill hath wearied their â—ims their body clogs their Soul and they fall asleep Whiles Christ saw Divine visions they dreamed dreams whiles he was in another world ravished with the sight of his Fathers Glory yea of his own they were in another world a world of fancies surprized with the cozen of death sleep Besides so Gracious an example their own necessity Bernard's reason might have moved them to pray rather then their Master and behold in stead of fixing their eyes upon Heaven they shut them in stead of lifting up their hearts their heads fall down upon their shoulders and shortly here was snorting in stead of sighs and prayers This was not Abraham's or Elihu's ecstatical sleep Job 33. not the sleep of the Church a waking sleep but the plain sleep of the eyes and that not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a slumbring sleep which David denies to himself Psal 132. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sound sleep which Salomon forbids Prov. 6. 4. yea rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dead sleep of Adam or Jonas and as Bernard had wont to say when he heard a Monk snort they did carnaliter seu seculariter dormire Prayer is an ordinary receit for sleep How prone are we to it when we should minde Divine things Adam slept in Paradise and lost a Rib but this sleep was of God's giving and this Rib was of God's taking The good husband slept and found tares Eutychus slept and fell While Satan lulls us asleep as he doth always rock the cradle when we sleep in our Devotions he ever takes some good from us or puts some evil in us or indangers us a deadly fall Away with this spiritual Lethargie Bernard had wont to
do they foam and gnash whom he hath drawn to an impatient repining at God's afflictive hand How do they pine away who hourly decay and languish in Grace Oh the lamentable condition of sinfull Souls so much more dangerous by how much lesse felt But all this while what part hath the Moon in this mans misery How comes the name of that goodly Planet in question Certainly these diseases of the brain follow much the course of this queen of moisture That power which she hath in humors is drawn to the advantage of the malicious spirit her predominancy is abused to his despight whether it were for the better opportunity of his vexation or whether for the drawing of envy and discredit upon so noble a creature It is no news with that subtle enemie to fasten his effects upon those secondary causes which he usurps to his own purposes Whatever be the means he is the tormentor Much wisdome needs to disstinguish betwixt the evil spirit abusing the good creature and the good creature abused by the evil spirit He that knew all things asks questions How long hath he been so Not to inform himself That Devil could have done nothing without the knowledge without the leave of the God of Spirits but that by the confession of the Parent he might lay forth the wofull condition of the childe that the thank and glory of the Cure might be so much greater as the complaint was more grievous He answered From a childe O God how I adore the depth of thy wise and just and powerfull dispensation Thou that couldst say I have loved Jacob and Esau have I hated ere the children had done good or evil thoughtest also good ere this Childe could be capable of good or evil to yield him over to the power of that Evil one What need I ask for any other reason then that which is the rule of all Justice thy Will Yet even these weak eyes can see the just grounds of thine actions That childe though an Israelite was conceived and born in that sin which both could and did give Satan an interest in him Besides the actual sins of the Parents deserved this revenge upon that piece of themselves Rather O God let me magnific this Mercy that we and our s escape this Judgment then question thy Justice that some escape not How just might it have been with thee that we who have given way to Satan in our sins should have way and scope given to Satan over us in our punishments It is thy praise that any of us are free it is no quarrell that some suffer Do I wonder to see Satans bodily possession of this yong man from a childe when I see his spiritual possession of every son of Adam from a longer date not from a childe but from the womb yea in it Why should not Satan possesse his own we are all by nature the sons of wrath It is time for us to renounce him in Baptism whose we are till we be regenerate He hath right to us in our first birth our new birth acquits us from him and cuts off all his claim How miserable are they that have nothing but Nature Better had it been to have been unborn then not to be born again And if this poor soul from an infant were thus miserably handled having done none actual evil how just cause have we to fear the like Judgments who by many foul offences have deserved to draw this executioner upon us O my Soul thou hast not room enough for thankfulnesse to that good God who hath not delivered thee up to that malignant Spirit The distressed Father sits not still neglects not means I brought him to thy Disciples Doubtlesse the man came first to seek for Christ himself finding him absent he makes suit to the Disciples To whom should we have recourse in all our spirituall complaints but to the agents and messengers of God The noise of the like cures had surely brought this man with much confidence to crave their succour and now how cold was he at the heart when he found that his hopes were frustrate They could not cast him out No doubt the Disciples tried their best they laid their wonted charge upon this dumb spirit but all in vain They that could come with joy and triumph to their Master and say The Devils are subject to us finde now themselves matched with a stubborn and refractory spirit Their way was hitherto smooth and fair they met with no rub till now And now surely the father of the Demoniack was not more troubled at this event then themselves How could they chuse but fear lest their Master had with himself withdrawn that spiritual power which they had formerly exercised Needs must their heart fail them with their successe The man complained not of their impotence it were fondly injurious to accuse them for that which they could not doe had the want been in their will they had well deserved a querulous language it was no fault to want power Only he complains of the stubbornnesse and laments the invinciblenesse of that evil spirit I should wrong you O ye blessed Followers of Christ if I should say that as Israel when Moses was gone up into the Mount lost their belief with their guide so that ye missing your Master who was now ascended up to his Tabor were to seek for your Faith Rather the Wisdome of God saw reason to check your over-assured forwardnesse and both to pull down your hearts by a just humiliation in the sense of your own weaknesse and to raise up your hearts to new acts of dependance upon that soveraign power from which your limited virtue was derived What was more familiar to the Disciples then ejecting of Devils In this only it is denied them Our good God sometimes findes it requisite to hold us short in those abilities whereof we make least doubt that we may feel whence we had them God will be no lesse glorified in what we cannot doe then in what we can doe If his Graces were alwaies at our command and ever alike they would seem natural and soon run into contempt now we are justly held in an awfull dependance upon that gracious hand which so gives as not to cloy us and so denies as not to discourage us Who could now but expect that our Saviour should have pitied and bemoned the condition of this sad father and miserable son and have let fall some words of comfort upon them In stead whereof I hear him chiding and complaining O faithlesse and perverse generation how long shall I be with you how long shall I suffer you Complaining not of that wofull father and more wofull son it was not his fashion to adde affliction to the distressed to break such bruised reeds but of those Scribes who upon the failing of the successe of this suit had insulted upon the disability of the Followers of Christ and depraved his power although perhaps this impatient father
supplied by a rich joynture it is some allay to the grief that the hand is left full though the bed be empty This woman was not more desolate then needy Yet this poor widow gives And what gives she An offering like her self two mites or in our language two half-farthing-tokens Alas good woman who was poorer then thy self wherefore was that Corban but for the relief of such as thou who should receive if such give Thy mites were something to thee nothing to the Treasury How ill is that gift bestowed which dis-furnisheth thee and addes nothing to the common stock Some thrifty neighbour might perhaps have suggested this probable discouragement Jesus publishes and applauds her bounty He called his Disciples and said unto them Verily I say unto you this woman hath cast in more then they all Whiles the rich put in their offering I see no Disciples called it was enough that Christ noted their gifts alone but when the Widow comes with her two mites now the domesticks of Christ are summoned to assemble and taught to admire this munificence a solemn preface makes way to her praise and her Mites are made more precious then the others Talents She gave more then they all More not only in respect of the Minde of the giver but of the proportion of the gift as hers A mite to her was more then pounds to them Pounds were little to them two mites were all to her They gave out of their abundance she out of her necessity That which they gave left the heap lesse yet an heap still she gives all at once and leaves her self nothing So as she gave not more then any but more then they all God doth not so much regard what is taken out as what is left O Father of mercies thou lookest at once into the bottome of her heart and the bottome of her purse and esteemest her gift according to both As thou seest not as man so thou valuest not as man Man judgeth by the worth of the gift thou judgest by the minde of the giver and the proportion of the remainder It were wide with us if thou shouldst goe by quantities Alas what have we but mites and those of thine own lending It is the comfort of our meannesse that our affections are valued and not our presents neither hast thou said God loves a liberal giver but a chearfull If I had more O God thou shouldst have it had I lesse thou wouldst not despise it who acceptest the gift according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not Yea Lord what have I but two mites a Soul and a Body mere mites yea not so much to thine Infiniteness Oh that I could perfectly offer them up unto thee according to thine own right in them and not according to mine How graciously wouldst thou be sure to accept them how happy shall I be in thine acceptation The ambition of the two Sons of Zebedee HE who had his own time and ours in his hand foreknew and foretold the approach of his dissolution When men are near their end and ready to make their Will then is it seasonable to sue for Legacies Thus did the Mother of the two Zebedees therein well approving both her Wisedome and her Faith Wisedome in the fit choice of her opportunity Faith in taking such an opportunity The suit is half obtained that is seasonably made To have made this motion at the entry into their attendance had been absurd and had justly seemed to challenge a denial It was at the parting of the Angel that Jacob would be blessed The double spirit of Elijah is not sued for till his ascending But oh the admirable Faith of this good woman When she heard the discourse of Christs Sufferings and Death she talks of his Glory when she hears of his Crosse she speaks of his Crown If she had seen Herod come and tender his Scepter unto Christ or the Elders of the Jews come upon their knees with a submissive profer of their allegeance she might have had some reason to entertain the thoughts of a Kingdome but now whiles the sound of betraying suffering dying was in her eare to make account of and suit for a room in his Kingdome it argues a belief able to triumph over all discouragements It was nothing for the Disciples when they saw him after his conquest of death and rising from the grave to ask him Master wilt thou now restore the kingdome unto Israel but for a silly woman to look through his future Death and Passion at his Resurrection and Glory it is no lesse worthy of wonder then praise To hear a man in his best health and vigor to talk of his confidence in God and assurance of Divine favour cannot be much worth but if in extremities we can believe above hope against hope our Faith is so much more noble as our difficulties are greater Never sweeter persume arose from any altar then that which ascended from Job's dung-hill I know that my Redeemer liveth What a strange style is this that is given to this woman It had been as easie to have said the wife of Zebedee or the sister of Mary or of Joseph or as her name was plain Salome but now by an unusuall description she is styled The mother of Zebedee's children Zebedee was an obscure man she as his wife was no better the greatest honour she ever had or could have was to have two such sons as James and John these give a title to both their Parents Honour ascends as well as descends Holy Children dignifie the loyns and womb from whence they proceed no lesse then their Parents traduce honour unto them Salome might be a good wife a good huswife a good woman a good neighbour all these cannot ennoble her so much as the mother of Zebedee's children What a world of pain toyl care cost there is in the birth and education of children Their good proof requites all with advantage Next to happiness in our selves is to be happy in a gracious Issue The suit was the sons but by the mouth of their mother it was their best policy to speak by her lips Even these Fishermen had already learned craftily to fish for promotion Ambition was not so bold in them as to shew her own face the envy of the suit shall thus be avoided which could not but follow upon their personall request If it were granted they had what they would if not it was but the repulse of a womans motion which must needs be so much more pardonable because it was of a mother for her sons It is not discommendable in parents to seek the preferment of their children Why may not Abraham sue for an Ismael So it be by lawfull means in a moderate measure in due order this endeavour cannot be amisse It is the neglect of circumstances that makes these desires sinfull Oh the madnesse of those Parents that care not which way they raise an house that
place to thy love and obedience How should we have known these evils so formidable if thou hadst not in half a thought inclined to deprecate them How could we have avoided so formidable and deadly evils if thou hadst not willingly undergone them We acknowledge thine holy fear we adore thy Divine fortitude Whiles thy Minde was in this fearfull agitation it is no marvell if thy Feet were not fixed Thy place is more changed then thy thoughts One while thou walkest to thy drouzy Attendants and stirrest up their needfull vigilancy then thou returnest to thy passionate Devotions thou fallest again upon thy face If thy body be humbled down to the earth thy Soul is yet lower thy prayers are so much more vehement as thy pangs are And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground O my Saviour what an agonie am I in whiles I think of thine What pain what fear what strife what horrour was in thy Sacred breast How didst thou struggle under the weight of our sins that thou thus sweatest that thou thus bleedest All was peace with thee thou wert one with thy coeternal and coessential Father all the Angels worshipped thee all the powers of Heaven and earth awfully acknowledged thine Infiniteness It was our person that feoffed thee in this misery and torment in that thou sustainedst thy Father's wrath and our curse If eternal death be unsufferable if every sin deserve eternal death what O what was it for thy Soul in this short time of thy bitter Passion to answer those millions of eternal deaths which all the sins of all mankinde had deserved from the just hand of thy Godhead I marvell not if thou bleedest a sweat if thou sweatest blood If the moisture of that Sweat be from the Body the tincture of it is from the Soul As there never was such another Sweat so neither can there be ever such a Suffering It is no wonder if the Sweat were more then natural when the Suffering was more then humane O Saviour so willing was that precious blood of thine to be let forth for us that it was ready to prevent thy Persecutors and issued forth in those pores before thy wounds were opened by thy Tormentors O that my heart could bleed unto thee with true inward compunction for those sins of mine which are guilty of this thine Agonie and have drawn blood of thee both in the Garden and on the Cross Woe is me I had been in Hell if thou hadst not been in thine Agonie I had scorched if thou hadst not sweat Oh let me abhor my own wickednesse and admire and blesse thy Mercy But O ye blessed Spirits which came to comfort my conflicted Saviour how did ye look upon the Son of God when ye saw him labouring for life under these violent temptations with what astonishment did ye behold him bleeding whom ye adored In the Wilderness after his Duell with Satan ye came and ministred unto him and now in the Garden whiles he is in an harder combat ye appear to strengthen him O the wise and marvellous dispensation of the Almighty Whom God will afflict an Angel shall relieve the Son shall suffer the Servant shall comfort him the God of Angels droupeth the Angel of God strengthens him Blessed Jesu if as Man thou wouldst be made a little lower then the Angels how can it disparage thee to be attended and cheared up by an Angel Thine Humiliation would not disdain comfort from meaner hands How free was it for thy Father to convey seasonable consolations to thine humbled Soul by whatsoever means Behold though thy Cup shall not passe yet it shall be sweetned What if thou see not for the time thy Fathers face yet thou shalt feel his hand What could that Spirit have done without the God of Spirits O Father of Mercies thou maiest bring thine into Agonies but thou wilt never leave them there In the midst of the sorrows of my heart thy comforts shall refresh my Soul Whatsoever be the means of my supportation I know and adore the Author Peter and Malchus or Christ Apprehended WHerefore O Saviour didst thou take those three choice Disciples with thee from their fellows but that thou expectedst some comfort from their presence A seasonable word may sometimes fall from the meanest attendant and the very society of those we trust carries in it some kinde of contentment Alas what broken reeds are men Whiles thou art sweating in thine Agonie they are snorting securely Admonitions threats intreaties cannot keep their eyes open Thou tellest them of danger they will needs dream of ease and though twice rouzed as if they had purposed this neglect they carelesly sleep out thy sorrow and their own peril What help hast thou of such Followers In the mount of thy Transfiguration they slept and besides fell on their faces when they should behold thy glory and were not themselves for fear in the garden of thine Agonie they fell upon the ground for drouzinesse when they should compassionate thy sorrow and lost themselves in a stupid sleepinesse Doubtlesse even this disregard made thy prayers so much more fervent The lesse comfort we finde on earth the more we seek above Neither soughtst thou more then thou foundest Lo thou wert heard in that which thou fearedst An Angel supplies men that Spirit was vigilant whiles thy Disciples were heavy The exchange was happy No sooner is this good Angel vanished then that domestick Devil appears Judas comes up and shews himself in the head of those miscreant troups He whose too much honour it had been to be a Follower of so Blessed a Master affects now to be the leader of this wicked rabble The Sheeps fleece is now cast off the Wolf appears in his own likenesse He that would be false to his Master would be true to his Chapmen Even evil spirits keep touch with themselves The bold Traitor dare yet still mix Hypocrisie with Villany his very salutations and kisses murder O Saviour this is no news to thee All those who under a shew of Godlinesse practise impiety do still betray thee thus Thou who hadst said One of you is a Devil didst not now say Avoid Satan but Friend wherefore art thou come As yet Judas it was not too late Had there been any the least spark of Grace yet remaining in that perfidious bosome this word had fetcht thee upon thy knees All this Sunshine cannot thaw an obdurate heart The sign is given Jesus is taken Wretched Traitor why wouldst thou for this purpose be thus attended and ye foolish Priests and Elders why sent you such a band and so armed for this apprehension One messenger had been enough for a voluntary prisoner Had my Saviour been unwilling to be taken all your forces with all the Legions of Hell to help them had been too little since he was willing to be attached two were too many When he did but
or of a Disciple Give me leave O Saviour to borrow thine own words Verily I have not found so great faith no not in all Israel He saw thee hanging miserably by him and yet styles thee Lord he saw thee dying yet talks of thy Kingdome he felt himself dying yet talks of a future remembrance O Faith stronger then death that can look beyond the Crosse at a Crown beyond dissolution at a remembrance of Life and Glory Which of thine eleven were heard to speak so gracious a word to thee in these thy last pangs After thy Resurrection and knowledge of thine impassible condition it was not strange for them to talk of thy Kingdome but in the midst of thy shamefull death for a dying malefactor to speak of thy reigning and to implore thy remembrance of himself in thy Kingdome it is such an improvement of Faith as ravisheth my Soul with admiration O blessed Thief that hast thus happily stolne Heaven How worthy hath thy Saviour made thee to be a partner of his sufferings a pattern of undauntable belief a spectacle of unspeakable mercy This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Before I wondred at thy Faith now I envy at thy Felicity Thou cravedst a remembrance thy Saviour speaks of a present possession This day thou suedst for remembrance as a favour to the absent thy Saviour speaks of thy presence with him thou spakest of a Kingdome thy Saviour of Paradise As no Disciple could be more faithfull so no Saint could be happier O Saviour what a precedent is this of thy free and powerfull grace Where thou wilt give what unworthinesse can barre us from Mercy when thou wilt give what time can prejudice our vocation who can despair of thy goodnesse when he that in the morning was posting towards Hell is in the evening with thee in Paradise Lord he could not have spoken this to thee but by thee and from thee What possibility was there for a thief to think of thy Kingdome without thy Spirit That good Spirit of thine breathed upon this man breathed not upon his fellow their trade was alike their sin was alike their state alike their crosse alike only thy Mercy makes them unlike One is taken the other is refused Blessed be thy Mercy in taking one blessed be thy Justice in leaving the other Who can despair of that Mercy who cannot but tremble at that Justice Now O ye cruell Priests and Elders of the Jews ye have full leisure to feed your eyes with the sight ye so much longed for there is the blood ye purchased and is not your malice yet glutted Is not all this enough without your taunts and scoffs and sports at so exquisite a misery The people the passengers are taught to insult where they should pity Every man hath a scorn ready to cast at a dying innocent A generous nature is more wounded with the tongue then with the hand O Saviour thine eare was more painfully pierced then thy brows or hands or feet It could not but goe deep into thy Soul to hear these bitter and girding reproaches from them thou camest to save But alas what sleabitings were these in comparison of those inward torments which thy Soul felt in the sense and apprehension of thy Fathers wrath for the sins of the whole world which now lay heavy upon thee for satisfaction This oh this was it that pressed thy Soul as it were to the nethermost hell Whiles thine eternall Father lookt lovingly upon thee what didst thou what neededst thou to care for the frowns of men or Devils but when he once turn'd his face from thee or bent his brows upon thee this this was worse then death It is no marvel now if darkness were upon the face of the whole earth when thy Fathers face was eclipsed from thee by the interposition of our sins How should there be light in the world without when the God of the world the Father of lights complains of the want of light within That word of thine O Saviour was enough to fetch the Sun down out of Heaven and to dissolve the whole frame of Nature when thou criedst My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Oh what pangs were these dear Jesu that drew from thee this complaint Thou well knewest nothing could be more cordial to thine enemies then to hear this sad language from thee they could see but the outside of thy sufferings never could they have conceived so deep an anguish of thy Soul if thy own lips had not expressed it Yet as not regarding their triumph thou thus powrest out thy sorrow and when so much is uttered who can conceive what is felt How is it then with thee O Saviour that thou thus astonishest men and Angels with so woful a quiritation Had thy God left thee Thou not long since saidst I and my Father are One Are ye now severed Let this thought be as farre from my Soul as my Soul from Hell No more can thy Blessed Father be separated from thee then from his own Essence His Union with thee is eternal his Vision was intercepted He could not withdraw his Presence he would withdraw the influence of his comfort Thou the Second Adam stoodst for mankind upon this Tree of the Cross as the First Adam stood and fell for mankind under the Tree of Offence Thou barest our sins thy Father saw us in thee and would punish us in thee thee for us how could he but withhold comfort where he intended chastisement Herein therefore he seems to forsake thee for the present in that he would not deliver thee from that bitter Passion which thou wouldst undergoe for us O Saviour hadst thou not been thus forsaken we had perished thy dereliction is our safety and however our narrow Souls are not capable of the conceit of thy pain and horror yet we know there can be no danger in the forsaking whiles thou canst say My God He is so thy God as he cannot be ours all our right is by Adoption thine by Nature thou art one with him in eternal Essence we come in by Grace and merciful election yet whiles thou shalt inable me to say My God I shall hope never to sink under thy desertions But whiles I am transported with the sense of thy Sufferings O Saviour let me not forget to admire those sweet Mercies of thine which thou powredst out upon thy Persecutors They rejoyce in thy death and triumph in thy misery and scoff at thee in both In stead of calling down fire from Heaven upon them thou heapest coals of fire upon their heads Father forgive them for they know not what they doe They blaspheme thee thou prayest for them they scorn thou pitiest they sin aganst thee thou prayest for their forgiveness they profess their malice thou pleadest their ignorance O compassion without example without measure fit for the Son of God the Saviour of men Wicked and foolish Jewes ye would be miserable he will not
subduction thus Save thy self from a froward generation The last and utmost of all dangers is Confusion That charge of God by Moses is but just Numb 16. 26. Depart I pray you from the tents of these men and touch nothing of theirs lest ye perish in all their sins Lo the very station the very touch is mortal Indeed what reason is there to hope or to plead for an immunity if we share in the work why should we not take part of the wages The wages of sin is death If the Stork be taken damage faisant with the Cranes she is enwrapped in the same net and cannot complain to be surprized Qui cum lupis est cum lupis ululet as he said He that is with wolves let him howl with wolves If we be fratres in malo brethren in evil we must look to be involved in the same curse Be not deceived Honourable and beloved here is no exemption of Greatness nay contrarily Eminence of place aggravates both the sin and the judgement When Ezra heard that the hand of the Princes and Rulers had been chief in that great offence then he rent his cloaths and tore his hair Ezra 9. 3. Certainly this case is dangerous and fearful wheresoever it lights Hardly are those sins redressed that are taken up by the Great Easily are those sins diffused that are warranted by great Examples The great Lights of Heaven the most conspicuous Planets if they be eclipsed all the Almanacks of all Nations write of it whereas the small Stars of the Galaxy are not heeded All the Country runs to a Beacon on fire no body regards to see a Shrub flaming in a valley Know then that your sins are so much greater as your selves are and all the comfort that I can give you without your true repentance is That mighty men shall be mightily tormented Of all other men therefore be ye most careful to keep your selves untainted with the common sins and to renew your covenant with God No man cares for a spot upon a plain russet riding-suit but we are curious of a rich robe every mote there is an eye-sore Oh be ye careful to preserve your Honour from all the foul blemishes of corruption as those that know Vertue hath a greater share in Nobility then Blood Imitate in this the great frame of the Creation which still the more it is removed from the dregs of this earth the purer it is Oh save ye your selves from this untoward Generation so shall ye help to save your Nation from the imminent Judgements of our just God so shall ye save your Souls in the day of the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite God be all Honour and Glory ascribed now and for ever Amen THE HYPOCRITE Set forth in A SERMON at the Court February 28. 1629. Being the third Sunday in LENT By Jos. Exon. To my ever most worthily Honour'd Lord the Earl of NORWICH My most Honoured Lord I Might not but tell the world that this Sermon which was mine in the Pulpit is Yours in the Press Your Lordship's will which shall never be other then a command to me fetches it forth into the Light before the fellows Let me be branded with the Title of it if I can think it worthy of the publick view in comparison of many accurate pieces of others which I see content themselves daily to die in the ear Howsoever if it may doe good I shall bless your Lordship for helping to advance my gain Your Noble and sincere true-heartedness to your God your King your Countrey your Friend is so well known that it can be no disparagement to your Lordship to patronize this Hypocrite whose very inscription might cast a blur upon some guilty reputation Goe on still most noble Lord to be a great Example of Vertue and Fidelity to an hollow and untrusty Age. You shall not want either the Acclamations or Prayers of Your Lordships ever devoted in all true Duty and Observance Jos. Exon. THE HYPOCRITE 2 Tim. 3. 5. Having a Form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof IT is an unperfect Clause you see but a perfect Description of an Hypocrite and that an Hypocrite of our own times the last which are so much the worse by how much they partake more of the craft and diseases of age The Prophets were the Seers of the Old Testament the Apostles were the Seers of the New those saw Christ's day and rejoyced these foresaw the reign of Antichrist and complained These very times were as present to S. Paul as to us our Sense doth not see them so clearly as his Revelation I am with you in the Spirit saith he to his absent Colossians rejoycing and beholding your order he doth as good as say to them I am with you in the Spirit lamenting and beholding your misdemeanours By these Divine Opticks he sees our formal Piety real Wickedness both which make up the complete Hypocrisie in my Text Having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof I doubt not but some will be ready to set this sacred Prognostication to another Meridian And indeed we know a Generation that loves themselves too well much more then Peace and Truth so covetous that they would catch all the world in S. Peter's net proud boasters of their own merits perfections supererogations it would be long though easie to follow all We know where too many Treasons are hatched we know who in the height of minde exalts himself above all that is called God we know where pleasure hath the most delicate and debauch'd Clients we know where Devotion is professedly formal and lives impure and surely were we clearly innocent of these crimes I should be the first that would cast this stone at Rome But now that we share with them in these sins there is no reason we should be sejoyned in the Censure Take it among ye therefore ye Hypocrites of all professions for it is your own Ye have a form of Godliness denying the power thereof What is an Hypocrite but a Player the Zani of Religion as ye heard lately A Player acts that he is not so do ye act good and are wicked Here is a semblance of good a form of Godliness here is a real evil a denial of the power of Godliness There is nothing so good as Godliness yea there is nothing good but it nothing makes Godliness to be good or to be Godliness but the power of it for it is not if it work not and it works not if not powerfully Now the denial of good must needs be evil and so much more evil as the good which is denied is more good and therefore the denial of the power of Godliness must needs be as ill as the form or shew of Godliness would seem good and as the power of Godliness is good This is therefore the perfect Hypocrisie of fashionable Christians they have the form they deny the
Church cannot abide either Conventicles of Separation or pluralities of professions or appropriations of Catholicism Catholick Romane is an absurd Donatian Solecism This is to seek Orbem in urbe as that Council said well Happy were it for that Church if it were a sound lim though but the little toe of that mighty and precious body wherein no believing Jew or Indian may not challenge to be jointed Neither difference of time nor distance of place nor rigor of unjust censure nor any unessential errour can barre our interest in this blessed Unity As this flourishing Church of great Britain after all the spightfull calumniations of malicious men is one of the most conspicuous members of the Catholick upon earth so we in her Communion do make up one body with the holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and faithfull Christians of all ages and times We succeed in their Faith we glory in their Succession we triumph in this Glory Whither go ye then ye weak ignorant seduced souls that run to seek this Dove in a forein cote She is here if she have any nest under Heaven Let me never have part in her or in Heaven if any Church in the world have more part in the Universal Why do we wrong our selves with the contradistinction of Protestant and Catholick We do only protest this that we are perfect Catholicks Let the pretensed look to themselves we are sure we are as Catholick as true Faith can make us as much one as the same Catholick Faith can make us and in this undoubted right we claim and injoy the sweet and inseparable communion with all the blessed members of that mystical body both in earth and Heaven and by virtue thereof with the glorious Head of that dear and happy body Jesus Christ the righteous the Husband to this one Wife the Mate to this one Dove to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit three Persons and one God be given all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen THE FASHIONS OF THE WORLD Laid forth in a SERMON at Grayes-Inne on Candlemas day By J. H. Rom. 12. 2. Fashion not your selves like to this World but be ye changed by the renewing of your minde c. THAT which was wont to be upbraided as a scorn to the English may be here conceived the Embleme of a Man whom ye may imagine standing naked before you with a paire of sheers in his hand ready to cut out his own fashion In this deliberation the World offers it self to him with many a gay misshapen fantasticall dresse God offers himself to him with one onely fashion but a new one but a good one The Apostle like a friendly monitor adviseth him where to pitch his choice Fashion not your selves like to this world but be ye changed by the renewing of your minde How much Christianity crosses Nature we need no other proof then my Text. There is nothing that Nature affects so much as the Fashion and no fashion so much as the worlds for our usuall word is Doe as the most And behold that is it which is here forbidden us Fashion not your selves like to this world All fashions are either in Device or Imitation There are vain heads that think it an honour to be the founders of Fashions there are servile fools that seek onely to follow the Fashion once devised In the first rank is the World which is nothing but a mint of Fashions yet which is strange all as old as mis-beseeming We are forbidden to be in the second If the World will be so vain as to mis-shape it self we may not be so foolish as to follow it Let us look a little if you please at the Pattern here damn'd in my Text The world As in extent so in expression the World hath a large scope yea there are more Worlds then one There is a world of creatures and within that there is a world of men and yet within that a world of believers and yet within all these a world of corruptions More plainly there is a good world an evil world an indifferent A good world as of the creatures in regard of their first birth so of men in regard of their second a world of renewed Souls in the first act of their renovation believing Joh. 17. 20. upon their belief reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 19. upon their reconcilement saved Joh. 3. 16. An evil world yea set in evil 1 Joh. 5. 19. a world of corrupt unregeneration that hates Christ and his Joh. 15. 18. that is hated of Christ Jam. 4. 4. An indifferent world that is good or evil as it is used whereof St. Paul Let those that use the world be as not abusing it 1 Cor. 7. 31. This indifferent world is a world of commodities affections improvement of the creature which if we will be wise Christians we must fashion to us framing it to our own bent whether in want or abundance The good world is a world of Saints whose Souls are purified in obeying the truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 22. To this world we may be fashioned The evil world is a world of mere men and their vicious conditions God hath made us the lords of the indifferent world himself is the Lord of the good Satan is lord of the evil Princeps hujus Seculi And that is most properly the world because it contains the most as it is but a chaffe-heap wherein some grains of wheat are scattered To this evil world then we may not fashion our selves in those things which are proper to it as such in natural in civil actions we may we must follow the world singularity in these things is justly odious herein the World is the true master of Ceremonies whom not to follow is no better then a Cynicall irregularity in things positively or morally evil we may not There is no material thing that hath not his form the outward form is the fashion the fashion of outward things is variable with the times so as every external thing cloaths building plate stuffe gesture is now in now out of fashion but the fashions of Morality whether in good or evil are fixed and perpetual The world passeth and the fashion of it but the evil of the fashions of the world is too constant and permanent and must be ever the matter of our detestation Fashion not your selves like to this world But because evils are infinite as wise Solomon hath observed it will be requisite to call them to their heads and to reduce these forbidden fashions to the several parts whereto they belong I cannot dream with Tertullian that the Soul hath a Body but I may well say that the Soul follows the body and as it hath parts ascribed to it according to the outward proportion so are these parts suited with severall fashions Let your patient attention follow me through them all Begin with the Head a part not more eminent in place then in power What is the
these self-humiliations are thankless and faulty It will be long enough ere the Superstitious Servile Hypocritical Brutish Humility shall advance us other then to the scaffold of our execution The True Humility is when a man is modestly lowly in his own eyes and sincerely abased in his heart and carriage before God And this self-humiliation is either in respect of Temporal or Spiritual things Of Temporal when a man thinks any condition good enough for him and therefore doth not unduly intrude himself into the preferments of the world whether in Church or Commonwealth When he thinks meanly of his own parts and actions highly and reverently of others and therefore in giving honour goes before others in taking it behind them Of Spiritual when he is vile in himself especially in respect of his sins and therefore abhors himself in sackcloth and ashes when the Grace that he hath he can acknowledge but not over-rate yea he takes it so low as he may do without wrong to the giver when for all Blessings he can awfully look up to his Creator and Redeemer ascribing all to him referring all to him depending for all upon him so much more magnifying the Mercy of God as he is more sensible of his own Unworthiness This is the true though short character of Humility A plain Grace ye see but lovely From which let it please you to turn your eyes to the Blessing allotted to it which is so expressed in the Original that it may either run The humble in spirit shall enjoy honour as in the former Translation or Honour shall uphold the humble in spirit as in the latter In both Honour is the portion of the humble for the raising of him in the one for the preserving of him in the other Honour from whom From God from men Even the good man of the house will say Friend sit up higher For though with vain men he is most set by that can most set our himself yet with the wiser the more a man dejects himself the more he is honoured It cannot stand with the justice of the truly-vertuous to suffer a man to be a loser by his Humility Much less will God abide it A broken heart O God thou wilt not despise saith the Psalmist and Pullati extolluntur salute The mourners are exalted with safety saith Eliphaz in Job 5. 11. The Lord lifteth up the meek saith David out of good proof and needs must he rise whom God lifteth What should we need any other precedent of this Vertue or other example of this Reward then our Blessed Saviour himself all other are worthy of forgetfulness in comparison Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equall with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant c. and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross O God what an incomprehensible dejection was here that the living God should descend from the highest Glory of Heaven and put upon him the rags of our Humanity and take on him not the man onely but the servant yea the malefactor abasing himself to our infirmities to our indignities to be reviled spat upon scourged wounded crucified yea all these are easie tasks to that which follows to be made a mark of his Fathers wrath in our stead so as in the bitterness of his Soul he is forced to cry out My God My God why hast thou forsaken me What heart of man yea what apprehension of Angels can be capable of fadoming the depth of this Humiliation Answerable to thy dejection O Saviour was thine exaltation as the conduit-water rises at least as high as it falls Now is thy name above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should how of things in Heaven in earth under the earth Neither meanest thou to be our Saviour onely but our pattern too I do not hear thee say Learn of me for I am Almighty I am Omniscient but Learn of me that I am meek If we can go down the steps of thine Humiliation we shall rise up the stairs of thy Glory Why do we not then say I will be yet more vile for the Lord Oh cast down your crowns with the twenty four Elders Apoc. 4. 10. before the Throne of God Humble your seves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up Jam. 4. 10. Indeed there is none of us but hath just cause to be humbled whether we consider the wretchedness of our Nature or of our Estate What is the best flesh and blood but a pack of dust made up together into a stirring heap which in the dissolution molders to dust again When I consider the Heavens and see the Sun the Moon and the Stars as they stand in their order Lord what is man that thou regardest him what a Worm what an Ant what a nothing who besides his homeliness is still falling asunder for even of the greatest and best-composed is that of the Psalm verified Universa vanitas omnis homo Every man is all vanity Alas then what is it we should be proud of Is it Wealth What is the richest metal but red and white earth And that whereof too we may say as the Sons of the Prophets of their hatchet Alas Master it was but lent What speak I of this when our very breath is not our own The best praise of Coin is that it is current it runs from us yea it is volatile as wise Solomon Riches have wings and if they leave not us we must them We brought nothing hither and according to the proclamation of that great King we must carry nothing with us but our winding-sheet yea rather that must carry us Is it our Land How long is that ours That shall be fixed when we are gone and shall change as it hath done many Masters But withall where is it I remember what is reported of Socrates and Alcibiades Aelian tells the story Socrates saw Alcibiades proud of his spacious fields and wide inheritance he calls for a Map looks for Greece and finding it asks Alcibiades where his lands lay When he answered they were not laid forth in the Map Why said Socrates art thou proud of that which is no part of the earth What a poor spot is the dominion of the greatest King but what a nothing is the possession of a Subject A small parcel of a Shire not worthy the name of a Chorographer And had we with Licinius as much as a Kite could fly over yea if all the whole Globe were ours six or seven foot will serve us at the last Is it our Honour Alas that is none of ours for Honour is in him that gives it not in him that receives it And if the Plebeians will be stubborn or uncivil and respectless where is Honour and when we have it what a poor puffe is this how windy how unsatisfying Insomuch
one But since as Erasmus hath too truly observed there is nothing so happy in these humane things wherein there are not some intermixtures of distemper and Saint Paul hath told us there must be Heresies and the Spouse in Solomon's Song compares her blessed Husband to a yong Hart upon the Mountain of Bether that is Division yea rather as under Gensericus and his Vandals the Christian Temples flamed higher then the Towns so for the space of these last hundred years there hath been more combustion in the Church then in the Civil State my next wish is that if differences in Religion cannot be avoided yet that they might be rightly judged of and be but taken as they are Neither can I but mourn and bleed to see how miserably the World is abused on all hands with prejudice in this kind Whiles the adverse part brands us with unjust censures and with loud clamours cries us down for Hereticks on the other side some of ours do so slight the Errours of the Romane Church as if they were not worth our Contention as if our Martyrs had been rash and our quarrels trifling others again do so aggravate them as if we could never be at enough defiance with their Opinions nor at enough distance from their Communion All these three are dangerous extremities the two former whereof shall if my hopes fail me not in this whole Discourse be sufficiently convinced wherein as we shall fully clear our selves from that hateful slander of Heresie or Schisme so we shall leave upon the Church of Rome an unavoidable imputation of many no less foul and enormous then novel Errours to the stopping of the mouths of those Adiaphorists whereof Melanchthon seems to have long agoe prophesied Metuendum est c. It is to be feared saith he that in the last Age of the World this errour will reign amongst men that either Religions are nothing or differ onely in words The third comes now in our way That 〈◊〉 Laertius speaks of Menedemus that in disputing his very ears would sparkâ—â—â— is true of many of ours whose zeal transports them to such a detestation of the Romane Church as if it were all Errour no Church affecting nothing more then an utter opposition to their Doctrine and Ceremony because theirs like as Maldonat professeth to mislike and avoid many fair interpretations not as false but as Calvin's These men have not learned this in S. Augustine's School who tels us that it was the rule of the Fathers as well before Cyprian and Agrippinus as since that whatsoever they found in any Schism or Heresie warrantable and holy that they allowed for its own worth and did not refuse it for the abettors Neither for the chaff do we leave the floor of God neither for the bad Fishes do we break his nets Rather as the Priests of Mercurie had wont to say when they eat their Figs and Honey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. All truth is sweet it is indeed Gods not ours wheresoever it is found the Kings Coin is current though it be found in any impure Chanel For this particular they have not well heeded that charitable profession of zealous Luther Nos fatemur c. We profess saith he that under the Papacy there is much Christian good yea all c. I say moreover that under the Papacy is true Christianity yea the very kernel of Christianity c. No man I trust will fear that fervent spirits too much excess of indulgence under the Papacy may be as much good as it self is evil Neither do we censure that Church for what it hath not but for what it hath Fundamental truth is like that Maronaean wine which if it be mixed with twenty times so much water holds his strength The Sepulchre of Christ was overwhelmed by the Pagans with earth and rubbish and more then so over it they built a Temple to their impure Venus yet still in spight of malice there was the Sepulchre of Christ And it is a ruled case of Papinian that a Sacred place loseth not the Holiness with the demolished wals No more doth the Romane lose the claim of a true visible Church by her manifold and deplorable corruptions her unsoundness is not less apparent then her being If she were once the Spouse of Christ and her Adulteries are known yet the Divorce is not sued out CHAP. II. The Original of the Differences IT is too true that those two main Elements of evil as Timon called them Ambition and Covetousness which Bernard professes were the great Masters of that Clergie in his times having palpably corrupted the Christian World both in doctrine and manners gave just cause of scandal and complaint to godly mindes which though long smothered at last brake forth into publick contestation augmented by the fury of those guilty defendants which loved their reputation more then Peace But yet so as the Complainants ever professed a joynt allowance of those Fundamental Truths which descried themselves by their bright lustre in the worst of that confusion as not willing that God should lose any thing by the wrongs of men or that men should lose any thing by the envy of that evil spirit which had taken the advantage of the publick sleep for his Tares Shortly then according to the prayers and predictions of many Holy Christians God would have his Church reformed How shall it be done Licentious courses as Seneca wisely have sometimes been amended by correction and fear never of themselves As therefore their own President was stirred up in the Council of Trent to cry out of their corruption of Discipline so was the Spirit of Luther somewhat before that stirred up to tax their corruption of Doctrine But as all beginnings are timorous how calmly did he enter and with what submiss Supplications did he sue for redress I come to you saith he most holy Father and humbly prostrate before you beseech you that if it be possible you would be pleased to set your helping hand to the work Intreaties prevail nothing the whiles the importune insolence of Eckius and the undiscreet carriage of Cajetan as Luther there professes forced him to a publick opposition At last as sometimes even Poisons turn Medicinal the furious prosecution of abused Authority increased the Zeal of Truth like as the repercussion of the flame intends it more and as Zeal grew in the Plaintif so did Rage in the Defendant so as now that was verified of Tertullian A primordio c. From the beginning Righteousness suffers violence and no sooner did God begin to be worshipped but Religion was attended with Envie The masters of the Pythonisse are angry to part with a gainful though evil guest Am I become your enemy because I told you the truth saith Saint Paul yet that truth is not more unwelcome then successful For as the breath of
how much we are more apt to take it Let but some spark of Heretical Opinion be let fall upon some unstable proud busie spirit it catcheth instantly and fires the next capable subject they two have easily inflamed a third and now the more Society the more speed and advantage of a publick combustion When we see the Church on a flame it is too late to complain of the flint and steel It is the holy wisdome of Superiors to prevent the dangerous attritions of stubborn and wrangling spirits or to quench their first sparks in the tinder But why should not Grace and Truth be as successfull in dilating it self to the gaining of many hearts Certainly these are in themselves more winning if our corruption had not made us indisposed to good O God out of an holy envy and emulation at the speed of evill I shall labour to enkindle others with these Heavenly flames it shall not be my fault if they spread not XXVII Upon the sight of an humble and patient Begger SEE what need can doe This man who in so lowly a fashion croucheth to that Passenger hath in all likelihood as good a stomack as he to whom he thus abaseth himself and if their conditions were but altered would look as high and speak as big to him whom he now answers with a plausible and dejected reverence It is thus betwixt God and us He sees the way to tame us is to hold us short of these earthly contentments Even the savagest Beasts are made quiet and docible with want of food and rest O God thou onely knowest what I would doe if I had health ease abundance do thou in thy Wisdome and Mercy so proportion thy gifts and restraints as thou knowest best for my Soul If I be not humbled enough let me want and so order all my estate that I may want any thing save thy self XXVIII Upon the sight of a Crow pulling off wool from the back of a Sheep HOw well these Creatures know whom they may be bold with That Crow durst not doe this to a Wolf or a Mastive The known simplicity of this innocent beast gives advantage to this presumption Meeknesse of spirit commonly draws on injuries The cruelty of ill natures usually seeks out those not who deserve worst but who will bear most Patience and mildnesse of Spirit is ill bestowed where it exposes a man to wrong and insultation Sheepish dispositions are best to others worst to themselves I could be willing to take injuries but I will not be guilty of provoking them by lenity For harmlesness let me goe for a Sheep but whosoever will be tearing my fleece let him look to himself XXIX Upon the sight of two Snails THere is much variety even in creatures of the same kinde See there two Snails one hath an house the other wants it yet both are Snailes and it is a question whether case is the better That which hath an house hath more shelter but that which wants it hath more freedome The priviledge of that cover is but a burthen you see if it have but a stone to climb over with what stresse it draws up that beneficiall load and if the passage prove streight findes no entrance whereas the empty Snail makes no difference of way Surely it is alwaies an ease and sometimes an happinesse to have nothing No man is so worthy of Envy as he that can be chearfull in want XXX Upon the hearing of the street-Cries in London WHat a noise do these poor souls make in proclaiming their commodities Each tells what he hath and would have all hearers take notice of it and yet God wot it is but poor stuffe that they set out with so much ostentation I do not hear any of the rich Merchants talk of what bags he hath in his chests or what treasures of rich wares in his store-house every man rather desires to hide his Wealth and when he is urged is ready to dissemble his ability No otherwise is it in the true Spirituall Riches He that is full of Grace and Good works affects not to make shew of it to the world but rests sweetly in the secret testimony of a good Conscience the silent applause of Gods Spirit witnessing with his own whiles contrarily the venditation of our own Worth or Parts or Merits argues a miserable indigence in them all O God if the confessing of thine own Gifts may glorifie thee my modesty shall not be guilty of a niggardly unthankfulnesse but for ought that concerns my self I cannot be too secret Let me so hide my self that I may not wrong thee and wisely distinguish betwixt thy Praise and my own XXXI Upon the Flies gathering to a galled Horse HOw these Flies swarm to the galled part of this poor Beast and there sit feeding upon that worst piece of his flesh not medling with the other sound parts of his skin Even thus do malicious tongues of Detractors if a man have any infirmity in his person or actions that they will be sure to gather unto and dwell upon whereas his commendable parts and well-deservings are passed by without mention without regard It is an envious self-love and base cruelty that causeth this ill disposition in men In the mean time this only they have gained it must needs be a filthy Creature that feeds upon nothing but Corruption XXXII Upon the sight of a dark Lantern THere is light indeed but so shut up as if it were not and when the side is most open there is light enough to give direction to him that bears it none to others He can discern another man by that light which is cast before him but another man cannot discern him Right such is reserved Knowledge no man is the better for it but the owner There is no outward difference betwixt concealed skill and ignorance and when such hidden knowledge will look forth it casts so sparing a light as may only argue it to have an unprofitable being to have ability without will to good power to censure none to benefit The suppression or ingrossing of those helps which God would have us to impart is but a Thieves Lantern in a true mans hand O God as all our light is from thee the Father of lights so make me no niggard of that poor Rush-candle thou hast lighted in my Soul make me more happy in giving light to others then in receiving it into my self XXXIII Upon the hearing of a Swallow in the Chimney HEre is musick such as it is but how long will it hold When but a cold morning comes in my guest is gone without either warning or thanks This pleasant season hath the least need of chearfull notes the dead of Winter shall want and wish them in vain Thus doth an ungratefull Parasite no man is more ready to applaud and injoy our Prosperity but when with the times our condition begins to alter he is a stranger at least Give me that Bird which will sing in Winter
Greatnesse without a self-Humiliation We shall have made an ill use of our advancement if by how much higher we are we do not appear lesse if our light be seen it matters not for our hiding XL. Upon the sight of Boyes playing EVery age hath some peculiar contentment Thus we did when we were of these years Methinks I still remember the old fervor of my yong pastimes With what eagernesse and passion do they pursue these Childish sports Now that there is a handfull of cherry-stones at the stake how near is that boys heart to his mouth for fear of his play-fellows next cast and how exalted with desire and hope of his own speed Those great Unthrifts who hazard whole Mannors upon the Dice cannot expect their chance with more earnestness or entertain it with more joy or grief We cannot but now smile to think of these poor and foolish pleasures of our Childhood there is no lesse disdain that the Regenerate man conceives of the dearest delights of his Naturall condition He was once jolly and jocund in the fruition of the world Feasts and Revels and Games and dalliance were his life and no man could be happy without these and scarce any man but himself but when once Grace hath made him both good and wise how scornfully doth he look back at these fond felicities of his Carnal estate now he findes more manly more Divine contentments and wonders he could be so transported with his former vanity Pleasures are much according as they are esteemed One mans delight is another mans pain only Spiritual and Heavenly things can settle and satiate the heart with a full and firm contentation O God thou art not capable either of bettering or of change let me injoy thee and I shall pity the miserable ficklenesse of those that want thee and shall be sure to be constantly happy XLI Upon the sight of a Spider and her Web. HOw justly do we admire the curious work of this Creature What a thred doth it spin forth what a web doth it weave Yet it is full of deadly poison There may be much venome where is much Art Just like to this is a learned and witty Heretick fine conceits and elegant expressions fall from him but his Opinions and secretly-couched Doctrines are dangerous and mortall Were not that man strangely foolish who because he likes the artificiall drawing out of that web would therefore desire to handle or eat the Spider that made it Such should be our madnesse if our wonder at the skill of a false Teacher should cast us into love with his Person or â—amiliarity with his Writings There can be no safety in our Judgment or Affection without a wise distinction in the want whereof we must needs wrong God or our selves God if we acknowledge not what excellent parts he gives to any Creature our selves if upon the allowance of those excellencies we swallow their most dangerous enormities XLII Upon the sight of a Naturall O God why am not I thus What hath this man done that thou hast denied Wit to him or what have I done that thou shouldest give a competency of it to me What difference is there betwixt us but thy Bounty which hath bestowed upon me what I could not merit and hath withheld from him what he could not challenge All is O God in thy good pleasure whether to give or deny Neither is it otherwise in matter of Grace The unregenerate man is a Spiritual fool no man is truly wise but the Renewed How is it that whiles I see another man besotted with the vanity and corruption of his Nature I have attained to know God and the great Mystery of Salvation to abhor those sins which are pleasing to a wicked appetite Who hath discerned me Nothing but thy free mercy O my God Why else was I a man not a brute beast why right shaped not a Monster why perfectly limmed not a cripple why well-sensed not a fool why well-affected not gracelesse why a vessell of honour not of wrath If ought be not ill in me O Lord it is thine Oh let thine be the Praise and mine the Thankfulnesse XLIII Upon the Loadstone and the Jett AS there is a civil commerce amongst men for the preservation of humane society so there is a naturall commerce which God hath set amongst the other Creatures for the maintenance of their common Being There is scarce any thing therefore in Nature which hath not a power of attracting some other The Fire draws Vapors to it the Sun drawes the Fire Plants draw moysture the Moon draws the Sea all Purgative things draw their proper Humors A Naturall instinct draws all Sensitive creatures to affect their own kinde and even in those things which are of imperfect mixtion we see this experimented So as the senselesse Stones and Metals are not void of this active virtue the Loadstone draws Iron and the Jett rather then nothing draws up straws and dust With what a force do both these Stones work upon their severall subjects Is there any thing more heavy and unapt for motion then Iron or Steel yet these do so run to their beloved Loadstone as if they had the sense of a desire and delight and do so cling to the point of it as if they had forgotten their weight for this adherence Is there any thing more apt for dispersion then small straws and dust yet these gather to the Jett and so sensibly leap up to it as if they had a kinde of ambition to be so preferred Methinks I see in these two a mere Embleme of the hearts of men and their Spirituall attractives The Grace of Gods Spirit like the true Loadstone or Adamant draws up the iron heart of man to it and holds it in a constant fixednesse of holy purposes and good actions The World like the Jett draws up the sensuall hearts of light and vain men and holds them fast in the pleasures of sin I am thine Iron O Lord be thou my Loadstone Draw thou me and I shall run after thee Knit my heart unto thee that I may fear thy Name XLIV Upon hearing of Musick by night How sweetly doth this Musick sound in this dead season In the day-time it would not it could not so much affect the eare All harmonious sounds are advanced by a silent darknesse Thus it is with the glad tidings of Salvation The Gospel never sounds so sweet as in the Night of Perâ—ecution or of our owne private Affliction It is ever the same the difference is in our disposition to receive it O God whose praise it is to give Songs in the night make my Prosperity conscionable and my Crosses chearfull XLV Upon the fanning of Corn. SEE how in the fanning of this Wheat the fullest and greatest grains lye ever the lowest and the lightest take up the highest place It is no otherwise in Morality those which are most humble are fullest of Grace and oft-times those have most conspicuity which have
substance he made them richer in grace At whose board did he ever sit and left not his host a gainer The poor Bridegroom entertains him and hath his water-pots fill'd with Wine Simon the Pharisee entertains him and hath his table honoured with the publick remission of a penitent sinner with the heavenly doctrine of remission Zachaeus entertains him Salvation came that day to his house with the Author of it That presence made the Publican a Son of Abraham Matthew is recompensed for his feast with an Apostleship Martha and Mary entertain him and besides Divine instruction receive their Brother from the dead O Saviour whether thou feast us or we feast thee in both of them is Blessedness Where a Publican is the Feast-master it is no marvel if the guests be Publicans and sinners Whether they came alone out of the hope of that mercy which they saw their fellow had found or whether Matthew invited them to be partners of that plentiful grace whereof he had tasted I inquire not Publicans and sinners will flock together the one hateful for their trade the other for their vicious life Common contempt hath wrought them to an unanimity and sends them to seek mutual comfort in that society which all others held loathsome and contagious Moderate correction humbleth and shameth the offender whereas a cruel severity makes men desperate and drives them to those courses whereby they are more dangerously infected How many have gone into the prison faulty and returned flagitious If Publicans were not sinners they were no whit beholden to their neighbours What a table-full was here The Son of God beset with Publicans and sinners O happy Publicans and sinners that had found out their Saviour O merciful Saviour that disdained not Publicans and sinners What sinner can fear to kneel before thee when he sees Publicans and sinners sit with thee Who can fear to be despised of thy meekness and mercy which didst not abhorre to converse with the outcasts of men Thou didst not despise the Thief confessing upon the Cross nor the sinner weeping upon thy feet nor the Canaanite crying to thee in the way nor the blushing Adulteress nor the odious Publican nor the forswearing Disciple nor the persecutor of Disciples nor thine own executioners how can we be unwelcome to thee if we come with tears in our eyes faith in our hearts restitution in our hands O Saviour our breasts are too oft shut upon thee thy bosome is ever open to us We are as great sinners as the consorts of these Publicans why should we despair of a room at thy Table The squint-eyed Pharisees look a-cross at all the actions of Christ where they should have admired his Mercy they cavil at his Holinesle They said to his Disciples Why eateth your Master with Publicans and sinners They durst not say thus to the Master whose answer they knew would soon have convinced them This winde they hoped might shake the weak faith of the Disciples They speak where they may be most likely to hurt All the crue of Satanical instruments have learnt this craft of their old Tutor in Paradise We cannot reverence that man whom we think unholy Christ had lost the hearts of his followers if they had entertained the least suspicion of his impurity which the murmure of these envious Pharisees would fain insinuate He cannot be worthy to be followed that is unclean He cannot but be unclean that eateth with Publicans and sinners Proud and foolish Pharisees ye fast whiles Christ eateth ye fast in your houses whiles Christ eateth in other mens ye fast with your own whiles Christ feasts with sinners but if ye fast in pride while Christ eats in humility if ye fast at home for merit or popularity while Christ feasts with sinners for compassion for edification for conversion your fast is unclean his feast is holy ye shall have your portion with hypocrites when those Publicans and sinners shall be glorious When these censurers thought the Disciples had offended they speak not to them but to their Master Why doe thy Disciples that which is not lawfull now when they thought Christ offended they speak not to him but to the Disciples Thus like true make-bates they goe about to make a breach in the family of Christ by setting off the one from the other The quick eye of our Saviour hath soon espied the pack of their fraud and therefore he takes the words out of the mouthes of his Disciples into his own They had spoke of Christ to the Disciples Christ answers for the Disciples concerning himself The whole need not the Physician but the sick According to the two qualities of pride scorn and over-weening these insolent Pharisees over-rated their own holinesse contemned the noted unholinesse of others As if themselves were not tainted with secret sins as if others could not be cleansed by repentance The searcher of hearts meets with their arrogance and findes those justiciaries sinfull those sinners just The spiritual Physician findes the sicknesse of those sinners wholsome the health of those Pharisees desperate that wholsome because it calls for the help of the Physician this desperate because it needs not Every soul is sick those most that feel it not Those that feel it complain those that complain have cure those that feel it not shall finde themselves dying ere they can wish to recover O blessed Physician by Whose stripes we are healed by whose death we live happy are they that are under thy hands sick as of sin so of sorrow for sin It is as unpossible they should die as it is unpossible for thee to want either skill or power or mercy Sin hath made us sick unto death make thou us but as sick of our sins we are as safe as thou art gracious Christ among the Gergesens or Legion and the Gadarene Herd I Do not any where finde so furious a Demoniack as amongst the Gergesens Satan is most tyrannous where he is obeyed most Christ no sooner sailed over the lake then he was met with two possessed Gadarenes The extreme rage of the one hath drowned the mention of the other Yet in the midst of all that cruelty of the evil spirit there was sometimes a remission if not an intermission of vexation If oft-times Satan caught him then sometimes in the same violence he caught him not It was no thank to that malignant one who as he was indefatigable in his executions so unmeasurable in his malice but to the mercifull over-ruling of God who in a gracious respect to the weakness of his poor creatures limits the spightfull attempts of that immortal enemy and takes off this Mastive whiles we may take breath He who in his justice gives way to some onsets of Satan in his mercy restrains them so regarding our deservings that withall he regards our strength If way should be given to that malicious spirit we could not subsist no violent thing can endure and if Satan might have his will we should
no moment be free He can be no more weary of doing evil to us then God is of doing good Are we therefore preserved from the malignity of these powers of darkness Blessed be our strong Helper that hath not given us over to be a prey unto their teeth Or if some scope have been given to that envious one to afflict us hath it been with favourable limitations it is thine only mercy O God that hath chained and muzled up this band-dog so as that he may scratch us with his paws but cannot pierce us with his fangs Far far is this from our deserts who had too well merited a just abdication from thy favour and protection and an interminable seisure by Satan both in soul and body Neither do I here see more matter of thanks to our God for our immunity from the external injuries of Satan then occasion of serious inquiry into his power over us for the spiritual I see some that think themselves safe from this ghostly tyranny because they sometimes finde themselves in good moods free from the suggestions of gross sins much more from the commission Vain men that feed themselves with so false and frivolous comforts will they not see Satan through the just permission of God the same to the Soul in mental possessions that he is to the body in corporal The worst Demoniack hath his lightsome respites not ever tortured not ever furious betwixt whiles he might look soberly talk sensibly move regularly It is a wofull comfort that we sin not alwaies There is no Master so barbarous as to require of his Slave a perpetual unintermitted toyle yet though he sometimes eat sleep rest he is a vassal still If that Wicked one have drawn us to a customary perpetration of evil and have wrought us to a frequent iteration of the same sin this is gage enough for our servitude matter enough for his tyranny and insultation He that would be our Tormenter alwaies cares onely to be sometimes our Tempter The possessed is bound as with the invisible fetters of Satan so with the material chains of the inhabitants What can bodily forces prevail against a spirit Yet they endeavour this restraint of the man whether out of charity or justice Charity that he might not hurt himself Justice that he might not hurt others None do so much befriend the Demoniack as those that binde him Neither may the spiritually possessed be otherwise handled for though this act of the enemy be plausible and to appearance pleasant yet there is more danger in this dear and smiling tyranny Two sorts of chains are fit for outragious sinners good laws unpartiall executions That they may not hurt that they may not be hurt to eternal death These iron chains are no sooner fast then broken There was more then an humane power in this disruption It is not hard to conceive the utmost of Nature in this kinde of actions Sampson doth not break the cords and ropes like a threed of towe but God by Sampson The man doth not break these chains but the Spirit How strong is the arm of these evil angels how far transcending the ordinary course of Nature They are not called Powers for nothing What flesh blood could but tremble at the palpable inequality of this match if herein the mercifull protection of our God did not the rather magnifie it self that so much strength met with so much malice hath not prevailed against us In spight of both we are in safe hands He that so easily brake the iron fetters can never break the adamantine chain of our Faith In vain do the chafing billows of Hell beat upon that Rock whereon we are built And though these brittle chains of earthly metall be easily broken by him yet the sure-tempered chain of God's eternal Decree he can never break that Almighty Arbiter of Heaven and Earth and Hell hath chained him up in the bottomlesse pit and hath so restrained his malice that but for our good we cannot be tempted we cannot be foiled but for a glorious victory Alas it is no otherwise with the spiritually possessed The chains of restraint are commonly broken by the fury of wickedness What are the respects of civility fear of God fear of men wholsome laws carefull executions to the desperately licentious but as cobwebs to an hornet Let these wilde Demoniacks know that God hath provided chains for them that will hold even everlasting chains under darkness These are such as must hold the Devils themselves their masters unto the judgment of the great Day how much more those impotent vassals Oh that men would suffer themselves to be bound to their good behaviour by the sweet and easie recognizances of their duty to their God and the care of their own Souls that so they might rather be bound up in the bundle of life It was not for rest that these chains were torn off but for more motion This prisoner runs away from his friends he cannot run away from his Jaylor He is now carried into the Wildernesse not by mere external force but by internal impulsion carried by the same power that unbound him for the opportunity of his Tyranny for the horrour of the place for the affamishment of his body for the avoidance of all means of resistance Solitary Desarts are the delights of Satan It is an unwise zeal that moves us to doe that to our selves in an opinion of merit and holinesse which the Devil wishes to doe to us for a punishment and conveniency of tentation The evil Spirit is for solitarinesse God is for society He dwels in the assembly of his Saints yea there he hath a delight to dwell Why should not we account it our happinesse that we may have leave to dwell where the Author of all Happinesse loves to dwell There cannot be any misery incident unto us whereof our gracious Redeemer is not both conscious and sensible Without any intreaty therefore of the miserable Demoniack or suit of any friend the God of spirits takes pity of his distresse and from no motion but his own commands the evil Spirit to come out of the man Oh admirable precedent of mercy preventing our requests exceeding our thoughts forcing favours upon our impotence doing that for us which we should and yet cannot desire If men upon our instant solicitations would give us their best aide it were a just praise of their bounty but it well became thee O God of mercy to goe without force to give without suit And do we think thy goodness is impaired by thy glory If thou wert thus commiserative upon earth art thou lesse in Heaven How dost thou now take notice of all our complaints of all our infirmities How doth thine infinite pity take order to redress them What evil can befall us which thou knowest not feelest not relievest not How safe are we that have such a Guardian such a Mediator in Heaven Not long before had our Saviour commanded the windes and