the true water of Iordan or Poole of Siloam Wash and be cleane Bring your hearts to this Bath yee corrupted Sonnes of men hath God giuen you so precious a Lauer and will you be vncleane still Pray intreat beseech send vp to heauen the cryes of your tongues and hearts for this bloud call vpon the preseruer of men not onely to distill some drops but to wash bathe soake your harts in this bloud Behold the Sonne of God himselfe that shedde this bloud doth intreat God for you the whole Quire of all the Angels Saints in heauen are not wanting Let the meditation of Christs mediation for you giue you encouragement and comfort Happy Sonne of man for whom the Sonne of God supplicates and intercedes What can He request without speed He doth not onely pray for you but euen to you yee sonnes of men Beholde him with the eyes of a Christian faith and hope standing on the battlements of heauen hauing that for his pauement which is our seeling offring his bloud to wash your hearts which he willingly lost for your hearts denying it to none but Wolues Beares and Goates and such reprobate excommunicate apostate spirites that treade it vnder their prophane and luxurious feet esteeming that an vnholy thing wherewith they might haue beene sanctified Come we then come we though sinners if beleeuers and haue our hearts washed 3. All is not done with this vessell when washed Shall wee empty it clense it and so leaue it Did not Satan reenter to the house swept and garnished with seuen worse spirites whiles it was empty Behold then when it is emptied and washed and sweetned it must bee filled againe a vacuity is not allowable It must bee replenished with somewhat eyther euill or good If God bee not present Satan will not be absent When it is euacuated of the works of the flesh it must bee supplyed with the fruits of the Spirit Humility must take vp the roome which pride had in the heart Charitablenesse must steppe into the seate of auarice Loue extrude malice mildnesse anger patience murmuring Sobriety must drie vp the floudes of drunkenesse Continence coole the inflammations of Lust. Peace must quite the head from dissentions Honesty pull off Hypocrisies vizour and Religion put prophanenesse to an irreuocable exile Faith is the hand that must take these Iewels out of Gods treasury to furnish the heart the pipe to conuey the waters of life into these vessels This infusion of goodnesse must follow the effusion of euill God must be let in when Satan is locked out If our former courses and customes like turn'd-away abiects proffer vs their old seruice let vs not know them not own them not giue them intertainement not allow their acquaintance But in a holy pride as now made Courtiers to the King of heauen let vs disdayne the company of our olde play-fellowes opera tenebrarum the works of darknesse Let vs now onely frequent the dore of mercy and the fountaine of grace and let faith a good conscience be neuer out of our society Here 's the supply 4. We haue now done if when our hearts bee thus emptied cleansed supplyed we so keepe them Non minor est virtus c. Nay let me say non minor est gratia For it was Gods preuenting grace that clensed our hearts and it is his subsequent grace that so preserues them That we may truely sing By grace and grace alone All these good works are done Yet haue we not herein a Patent of security and negligence sealed vs as if God would saue vs whiles wee onely stood and look'd on But he that hath this hope purgeth himselfe And wee are charged to keepe and possesse our vessell in sanctification and honour and to liue vnspotted of the world Return not to your former abominations lest your latter end bee worse then your beginning Hath God done so much to make your hearts good and will you frustrate his labours annihilate his fauours vilipend his mercies and reele backe to your former turpitudes God forbid it and the serious deprecation of your owne soules forbid it Yea oh Lord since thou hast dealt so graciously with these frayle vessels of flesh emptied them washed them season'd them supplyed them seale them vp with thy Spirit to the day of redemption and preserue them that the euill one touch them not Grant this Oh Father almighty for thy Christ and our Iesus his sake Amen Mysticall Bedlam OR THE WORLD OF MAD-MEN The second Sermon ECCLESIASTES CAP. 9. VER 3. The heart of the Sonnes of men is full of euill and madnesse is in their heart while they liue and after that they goe to the dead MANS sentence is yet but begunne and you will say a Comma doth not make a perfect Sense Wee are now got to his Colon hauing left his heart full of euill wee come to his madnesse No maruell if when the stomacke is full of strōg wines the head grow drunken The heart being so filled with that pernicious liquor euill becomes drunke with it Sobriety a morall daughter nay Reason the mother is lost he runs mad starke mad This Frenzy possessing not some out-roome but the principall seate the Heart Neyther is it a short madnesse that wee may say of it as the Poet of anger furor breuis est but of long continuance euen during life whiles they liue Other drunkennesse is yet after sleepe sober but this is a perpetuall lunacie Considerable then is 1. the matter 2. the men 3. the time Quid in quo Quamdiu What in whom and how long Madnesse is the matter 2. the place the heart 3. The time whiles they liue The Colon or medium of mans Sentence spends it selfe in the description of A Tenant Madnesse Tenement The Heart Tenure Whiles they liue 1. Madnesse 2. holds the heart 3. during life It is pitty 1. so bad a Tenant 2. hath so long time 3. in so good a house 1. The Tenant Madnesse There is a double madnesse corporall and spirituall The obiect of the former is Reason of the latter Religion That obsesseth the braine this the Heart That expects the helpe of the naturall Physitian this of the Mysticall The difference is this spirituall madnesse may insanire cum ratione cum Religione numquam The morally franticke may be mad with reason neuer with Religion Physitians haue put a difference betwixt Phrenzy and Madnesse imagining madnesse to be onely an infection and perturbation of the formost Cell of the head whereby Imagination is hurt but the Phrenzy to extend further euen to offend the reason and memory and is neuer without a feuer Galen cals it an inflammation of the braines or filmes thereof mixed with a sharpe feuer My purpose needes me not to be curious of this distinction To vnderstand the force of madnesse we must conceiue in the brayne three ventricles as houses assign'd by Physitians for three dwellers Imagination Reason and Memorie
from our Parents Psal. 51. Behold sayth Dauid I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did my mother conceiue me The originall word is warme me as if the first heate deriued to him were not without contamination I was borne a sinner sayth a Saint It is saide Gen. 5. that Adam begate a sonne in his owne likenesse after his image and called his name Seth. This image and likenesse cannot bee vnderstood of the Soule for this Adam begate not Nor properly and meerely of the Bodies shape so was Cain as like to Adam as Seth of whom it is spoken Nor did that image consist in the piety and purity of Seth Adam could not propagate that to his sonne which hee had not in himselfe vertues are not giuen by birth nor doth grace follow generation but regeneration Neyther is Seth said to bee begotten in the Image of Adam because mankind was continued and preserued in him But it intends that corruption which descended to Adams posterity by naturall propagation The Pelagian error was Peccatum primae transgressionis in alios homines non propagatione sed imitatione transisse that the guilt of the first sinne was deriued to other men not by propagation but by imitation but then could not Adam be said to begette a sonne in his owne image neyther could Death haue seazed on Infants who had not then sinned But all haue sinned Rom. 5. As by one man sin entred into the world and death by sinne so death passed vpon all men for that all haue sinned This title then the sonnes of men puts vs in mind of our originall contamination whereby we stand guilty before God lyable to present and eternall iudgements Dura tremenda refers You will say with the Disciples Ioh. 6. This is an hard saying who can heare it beare it nay be ready to conclude with a sadder inference as the same Disciples after a particular instance Math. 19. Who then can be saued I answere We deriue from the first Adam sinne and death but from the second Adam Grace and Life As we are the sonnes of men our state is wretched as made the sonnes of God blessed It is a peremptory speech 1. Cor. 15. 50. Flesh and bloud cannot inherite the kingdome of God neyther doth corruption inherite incorruption It is a reuiuing comfort in the 6. Chapter of the same Epistle Such wee were but wee are washed but we are sanctified but we are iustified in the name of the Lord Iesus by the spirit of our God The conclusion or inference hereon is most happy Now therefore there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus who walke not after the flesh but after the spirite Wee may liue in the flesh but if after the flesh wee shall die Si voluntati voluptati carnis satissacere conemur If our endeuours bee wholy armed and aymed to content the Flesh but if we bee led by the spirit cum dilectione cum delectatione with loue with delight wee are of the sonnes of men made the sonnes of God It is our happinesse not to bee borne but to bee new borne The first birth kills the second giues life It is not the seed of man in the wombe of our mother but the seed of Grace in the wombe of the Church that makes vs blessed Generation lost vs it must bee regeneration that recouers vs. As the tree falls so it lies and lightly it falls to that side which is most loden with fruites and branches If wee abound most with the fruits of obedience wee shall fall to the right hand life if with wicked actions affections to the left side death It is not then worth the ascription of glory to what wee deriue naturally from man Dauid accepts it as a great dignity to be sonne in law to a King To descend from Potentates and to fetch our pedegree from princes is held mirabile et memorabile decus a dignity not to bee slighted or forgotten But to bee a Monarch Imperium Oceano famam quiterminat astris Whose fame and Empire no lesse bound controules Then the remotest sea and both the Poles Oh this is Celsissima gloria mundi the supremest honour of this world yet Princes are but men saith the Psalmist Put not your trust in Princes nor in the sonne of man in whom there is no helpe His breath goeth forth hee returneth to his earth They may bee high by their calling Princes yet they are but low by their nature sons of men And meerely to bee the sonne of man is to bee corrupt and polluted They are sinfull the sonnes of men weake there is no helpe in them corruptible their breath goeth forth dying they returne to their earth It is registred as an euident praise of Moses his faith that for the rebuke of Christ he refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter There is no ambitiō good in the sons of men but to be adopted the sons of God vnder which degree there is no happines aboue which no cause of aspiring 2. Our Corruptiblenesse is heere also demonstrated A mortall Father cannot beget an immortall sonne If they that brought vs into the world haue gone out of the world themselues we may infallibly conclude our owne following He that may say I haue a man to my Father a woman to my mother in his life may in death with Iob say to Corruption Thou art my Father to the worm Thou art my mother and my sister It hath beene excepted against the iustice of God that the sinne of one man is deuolued to his posteritie and that for the fathers eating sowre grapes the childrens teeth are set on edge according to the Iewish Prouerbe Ier. 31. 29. As if we might say to euery sonne of man as Horace sung to his friend Delicta maiorum immeritus lues Thou being innocent doest suffer for thy nocent superiours This a Philosopher obiected against the gods strangely conferring it as if for the fathers disease physicke should be ministred to the sonne I answere Adam is considered as the roote of mankind that corrupt masse whence can bee deduced no pure thing Can we bee borne Morians without their blacke skins It is possible to haue an Amorite to our father and an Hittite to our mother without participation of their corrupted natures If a man slippe a syense from a hawth orne hee will not looke to gather from it grapes There is not then a sonne of man in the cluster of mankind but eodem modo nodo vinctus victus it is lyable to that common and equall law of death Vnde superbis homo natus satus ortus ab hum◠Proud man forgets Earth was his natiue wombe Whence he was borne and dead the Earth's his Tombe Morieris non quia aegrot as sed quia viuis sayth the Philosopher Thou shalt die oh sonne of man not because thou art sicke but because
implacable insatiable turbulent distraction of their owne spirites not without accession of all those solicitations which the infernall spirits can suggest all for gaine Oft-times they faell into the fire and oft into the water Their Epilepticke courses now driue them into the fire of malice dissention now plunge and drown them in the floudes of oppression till the inundation of their cruelty haue spoyled the whole Country and themselues at last suffocated in their owne deluge They may bee brought to the Disciples the Ministers of Christ but they cannot cure them Alas this frenzy is harde to heale Though they bee neyther faithlesse nor peruerse negatiuely though they striue by fasting and prayer affirmatiuely auoide they euill impediments or vse they good meanes this kind of deuill will not out Couetousnesse will not be expelled Onely Lord haue mercy on them conuince them conuert them for they are mad-men 6. The Vsurer Would laugh to heare himselfe brought into the number of mad-men Hee sits close and is quiet at home whiles madnesse rambles abroad Hee holds others in bonds is in no bonds himselfe hee stands so much vpon law you cannot iudge him lawlesse He would not come neere a Tauerne dore where madnes rores hee keepes a succinct course and walkes in an euen pace to Hell Slaunder him not for one of Bedlam yet hee is madde rauing roaring madde and that by the verdict of God in the penne of Solomon Eccl. 7. Surely oppression maketh a man mad It is indeed a thriuing occupation Vsurie is like that Persian Tree that at the same time buddes blossomes and beares fruit The moneyes of interest are euermore som ripe for the Trunke others drawing to maturity the rest in the flowre approaching all in the bud of hope But he is mad for his sinne at once buds blossomes and brings forth the fruit of vengeance Euery bond hee takes of others enters him into a new obligation to Satan as he hopes his debtors wil keepe day with him the Deuil expects no lesse of himselfe Euery forfet hee takes scores vp a new debt to Lucifer and euery morgag'd land he seazeth on enlargeth his dominions in hell But why doe you call this benefit made of our money vsurie and madnesse It is but vsance and husbandring of our stocke So by a new name giuen to your old sins you will thinke to escape the censure of mad-men Thus I haue read of the people of Bengala who are so much afraide of Tygers that they dare not call them Tygers but giue them other gentle names As some Physitians that will not call their impatient Patients disease madnesse but melancholy But let the Bengalans call them what they will they are Tygers still and giue vsury what name you please for what Vsurer is not asham'd to bee called so it is meere madnesse He is madde that cals euill good and sowre sweet but hee is no slaunderer that calles Vsurie madnesse It is no lesse when the eternall God in his word shall condemne Vsurie to hell stil to prosecute it with hope of heauen But many learned men are patrons and patterns for it They are as madde as you and learne you by their madnesse to become sober Aliquid auxilij est aliena insania frui There is some benefite vsually to bee made by another mans exemplary madnesse Were it more questionable yet he is no lesse madde that will ventrously doe what hee is not sure is safe to bee done then he that hauing a whole field to walke in will yet goe on a deepe riuers dangerous banke He is in more danger to topple in and therefore a mad man It were good for the common-wealth if all these mad-men the Vsurers were as safe and fast bound in a locall as they are in spirituall Bedlam 7. The Ambitious man Must also bee thrust into this Bedlam though his port be high and he thinks himselfe inciuisible from the Court. Whiles hee beholds the starres with Thales he forgets the ditch and yawning so wide for preferment contempt is easily throwne into his mouth I haue read of Menecrates a Physitian that would needs bee counted a god and tooke no other fee of his Patients but their vow to worshippe him Diony sius Syracusa hearing of this inuited him to a banket and to honour him according to his desire set before him nothing but a Censor of Frankincense with the smoake whereof hee was feasted till he starued whiles others fed on good meate This shewed the great Naturalist a naturall foole a mad-man Sapor a Persian King wrote himselfe Rex Regum Frater Solis Lunae particeps Syderum c. King of Kings brother to the Sunne and Moone and partner with the Starres Yet alas hee was a man therefore a mad-man in the arrogation of this Stile Let the Romane Canonists turne their Pope into a new nature which is neyther God nor man they are madde that giue it him and hee is madde to accept it Let Edom exalt her selfe as the Eagle and set her nest among the starres yet sayth God the pride of thine heart bath deceyued thee Let the Prince of Tyrus imagine himselfe to sitte in the seate of God Wilt thou yet say before him that killeth thee I am God but thou shalt bee a man and no God before him that slayeth thee Let Senacherib thinke to drie vp riuers with the soale of his foote and Antiochus to sayle on the mountaines Quid sibi fert tanto dignum promissor hiatu What euents haue answered their grand intendments but madnes Eusebius reports of Simon Magus that hee would be honour'd as a God and had an Altar with this inscription to Simon the holy God which it seem'd his harlot Helena did instigate But when by the power of the Deuill he presumed to flie vp to heauen at the commaund of Saint Peter the vncleane spirite brake his necke Hee climbed high but hee came downe with a vengeance His miserable end shewed him an ambitious man a mad-man Soare not too high yee sonnes of Anak striue not to attaine heauen by multiplying of earth like Babel-builders Feriunt summos fulgura montes Though you aspire in glory you shall expire in ignominie If you were not franticke you would sistere gradum keepe your stations know when you are well and giue a fiat to His will that hath placed you in a site happiest for you You are madde to out-runne him 8. The Drunkard Wil sure wrangle with me that his name comes so late in this Catalogue that deserued to bee in the front or vantguard of mad-men Demens Ebriet as is an attribute giuen by an heathen It is a voluntary madnesse and makes a man so like a beast that whereas a beast hath no reason hee hath the vse of no reason and the power or faculty of reason suspended giues way to madnes Nay he is in some respect worse then a beast for few beasts will drinke more then they
what thou complainest against Caro non est mala si malo careat But Christ was more fauourable to the Adulteresse and sent her away with impunity yet not in allowance to the vice of the accused but to conuince the wickednes of the accusers Putauit lapidandam non à lapidandis Noluit talem noluit à talibus He might thinke her worthy to die but not by them that were worthy to die Hee would not haue her polluted nor yet to perish by so polluted hands I conclude the madness of these men with the Poet. Ludit amor sensus oculos perstringit aufert Libertatem animi mira nos fascinat arte Credo aliquis Daemon subiens praecordia flammam Conâ—itat raptam tollit de cardine mentem Amor est amaror error Lust blinds the senses and with witching arte Brings into fatall seruitude the heart A subtill Fiend the cause and plague of badnes Poysons the bloud and filles the braine with madnesse If they will not see this yet as what frantick man perceiues his owne madnes they shall feele it vnder the hands of an ill Surgion on earth or a worse in hell 4. The Hypocrite Playes the mad-man vnder couert and concealement He is proud vnder the shadow of humility But hee cannot say with Dauid Psal. 131. Mine heart is not haughty nor mine eyes lofty Cor oculi fons rivuli The tongue that brags of humility deserues little credite Frons vultus oculi saepè mentiuntur lingua verò saepissimè The forehead eyes and countenance do often deceiue the tongue most commonly The worst Inne hath sometimes the biggest Signe and the baser mettall the lowdest sound Turpiora sunt vitia cum virtutum specie celantur Vices are then more vgly when they haue put on the robes of vertues Hypocrita solus vult omnibus videri melior solus est omnibus peior The Hypocrite would seeme better then any man and is indeed the worst of all men His respect is not to the reward of vertue but regard of men as if vertue were not sibimet pulcherrima merces a sufficient compensation to it selfe Being the Sonne of a hand-maide and a bramble indeed as Iotham spake of Abimelech hee bragges as much of his shadow as eyther Vine Oliue Figge-tree or the tallest Cedar in Lebanon Hee mournes for his sinnes as a hasty Heyre at the death of his Father Haeredis luctus sub Larua risus est Hee is at once a close mourner and a close reioycer When the wicked man counterfeits himselfe good he is then worst of all Dissembled sanctitie is double iniquity quia iniquit as est simulatio because it is both sinne and simulation Hypocrites are like Iugglers that shew trickes of Legerdumaine seeming to doe the feates they doe not by casting a mist before mens eyes Howsoeuer it was once sayde Stultitiam simulare loco prudentia summa est I thinke it not so intolerable as the speech of Protagoras in Plat. somewhat agreeing to Machiauel Hee is a madde-man that cannot counterseit Iustice and dissemble integrity I am here rather occasioned to say Hee is a mad-man that doth counterfeit good things because hee doth but counterfeit And in that great Epiphany and manifestation of the secrets of all hearts he shal be found a mad-man Meane time he is a franticke too for hee incurres the worlds displeasure in making a shew of good lines Gods double displeasure in making but a shew Hee that would purchase the hatred both of God and man is he lesse then mad 5. The Auarous Is a principall in this Bedlam Soft if it were granted that the Couetous were madde the world it selfe would runne of a garget for who is not bitten with this madde dogge It is the great Canon of the Deuil charged with chaine-shot that hath killed charity in almost all hearts A poyson of three sad ingredients whereof who hath not to speake sparingly tasted Insatiability rapacity tenacity In concupiscendo acquirendo retinendo Couetousnesse hath three properties saith Ambrose Concupiscere aliena cupita inuadere celare quod ruadit To couet not her own to get what she couets and to keepe what shee gets And yet Oh Auarous why art thou so mad after money Non habentes inficit habentes non refecit It hurts them that it possesseth and helpes not them that possesse it The brood that couetousnesse hatcheth is an ofspring intricated with cares terrestriall infected with desires carnall blinded with passions subiected to affections infirmed by tentations informed by lusts infolded in errors in ambiguities difficult obnoxious to suspicions Is hee not madde that will foster in his bosome a damme with such a damned littour Tria retia habet Diabolus in mundum extensa vt quicquid euaserit de retibus gulae incidat in retia inanis gloriae quicquid euaserit his callidius capiatur retibus auaritiae De his nullus perfectè euasit The Deuils three nettes are Ryot Vaine-glory Couetousnesse The second catcheth them that scape the first and the last misseth not to apprehend the deliuer'd from both the former He that flies from the Lion the Beare meets him and the escaping both these the Serpent Couetousnesse bites not vnlike the prediction of God to Elias concerning Hazael Iehu and Elisha whom hee was commanded to annoint It shall come to passe that he that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Iehu slay and him that escapeth from the sword of Iehu shall Elisha slay If this bee madnesse who are well in their wittes And yet madnesse it is and infatuate frenzy What is it els to forsake Paradise for Sodome heauen for earth God for Mammon when as by most irreconcileable enmity they cannot bee embraced at once Howsoeuer you will say those things you couet are good creatures and call them goods yet nemo bonus bona bonum aestimat male vtenti no good man will account those goods good for him that can not commaund his affections to their sober vsage Hee that shall preferre profite to vertue his body to his soule his purse to his body his eye to his purse time to eternity let him goe for a mad-man The Epicure feedes on fowle a hundred times that it may feede him but once the Couetous feedes his purse a thousand times and starues himselfe He cares not to destroy his soule to please his lust yet for the saluation of his soule will not holde his purse short of the smallest gaine To conclude the God whom hee serues cannot helpe him the God whom hee should serue will not helpe him because hee hath forsaken him There is no other helpe or hope to reclayme the auarous but Lord haue mercy on them for they are lunatike and sore vexed as that Father spake of his possessed sonne Math. 17. Lunatike they are perpetually and not at some fittes by the Moone as that word seemes to intimate Sore vexed with the