laid to which if they shall adde but one scruple it shall be to mee sufficient ioy contentment recompence From your Hal-sted Decemb. 4. Your Worships humbly deuouted IOS HALL THE FIRST CENTVRIE OF MEDITATIONS AND VOWES DIVINE and MORALL 1 IN Meditation those which begin heauenly thoughts and prosecute them not are like those which kindle a fire vnder greene wood and leaue it so soone as it but begins to flame leesing the hope of a good beginning for want of seconding it with a sutable proceeding when I set my selfe to meditate I will not giue ouer till I come to an issue It hath beene said by some that the beginning is as much as the middest yea more than all but I say the ending is more than the beginning 2 There is nothing but Man that respecteth greatnesse Not God not death not Iudgement Not God he is no accepter of persons Not nature we see the sonnes of Princes borne as naked as the poorest and the poore childe as faire well-fauoured strong witty as the heire of Nobles Not disease death iudgement they sicken alike die alike fare alike after death There is nothing besides naturall men of whom goodnesse is not respected I will honour greatnesse in others but for my selfe I will esteeme a dram of goodnesse worth a whole world of greatnesse 3 As there is a foolish wisdome so there is a wise ignorance in not prying into Gods Arke not enquiring into things not reuealed I would faine know all that I need and all that I may I leaue Gods secrets to himselfe It is happy for me that God makes me of his Court though not of his Counsell 4 As there is no vacuity in nature no more is there spiritually Euery vessell is full if not of liquor yet of aire so is the heart of man though by nature it is empty of grace yet it is full of hypocrisie and iniquitie Now as it is filled with grace so it is empty of his euill qualities as in a vessell so much water as goes in so much ayre goes out but mans heart is a narrow-mouthed vessell and receiues grace but by drops and therefore takes a long time to empty and fill Now as there be differences in degrees and one heart is neerer to fulnesse than another so the best vessell is not quite full while it is in the body because there are still remainders of corruption I will neither be content with that measure of grace I haue nor impatient of Gods delay but euery day I will endeuour to haue one drop added to the rest so my last day shall fill vp my vessell to the brim 5 Satan would seeme to bee mannerly and reasonable making as if hee would bee content with one halfe of the heart whereas God challengeth all or none as indeed hee hath most reason to claime all that made all But this is nothing but a craftie fetch of Satan for he knowes that if hee haue any part God will haue none so the whole falleth to his share alone My heart when it is both whole and at the best is but a strait and vnworthy lodging for God if it were bigger and better I would reserue it all for him Satan may looke in at my doores by a tentation but hee shall not haue so much as one chamber-roome set a part for him to soiourne in 6 I see that in naturall motions the neerer any thing comes to his end the swifter it moueth I haue seene great riuers which at their first rising out of some hills side might bee couered with a bushell which after many miles fill a very broad channell and drawing neere to the Sea doe euen make a little Sea in their owne bankes So the winde at the first rising as a little vapour from the crannies of the earth and passing forward about the earth the further it goes the more blustering and violent it waxeth A Christians motion after hee is regenerate is made naturall to God-ward and therefore the neerer he comes to heauen the more zealous he is A good man must not bee like Ezekias Sunne that went backward nor like Ioshuahs Sunne that stood still but Dauids Sunne that like a Bridegroome comes out of his chamber and as a Champion reioiceth to runne his race onely herein is the difference that when hee comes to his high noone hee declineth not How euer therefore the minde in her naturall faculties followes the temperature of the body yet in these supernaturall things she quite crosses it For with the coldest complexion of age is ioined in those that are truly religious the feruentest zeale and affection to good things which is therefore the more reuerenced and better acknowledged because it cannot bee ascribed to the hot spirits of youth The Deuill himselfe deuised that old slander of early holinesse A young Saint an old Deuill Sometimes young Deuils haue proued old Saints neuer the contrarie but true Saints in youth doe alwaies proue Angels in their age I will striue to bee euer good but if I should not finde my selfe best at last I should feare I was neuer good at all 7 Consent harteneth sinne which a little dislike would haue daunted at first As wee say There would bee no theeues if no receiuers so would there not bee so many open mouthes to detract and slander if there were not so many open eares to entertaine them If I cannot stop another mans mouth from speaking ill I will either open my mouth to reproue it or else I will stop mine cares from hearing it and let him see in my face that he hath no roome in my heart 8 I haue oft wondered how fishes can retaine their fresh taste and yet liue in salt waters since I see that euery other thing participates of the nature of the place wherein it abides So the waters passing thorow the chanels of the earth varie their sauour with the veines of soile thorow which they slide So brute creatures transported from one region to another alter their former qualitie and degenerate by little and little The like danger I haue seene in the manners of men conuersing with euill companions in corrupt places For besides that it blemisheth our reputation and makes vs thought ill though wee bee good it breeds in vs an insensible declination to ill and workes in vs if not an approbation yet a lesse dislike of those sinnes to which our eares and eies are so continually inured I may haue a bad acquaintance I will neuer haue a wicked companion 9 Expectation in a weake minde makes an euill greater and a good lesse but in a resolued minde it digests an euill before it come and makes a future good long before present I will expect the worst because it may come the best because I know it will come 10 Some promise what they cannot doe as Satan to Christ some what they could but meane not to doe as the sons of Iacob to the Sechemites some what they meant for the
willing their torment they may be made most sensible of paine and by the obedible submission of their created nature wrought vpon immediately by their appointed tortures Besides the very horrour which ariseth from the place whereto they are euerlastingly confined For if the incorporeall spirits of liuing men may bee held in a loathed or painfull body and conceiue sorrow to bee so imprisoned Why may wee not as easily yeeld that the euill spirits of Angels or men may be held in those direfull flames and much more abhorre therein to continue for euer Tremble rather O my soule at the thought of this wofull condition of the euill Angels who for one onely act of Apostasie from God are thus perpetually tormented whereas we sinfull wretches multiply many and presumptuous offences against the Maiestie of our God And withall admire and magnifie that infinite mercy to the miserable generation of man which after this holy seueritie of iustice to the reuolted Angels so graciously forbeares our hainous iniquities and both suffers vs to be free for the time from these hellish torments and giues vs opportunitie of a perfect freedome from them for euer Praise the Lord O my soule and all that is within me praise his holy Name who for giueth all thy sinnes and healeth all thine infirmities Who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and compassions There is no time wherein the euill spirits are not tormented there is a time wherein they expect to be tormented yet more Art thou come to torment vs before our time They knew that the last Assises are the prefixed terme of their full execution which they also vnderstood to be not yet come For though they knew not when the Day of Iudgement should be a point concealed from the glorious Angels of heauen yet they knew when it should not be and therefore they say Before the time Euen the very euill spirits confesse and fearfully attend a set day of vniuersall Sessions They beleeue lesse then Deuils that either doubt of or deny that day of finall retribution Oh the wonderfull mercy of our God that both to wicked men and spirits respites the vtmost of their torment He might vpon the first instant of the fall of Angels haue inflicted on them the highest extremitie of his vengeance Hee might vpon the first sinnes of our youth yea of our nature haue swept vs away and giuen vs our portion in that fierie lake he stayes a time for both Though with this difference of mercy to vs men that here not onely is a delay but may be an vtter preuention of punishment which to the euill spirits is altogether impossible They doe suffer they must suffer and though they haue now deserued to suffer all they must yet they must once suffer more then they doe Yet so doth this euill spirit expostulate that he sues I beseech thee torment mee not The world is well changed since Satans first onset vpon Christ Then hee could say If thou be the Sonne of God now Iesus the Sonne of the most high God then All these will I giue thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship me now I beseech thee torment mee not The same power when hee lists can change the note of the Tempter to vs How happy are wee that haue such a Redeemer as can command the Deuils to their chaines Oh consider this ye lawlesse sinners that haue said Let vs breake his bonds and cast his cords from vs How euer the Almighty suffers you for a iudgement to haue free scope to euill and ye can now impotently resist the reuealed will of your Creator yet the time shall come when yee shall see the very masters whom ye haue serued the powers of darknesse vnable to auoid the reuenges of God How much lesse shall man striue with his Maker man whose breath is in his nostrils whose house is clay whose foundation is the dust Nature teaches euery creature to wish a freedome from paine the foulest spirits cannot but loue themselues and this loue must needs produce a deprecation of euill Yet what a thing is this to heare the deuill at his prayers I beseech thee torment me not Deuotion is not guilty of this but feare There is no grace in the suit of Deuils but nature no respect of glory to their Creator but their owne ease They cannot pray against sinne but against torment for sinne What newes is it now to heare the profanest mouth in extremitie imploring the Sacred Name of God when the Deuils doe so The worst of all creatures hates punishment and can say Lead me not into paine onely the good heart can say Leade mee not into temptation If wee can as heartily pray against sinne for the auoiding of displeasure as against punishment when wee haue displeased there is true grace in the soule Indeed if wee could feruently pray against sinne we should not need to pray against punishment which is no other then the inseparable shadow of that bodie but if we haue not laboured against our sins in vaine doe wee pray against punishment God must be iust and the wages of sinne is death It pleased our holy Sauiour not onely to let fall words of command vpon this spirit but to interchange some speeches with him All Christs actions are not for example It was the errour of our Grand-mother to hold chat with Satan That God who knowes the craft of that old Serpent and our weake simplicitie hath charged vs not to enquire of an euill spirit surely if the Disciples returning to Iacobs Well wondred to see Christ talke with a woman well may wee wonder to see him talking with an vncleane Spirit Let it be no presumption O Sauiour to aske vpon what grounds thou didst this wherein wee may not follow thee Wee know that sinne was excepted in thy conformitie of thy selfe to vs wee know there was no guile found in thy mouth no possibilitie of taint in thy nature in thine actions Neither is it hard to conceiue how the same thing may bee done by thee without sinne which wee cannot but sinne in doing There is a vast difference in the intention in the Agent For on the one side thou didst not aske the name of the spirit as one that knew not and would learne by inquiring but that by the confession of that mischiefe which thou pleasedst to suffer the grace of the cure might bee the more conspicuous the more glorious so on the other God and man might doe that safely which meere man cannot doe without danger thou mightest touch the leprosie and not be legally vncleane because thou touchedst it to heale it didst not touch it with possibility of infection So mightest thou who by reason of the perfection of thy diuine nature wert vncapable of any staine by the interlocution with Satan safely conferre with him whom corrupt man pre-disposed to the danger of such a parle may not meddle with without sinne because not without perill It is
pay vs what we haue lent and giue vs because we haue giuen That is his bounty this his iustice O happy is that man that may be a creditor to his Maker Heauen and earth shall be empty before he shall want a royall payment If we dare not trust God whiles we liue how dare we trust men when we are dead men that are still deceitfull light vpon the balance light of truth heauy of selfe-loue How many Executors haue proued the executioners of honest Wils how many haue our eyes seene that after most carefull choice of trusty guardians haue had their children and goods so disposed as if the Parents soule could returne to see it I doubt whether it could bee happy How rare is that man that prefers not himselfe to his dead friend profit to truth that will take no vantage of the impossibility of account What-euer therefore men either shew or promise happy is that man that may be his own auditor superuisor executor As you loue God and your selfe be not afraid of being happy too soone I am not worthy to giue so bold aduice let the wise man of Syrach speak for me Doe good before thou die and according to thine ability stretch out thine hands and giue Defraud not thy selfe of thy good day and let not the portion of thy good desires ouer-passe thee Shalt thou not leaue thy trauels to another and thy labours to them that will diuide thine heritage Or let a wiser then he Salomon Say not to morrow I will giue if now thou haue it for thou knowest not what a day will bring forth It hath beene an old rule of liberality He giues twice that giues quickly whereas slow benefits argue vncheerfulnesse and lose their worth Who lingers his receits is condemned as vnthrifty he that knoweth both saith It is better to giue then to receiue If we be of the same spirit why are wee hasty in the worse and slacke in the better Suffer not your selfe therefore good Sir for Gods sake for the Gospels sake for the Churches sake for your soules sake to be stirred vp by these poore lines to a resolute and speedy performing of your worthy intentions and take this as a louing inuitation sent from heauen by an vnworthy messenger You cannot deliberate long of fit obiects for your beneficence except it be more for multitude then want the streets yea the world is full How doth Lazarus lye at euery doore how many sonnes of the Prophets in their meanly-prouided Colledges may say not Mors in olla but fames how many Churches may iustly plead that which our Sauiour bad his Disciples The Lord hath need And if this infinite store hath made your choice doubtfull how easie were it to shew you wherein you might oblige the whole Church of God to you and make your memoriall both eternall and blessed or if you had rather the whole Common-wealth But now I finde my selfe too bold and too busie in thus looking to particularities God shall direct you and if you follow him shall crowne you howsoeuer if good bee done and that betimes he hath what he desired and your soule shall haue more then you can desire The successe of my weak yet hearty counsell shall make me as rich as God hath made you with all your abundance That God blesse it to you and make both our recknings cheerfull in the day of our common Audit To E.B. Dedicated to Sir George Goring EP. VIII Remedies against dulnesse and heartlesnesse in our callings and incouragements to cheerfulnesse in labour IT falls out not seldome if wee may measure all by one that the minde ouer-layed with worke growes dull and heauy and now doth nothing because it hath done too much ouer-lauish expence of spirits hath left it heartlesse as the best vessell with much motion and vent becomes flat and dreggish And not fewer of more weake temper discourage themselues with the difficulty of what they must doe some Trauellers haue more shrunke at the Mappe then at the way Betwixt both how many sit still with their hands folded and wish they knew how to be rid of time If this euill be not cured we become miserable losers both of good houres and of good parts In these mentall diseases Empiricks are the best Physicians I prescribe you nothing but out of feeling If you will auoid the first moderate your owne vehemency suffer not your selfe to doe all you could doe Rise euer from your deske not without an appetite The best horse will tyre soonest if the reines lye euer loose in his necke Restraints in these cases are encouragements obtaine therefore of your selfe to defer and take new dayes How much better is it to refesh your selfe with many competent meales then to buy one dayes gluttony with the fast of many And if it bee hard to call off the mind in the midst of a faire and likely flight know that all our ease and safety begins at the command of our selues he can neuer taske himselfe well that cannot fauour himselfe Perswade your heart that perfection comes by leisure and no excellent thing is done at once the rising and setting of many Sunnes which you thinke slackens your worke in truth ripens it That gourd which came vp in a night withered in a day whereas those plants which abide age rise slowly Indeed where the heart is vnwilling prorogation hinders what I list not to doe this day I loathe the next but where is no want of desire delay doth but sharpen the stomack That which we doe vnwillingly leaue we long to vndertake and the more our affection is the greater our intention and the better our performance To take occasion by the fore-top is no small point of wisedome but to make time which is wyld and fugitiue tame and pliable to our purposes is the greatest improuement of a man All times serue him which hath the rule of himselfe If the second thinke seriously of the condition of your being It is that we were made for the Bird to flye and Man to labour What doe we here if we repine at our worke We had not beene but that we might be still busie if not in this taske we dislike yet in some other of no lesse toyle there is no act that hath not his labour which varies in measure according to the will of the doer This which you complaine of hath beene vndertaken by others not with facility onely but with pleasure and what you chuse for ease hath beene abhorred of others as tedious All difficulty is not so much in the worke as in the Agent To set the mind on the racke of a long meditation you say is a torment to follow the swift foot of your hound all day long hath no wearinesse what would you say of him that finds better game in his study then you in the field and would account your disport his punishment Such there are though you doubt and wonder Neuer thinke to detract from
them on earth to whom perhaps the fiends light firebrands below As Caesarius the Monke brings in Petrus Cantor and Roger the Norman disputing the case of Becket so wee haue many titular Saints few reall many which are written in red Letters in the Calendar of the world Holy to the Lord whom God neuer canonizes in heauen and shall once entertaine with a Nescio I know you not These men yet haue Holinesse written vpon them and are like as Lucian compares his Grecians to a faire gilt bossed booke looke within there is the Tragedie of Thyestes or perhaps Arrius his Thalia the name of a Muse the matter heresie or Conradus Vorstius his late monster that hath De Dev in the front and Atheisme and Blasphemie in the text As S. Paul saies to his Corinths Would God yee could suffer me a little Yee cannot want praisers yee may want reprouers and yet you haue not so much need of Panegyricks as of reprehensions These by how much more rare they are by so much more necessarie Nec-censura deest quae increpet nec medicina quae saâ—et saith Cyprian A false praise grieues and a true praise shames saith Anastasius As Kings are by God himselfe called Gods for there are Dij nuncupatiuè and not essentialiter as Gregorie distinguishes because of their resemblance of God so their Courts should be like to heauen and their attendants like Saints and Angels Decet domum tuam sanctitudo agrees to both Thus you should be But alas I see some care to be gallant others care to be great few care to be holy Yea I know not what Deuill hath possessed the hearts of many great ones of our time in both sexes with this conceit that they cannot be gallant enough vnlesse they be godlesse Holinesse is for Diuines or men of meane spirits for graue subdued mortified retired mindes not for them that stand vpon the tearmes of honour height of place and spirit noble humours hence are our oaths duels profanesses Alas that wee should be so besotted as to thinke that our shame which is our onely glory It is reason that makes vs men but it is holinesse that makes vs Christians And woe to vs that wee are men if wee be not Christians Thinke as basely of it as yee will you shall one day finde that one dram of holinesse is worth a whole world of greatnesse yea that there is no greatnesse but in holinesse For Gods sake therefore doe not send holinesse to Colledges or Hospitals for her lodging but entertaine her willingly into the Court as a most happy guest Thinke it a shame and danger to goe in fine clothes while you haue foule hearts and know that in vaine shall you bee honour'd of men if you bee not holy to the Lord. Your goodly outsides may admit you into the Courts on earth but you shall neuer looke within the gates of the Court of heauen without holinesse Without holinesse no man shall see God O God without holinesse we shall neuer see thee and without thee we shall neuer see holinesse write thou vpon these flinty hearts of ours Holinesse to thy selfe Make vs holy to thee that wee may bee glorious with thee and all thy Saints and Angels All this onely for thy Christs sake and to whom c. THE IMPRESE OF GOD. THE SECOND PART By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. THE IMPRESE OF GOD. THE SECOND PART ZACH. vlt. 20. IT is well-neere a yeere agoe since in this Gracious Presence we entred vpon this mysticall yet pertinent Text. You then heard what This day is what these Bells or Bridles what this inscription what these Pots and Bowles And out of That day you heard the proficiencie of the Church out of Holinesse written on the Bells the sanctification of the Church You shall now heare out of these bells or bridles of warlike horses thus inscribed the change of the holy warre and peace of the Church out of these pots aduanced to the likenesse of the bowles of the Altar the degrees of the Churches perfection and acceptation All which craue your gratious and honourable attention That conceit which yet is graced with the name of some Fathers that takes this in the literall sense of Constantines bridle wee passe as more worthy of smiles than confutation Questionlesse the sense is spirituall and it is a sure rule that as the historicall sense is fetcht from signification of words so the spirituall from the signification of those things which are signified by the words For this inscription then it shall not be vpon the bells for their owne sakes but for the horses not as bells but as bells of the horses And on the horses not for their owne sakes but as they serue for their Riders The horse a military creature there is no other mention of him in Scripture no other vse of him of old when the eyes of Elishaes seruant were open he saw the hill full of horses 2. King 6. Euen the celestiall warfare is not expressed without them Hence you shall euer finde them matcht with Chariots in the Scripture And the Poet Nunc tempus equos nunc poscere currus hee rusheth into the battell saith Ieremy and he is made for it for he hath both strength and nimblenesse He is strong there is fortitudo equi Psalm 47. and God himselfe acknowledges it Hast thou giuen the horse his strength Iob 39. He is swift saith Ieremy 4.13 yea as Eagles or Leopards saith Abacuc We must take these horses then either as continuing themselues or as altered If the first The very warres vnder the Gospell shall be holy and God shall much glorifie himselfe by them He saith not There shall be no horses or those horses shall haue no bells or those bells no inscription but those horses and their vse which is warre and their ornaments which are bells shall haue a title of Holinesse While Cornelius Agryppa writes of the vanity of Sciences wee may well wonder at the vanity of his opinion that all warre was forbidden vnder the Gopell But let Agrippa bee vaine in this as a meere Humanist and the Anabaptists grosly false as being franticke heretiques it is maruell how Erasmus so great a Scholler and Ferus so great a Text-man could miscarry in this Manichean conceit Alphonsus a Castro would faine haue our Oecolompadius to keepe them company but Bellarmine himselfe can hardly beleeue him No maruell when he sees Zuinglius die in the field tho as a Pastor not as a Souldier and when our swords haue so well taught them besides our tongues that the hereticks are as good friends to warre as enemies to them It is Gods euerlasting title Dominus exercituum To speake nothing of the old Testament What can Cornelius Agrippa say to Cornelius the Centurion I feare no man would giue that title to him that opposed warre which Gods spirit
that the new man by being more wise in God may out-strip the old And how shall that be done If we would dispossesse the strong man that keepes the house our Sauiour bids vs bring in a stronger than hee and if we would ouer-reach the subtiltie of the old man yea the old Serpent bring in a wiser than he euen the Spirit of God the God of wisdome If we would haue Achitophels wicked counsels crossed set vp an Hushai within vs The foolishnesse of God is wiser than the wisdome of men Could we but settle God within vs our craftie hearts would be out of countenance and durst not offer to play any of their deluding tricks before him from whom nothing is hid and if they could be so impudently presumptuous yet they should be so soone controlled in their first motions that there would be more danger of their confusion than of our deceit As ye loue your selues therefore and your owne safetie and would be free from the perill of this secret broaker of Satan your owne hearts render them obediently into the hands of God giue him the keyes of these closets of his owne making beseech him that he will vouchsafe to dwell and reigne in them so shall we be sure that neither Satan shall deceiue them nor they deceiue vs but both we and they shall be kept safe and inuiolable and presented glorious to the appearance of our Lord Iesus Christ To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory for euer and euer Amen FINIS The Best Bargaine A SERMON PREACHED TO THE COVRT AT THEOBALDS on Sunday Sept. 21. 1623. By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE WILLIAM EARLE OF PEMBROKE LORD high Chamberlaine CHANCELLOR of the Vniuersity of Oxford One of his MAIESTIES most Honourable Priuy Counsell RIGHT HONOVRABLE LEt it please you to receiue from the Presse what you vouchsafed to require from my pen Vnworthy I confesse either of the publike light or the beames of your Honours iudicious eies yet such as besides the motiue of common importunity I easily apprehended might bee not a little vsefull for the times which if euer require quickning Neither is it to no purpose that the world should see in what stile we speake to the Court not without acceptation This and what euer seruice I may bee capable of are iustly deuoted to your Lordship whom all good hearts follow with true Honour as the great Patron of learning the sincere friend of Religion and rich purchaser of Truth The God of Heauen adde to the number of such Peeres and to the measure of your Lo graces and happinesse Your Honours in all humble and faithfull obseruance IOS HALL THE BEST BARGAINE PROV 23.23 Buy the Truth and sell it not THE subiect of my Text is a Bargaine and Sale A bargaine enioyned a sale forbidden and the subiect of both bargaine and sale is Truth A bargaine able to make vs all rich a sale able to make any of vs miserable Buy the Truth and sell it not A sentence of short sound but large extent the words are but seuen syllables an easie load for our memories the matter is a world of worke a long taske for our liues And first let mee call you to this Mart which holds both now and euer If yee loue your selues bee yee customers at this shop of heauen Buy the Truth In euery bargaine there is merx and mercatura the commoditie and the match The commoditie to be bought is the Truth The match made for this commodity is Buying Buy the Truth An ill Iudge may put a good Interrogatory yet it was a question too good for the mouth of a Pilate What is Truth The schooles haue wearied themselues in the solution To what purpose should I reade a Metaphysicall Lecture to Courtiers Truth is as Time one in all yet as Time though but one is distinguished into past present future and euery thing hath a Time of it owne so is Truth variously distinguished according to the subiects wherein it is This is Anselmes cited by Aquinas I had rather say Truth is as light Send forth thy Truth and thy light saith the Psalmist which though but one in all yet there is one light of the Sunne another of the Moone another of the Starres another of this lower aire There is an essentiall and causall Truth in the Diuine vnderstanding which the schooles call Primo-primam This will not bee sold cannot be bought God will not part with it the world is not worth it This Truth is as the Light in the body of the Sunne There is an intrinsecall or formall truth in things truly existing For Being and True are conuertible and Saint Austen rightly defines Verum est illud quod est All this created Truth in things is deriued exemplarily and causally from that increated Truth of God this the schooles call Secundo-primam and it is as the light of the Sun-beames cast vpon the Moone and Starres There is an extrinsecall or secondary truth of propositions following vpon and conformable to the truth of the things expressed thus Verum is no other than Esse declaratinum as Hilario And this Truth being the thing it selfe subiectiuely in words expressiuely in the minde of man terminatiuely presupposeth a double conformitie or adequation Both of the vnderstanding to the matter conceiued and of the words to the vnderstanding so as Truth is when wee speake as wee thinke and thinke as it is And this Truth is as the light diffused from those heauenly bodies to the Region of this lower aire This is the Truth we are called to Buy But this deriuatiue and relatiue Truth whether in the minde or in the mouth hath much multiplicitie according to the matter either conceiued or vttered There is a Theologicall Truth there is a naturall there is a morall there is a ciuill all these must bee deare bought but the best at the highest rate which is Theologicall or diuine whether in the principles or necessary conclusions The principles of diuine Truth are Scriptura veritatis Dan. 10. The Law of Truth Mal. 2. The Word of Truth 2 Cor. 6. The necessary conclusions are they which vpon irrefragable inferences are deduced from those holy grounds Shortly then euery parcell of Diuine Truth whether laid downe in Scripture or drawne necessarily from Scripture is this Mercimonium sacrum which we are bidden to Buy Buy the Truth This is the commoditie The match is Buy that is Beat the price and pay it Buy it Of whom For what Of whom but of the owner of the Maker The owner It is Veritas Domini Gods Truth Psal 117. His stile is the Lord God of Truth Psal 31. The Maker The works of his hands are truth and iudgement Psal 111. And if any vsurping spirit of error shall haue made a free-bootie of Truth and shall with-hold it in
euer they finde with this Italianate generation In Tomis Conciliorum prorsus expunxerunt omiserunt hunc Canonem y y Chemnit hist de Coelib Sacerd. p. 65. In the Tomes of the Councels they haue altogether wip't out and omitted this Canon So as if wee had those blurred Copies which he saw bleeding from the hand of the Inquisitors there could be no fence for this charge but that which serues for all impudent denyals Neither needed my Refuter to take it so highly Refut p. 196. that I obiected to them the tearing blemishing and defacing of this and other Records against them Ere long the World shall see to the foule shame of these selfe-condemned Impostors Erasm Lang. in Niceph. Io Neuizan D. Venatorius P. Crinitus I de solas Polyd. Virg. â—olewinch Thuavus Ignat. Sigebert c. that in the Writings both of ancient and later Authors they haue blotted out more then an hundred places some of them containing aboue two sheetes apiece concerning this very point which we haue in hand This is no newes therefore neither needed my Detector to make it so dainty SECT XIV Refut p. 198. vsque ad 203. I Cited from Gratian the free confession of Pope Steuen the Second acknowledging the open liberty of Mariage to the Clergie of the Easterne Church Matrimonio copulantur They are ioyned in Mariage A place truely irrefragable My Refuter first excepts against the number telling vs that Steuen the Second liued but three or foure dayes at the most and therefore he could not be the man what spirit of Cauillation possesses this Masse-Priest Hee cannot but know that his own Sigebertus ascribes fiue yeares to this Steuen Hermannus Se also Funccius in his Chronol six But fiue is the least And his Binius tels him that the Steuen he speakes of fitting but two dayes exclusiuely z z Bin. Steph. 2. A pluribus è Serie Rom. Pontificum dimittitur is by the most omitted in the Catalogue of the Romane Bishops whence it is that the Chronicle names not two Steuens betwixt the first the fourth But this man he saith called no Councell what is that to me Gratian affirmes it I do not Let him fal out for this with his friends And now according to the old wont after he hath tryed to shift off Matrimonio copulantur with the sleeuelesse euasion of a false glosse i. vtuntur which Cajetan hath sufficiently confuted for vs hee fals to a flat reiection of Gratian Caiet Opus Castit and tels vs out of Bellarmine That Canon to bee perhaps of no authoritie but an errour of the Collectors Good God! what face haue these men That none of their receiued Authors can be produced against them Refut p. 203. but they are straight counterfeit and yet the very same where they speake for them canonicall Their Clyents if they might but know these tricks would be ashamed of their Patrons Refut p. 204. That the Clergie not onely of the East might Matrimonio copulari but of the West also might Matrimonium contrahere which are the words they are vnwilling to know in their owne Canon Law shew sufficiently that they not onely were maried of old but might marry But for the Easterne Clergie it is freely granted by all ingenuous spirits insomuch as Espencaeus tels vs that neuer Author either old or new imputed this for a fault vnto the Greeke Church that their Clergie was maried Refut p. 206 207. What shall we say then to this bold Bayard that compares this toleration of Mariage in the Greeke Church with Mosesses permission of the Bill of Diuorce vnto the Iewes As if Mariage had been onely tolerated not allowed as if vniust Diuorce were a fit match for lawfull Wedlocke whiles he here talkes of Duritia cordis well may we talke of his Duritia frontis It is true euery Church euery Country hath their Customes and Fashions which Ioannes Maior pleads against Beda's Censure of the English and Scottish and Brittish obseruation of Easter and may bee as iustly in this case pleaded for vs This was of old no lesse ours then the Greekes And if any Church will be prescribing against God we haue no such Custom nor the Church of God But what a ridiculous insinuation is iâ— that the Greeke Priests are dispensed with by supreme authoritie Ecclesiasticall Refut p. 207 208. Forsooth by the Pope of Rome Faine would I learne when vpon what termes at what rate the Graecians purchased in the Court of Rome Dispensation for their Mariages I would my Refuter had the Office appointed him to shuffle ouer all the Records of the Apostolike Chamber till he find such a grant made propter duritiem cordis then should a great deale of good Paper escape the misery of being besmeared by his Pen. What strange fantastike Dreames are put vpon the World Where the Papacy cannot preuaile there forsooth his Holinesse dispenseth The Greeke Church admitteth maried Priests the Pope dispenseth with them They deny and defie the Popes Supremacie I trow he dispenseth with them for that too and why not with the Church of England We pay no Peter-pence wee runne not to Rome-market to buy trash I hope his Holinesse dispenseth with vs for these Peccadillo's wee take libertie here to marry rather then to burne why should wee not hope to receiue that Dispensation whereof we heard the newes of late from a poore Bankrupt Carier Ad populum phaleras SECT XV. AS for the contradiction which his sagacitie findes not without much scorne in the two Parliamentall Lawes of the Father and the Sonne Refut p. 209. usque ad 214. King Henry the Eight and King Edward the Sixt whereof the one forbids the other allowes the Mariage of Ecclesiastiques it needed not haue beene any wonder to a learned Priest which might haue knowne Councels enow diametrally opposite to each other what fault was it in the recouer'd blind man that he first saw men vvalk like Trees and after like men Euen the best man may correct himselfe Neither was there here any contradiction King Henry spake with the Romane Church whose one halfe of him then was King Edward spake vvith the Scriptures and purer antiquitie King Henry neuer said God disallowed these Mariages King Edward neuer said they were allowed by the Romish Church And vvhy may not vvee draw out the like absurditie out of Queene Maries Parliaments vvherein shee reuersed many things established by King Edward as in this very case concerning Mariage of Priests May nor vvee herevpon aske What vvill you say to such Parliaments vvherein the Brother is thwarted by the Sister and that vvith the consent of the most of the same Parliament-men enacting in a few yeares contrarily Or as if it were any newes with Popes rescindere acta praedecessorum euen of those vvhich immediately preceded them Who knowes not the Story of Pope Formosus and Stephanus and the
now all hearts are cold all faces pale and euery man hath but life enough to runne away How suddenly is this brauing troupe dispersed Adonijah their new Prince flies to the hornes of the Altar as distrusting all hopes of life saue the Sanctity of the place and the mercy of his riuall So doth the wise and iust God befoole proud and insolent sinners in those secret plots wherein they hope to vndermine the true sonne of Dauid the Prince of Peace he suffers them to lay their heads together and to feast themselues in a iocund securitie and promise of successe at last when they are at the height of their ioyes and hopes he confounds all their deuices and layes them open to the scorne of the world and to the anguish of their owne guilty hearts DAVIDS end and SALOMONS beginning IT well became Salomon to begin his Raigne in peace Adonijah receiues pardon vpon his good behauiour and findes the Throne of Salomon as safe as the Altar Dauid liues to see a wise sonne warme in his seat and now hee that had yeelded to succession yeelds to nature Many good counsels had Dauid giuen his Heire now hee summes them vp in his end Dying words are wont to bee weightiest The Soule when it is entring into glory breathes nothing but diuine I goe the way of all the earth How well is that Princely heart content to subscribe to the conditions of humane mortality as one that knew Soueraigntie doth not reach to the affaires of nature Though a King he neither expects nor desires an immunity from dissolution making not account to goe in any other then the common track to the vniuersall home of mankind the house of age Whither should earth but to earth and why should we grugde to doe that which all doe Be thou strong therefore and shew thy selfe a man Euen when his spirit was going out he puts spirit into his Sonne Age puts life into youth and the dying animates the vigorous He had well found that strength was requisit to gouernment that he had need to be no lesse then a man that should rule ouer men If greatnesse should neuer receiue any opposition yet those worlds powers A weake man may obey none but the strong can gouerne Gracelesse courage were but the whetstone of tyranny Take heed therefore to the charge of the Lord thy God to walke in his wayes and to keepe his Statutes The best legacy that Dauid bequeathes to his heire is the care of piety himselfe had found the sweetnesse of a good conscience and now he commends it to his successor If there be any thing that in our desires of the prosperous condition of our children takes place of goodnesse our hearts are not vpright Here was the father a King charging the King his sonne to keepe the Statutes of the King of Kings as one that knew greatnesse could neither exempt from obedience nor priuiledge sinne as one that knew the least deuiation in the greatest and highest Orbe is both most sensible and most dangerous Neither would he haue his sonne to looke for any prosperity saue onely from well-doing That happinesse is built vpon sands or Ice which is raised vpon any foundation besides vertue If Salomon were wise Dauid was good and if old Salomon had well remembred the counsell of old Dauid he had not so foulely mis-caried After the precepts of pietie follow those of iustice distributing in a due recompence as reuenge to Ioab and Shimei so fauour to the house of Barzillai The bloodinesse of Ioab had lien long vpon Dauids heart the hideous noyse of those treacherous murders as it had pierced heauen so it still filled the eares of Dauid He could abhorre that villanie though he could not reuenge it What he cannnot pay hee will owe and approue himselfe at last a faithfull debtor Now hee will defray it by the hand of Salomon The slaughter was of Abner and Amasa Dauid appropriates it Thou knowest what Ioab did to me The Soueraigne is smitten in the Subiect Neither is it other then iust that the arraignment of meane malefactors runnes in the stile of wrong to the Kings Crowne and dignity How much more 〈◊〉 thou O Sonne of Dauid take to thy selfe those insolencies which are done to thy poorest subiects seruants sonnes members here vpon earth No Saul can touch a Christian here below but thou feelest it in heauen and complainest But what shall we thinke of this Dauid was a man of Warre Salomon a King of Peace yet Dauid referres this reuenge to Salomon How iust it was that he who shed the blood of warre in peace and put the blood of war vpon his girdle that was about his loynes should haue his blood shed in peace by a Prince of peace Peace is fittest to rectifie the out-rages of Warre Or whether is not this done in type of that diuine administration wherein thou O father of heauen hast committed all iudgement vnto thine eternall Sonne Thou who couldst immediately either plague or absolue sinners wilt doe neither but by the hand of a Mediator Salomon learned betimes what his ripenesse taught afterwards Take away the wicked from the King and his Throne shall be established in righteousnesse Cruell Ioab and malicious Shimei must be therfore vpon the first opportunity remoued The one lay open to present iustice for abetting the conspiracy of Adonijah neither needes the helpe of time for a new aduantage The other went vnder the protection of an oath from Dauid and therefore must be fetcht in vpon a new challenge The hoare head of both must bee brought to the graue with blood else Dauids head could not bee brought to his graue in peace Due punishment of malefactors is the debt of authority If that holy King haue runne into arerages yet as one that hates and feares to breake the banke he giues order to his pay-master It shall bee defraid if not by him yet for him Generous natures cannot be vnthankfull Barzillai had shewed Dauid some kindnesse in his extremity and now the good man will haue posterity to inherite the thankes How much more bountifull is the Father of mercies in the remuneration of our poore vnworthy seruices Euen successions of generations shall fare the better for one good parent The dying words and thoughts of the man after Gods owne heart did not confine themselues to the straites of these particular charges but inlarged themselues to the care of Gods publike seruice As good men are best at last Dauid did neuer so busily and carefully marshall the affaires of God as when he was fixed to the bed of his age and death Then did he lode his sonne Salomon with the charge of building the house of God then did hee lay before the eyes of his sonne the modell and patterne of that whole sacred worke whereof if Salomon beare the name yet Dauid no lesse merits it He now giues the platforme of the Courts and buildings Hee giues the gold and siluer for
hee gaue was not worse then that hee tooke There is more true glory in the conquest of our lusts then in all bloody Trophees In vaine shall Ahab boast of subduing a forraigne enemy whiles he is subdued by a domesticke enemy within his own brest Opportunity and Conuenience is guilty of many a theft Had not this ground lien so faire Ahab had not beene tempted His eye lets in this euill guest into the soule which now dares come forth at the mouth Giue mee thy vineyard that I may haue it for a garden of herbes because it is neere to my house and I will giue thee a better vineyard for it or if it seeme good to thee I will giue thee the worth of it in money Yet had Ahab so much ciuility and iustice that he would not wring Naboths patrimony out of his hand by force but requires it vpon a faire composition whether of price or of exchange His gouernment was vicious not tyrannicall Proprietie of goods was inuiolably maintained by him No lesse was Naboth allowed to claime a right in his vineyard then Ahab in his palace This wee owe to lawfull Soueraignty to call ought our owne and well worthy is this priuiledge to be repaid with all humble and loyall respects The motion of Ahab had it beene to any other then an Israelite had beene as iust equall reasonable as the repulse had beene rude churlish inhumane It is fit that Princes should receiue due satisfaction in the iust demands not onely of their necessities but conuenience and pleasure well may they challenge this retribution to the benefit of our common peace and protection If there bee any sweetnesse in our vineyards any strength in our fields we may thanke their scepters Iustly may they expect from vs the commoditie the delight of their habitation and if we gladly yeeld not to their full elbow-roome both of site and prouision we can be no other then ingratefull Yet dares not Naboth giue any other answer to so plausible a motion then The Lard forbid it me that I should giue thee the inheritance of my Fathers The honest Israelite saw violence in this ingenuity There are no stronger commands then the requests of the great It is well that Ahab will not wrest away this patrimony it is not well that he desired it The land was not so much stood vpon as the law One earth might be as good as another and money equiualent to either The Lord had forbidden to alien their inheritance Naboth did not feare losse but sinne What Naboth might not lawfully doe Ahab might not lawfully require It pleased God to bee very punctuall and cautelous both in the distinction and preseruation of the intirenesse of these Iewish inheritances Nothing but extreme necessitie might warrant a sale of land and that but for a time if not sooner yet at the Iubile it must reuert to the first owner It was not without a comfortable signification that whosoeuer had once his part in the land of Promise could neuer lose it Certainly Ahab could not but know this diuine restriction yet doubts not to say Giue me thy vineyard The vnconscionable will know no other law but their profit their pleasure A lawlesse greatnesse hates all limitations and abides not to heare men should need any other warrant but will Naboth dares not be thus tractable How gladly would he be quit of his inheritance if God would acquit him from the sinne Not out of wilfulnesse but obedience doth this faithfull Israelite hold off from this demand of his Soueraign not daring to please an earthly King with offending the heauenly When Princes command lawfull things God commands by them when vnlawfull they command against God passiue obedience we must giue actiue we may not wee follow then as subordinate not as opposite to the highest Who cannot but see and pity the straits of honest Naboth Ahab requires what God forbids he must fall out either with his God or his King Conscience caries him against policy and he resolues not to sinne that he might be gracious For a world he may not giue his vineyard Those who are themselues godlesse thinke the holy care of others but idly scrupulous The King of Israel could not chuse but see that onely Gods prohibition lay in the way of his designes not the stomacke of a froward subiect yet he goes away into his house heauy and displeased and casts himselfe downe vpon bed and turnes away his face and refuses his meat Hee hath taken a surfet of Naboths grapes which marres his appetite and threats his life How ill can great hearts endure to bee crossed though vpon the most reasonable and iust grounds Ahabs place call'd him to the Guardianship of Gods Law and now his heart is ready to breake that this parcell of that Law may not bee broken No maruell if hee made not dainty to transgresse a locall statute of God who did so shamefully violate the eternall Law of both Tables I know not whether the spleen or the gall of Ahab be more affected Whether more of anger or griefe I cannot say but sick he is keepes his bed and balks his meat as if he should die of no other death thē the salads that he would haue had O the impotēt passion and insatiable desires of Couetousnesse Ahab is Lord King of all the territories of Israel Naboth is the owner of one poore Vineyard Ahab cannot inioy Israel if Naboth inioy his Vineyard Besides Samaria Ahab was the great Lord Paramount of Damascus and all Syria the victor of him that was attended with two and thirty Kings Naboth was a plaine townsman of Iezreel the good husband of a little Vineyard Whether is the weathier I doe not heare Naboth wish for any thing of Ahabs I heare Ahab wishing not without indignation of a repulse for somwhat from Naboth Riches pouerty is more in the heart then in the hand He is wealthy that is contented he is poore that wanteth more Oh rich Naboth that carest not for all the large possessions of Ahab so thou maist bee the Lord of thine owne Vineyard Oh miserable Ahab that carest not for thine owne possessions whiles thou mayest not be the Lord of Naboths Vineyard He that caused the disease sends him a Physitian Satan knew of old how to make vse of such helpers Iezebel comes to Ahabs bed-side and casts cold water in his face and puts into him spirits of her owne extracting Dost thou now gouerne the Kingdome of Israel Arise eat bread and let thine heart be merry I will giue thee the Vineyard of Naboth Ahab wanted neither wit nor wickednesse Yet is he in both a very nouice to this Zidonian dame There needs no other Deuill then Iezebel whether to proiect euill or to worke it She chides the pusillanimity of her deiected husband and perswades him his rule cannot bee free vnlesse it be licentious that there should bee no bounds for soueraignetie but will Already hath shee