God proclaimed our Church not his By whose hand hath he published her diuorce You haue shamed her wombe not she her bed not God her demeanour Your tongues are your owne who can forbid you We know you will plead and excuse and censure and defend till all the world be weary we may pray with Hierom to this sense that of the Psalmist Increpa Domine Bestiaes Calami yet we see your Pens Tongues and Presses busie and violent I will not applie to you that which Augustine of his Donatists Aug. cont Epist Parmen l. 1. Though truth compell you to be dumbe yet iniquitie will not suffer you to be silent But if you write whole Marts and worlds of Volumes you shall neuer be able either to iustifie your Innocence or excuse your fault In the meane time the noyse of your contentions is so great that your truth cannot be heard Learned Iunius and our learnedst Diuines and neighbour Churches haue oft heard your clamors neuer your truth Epist Iunij ad Separ So little haue you of this and so much of the other that wee are ready to wish as he of old either ourselues deafe or you dumbe SEP Is not Babylon the Mother of Gods people whom he therefore commandeth to depart out of her lest being partakers of her sinnes they also partake of her plagues And to conclude what say you more against vs for your Mother the Church of England than the Papists doe for their Mother and your Mothers Mother the Church of Rome against you whom they condemne as vnnaturall Bastards and impious Patricides in your separation from her SECTION XXIII THE spirit of your Proto-Martyr would hardly haue digested this title of Babylon Mother of Gods people a murdering Step-mother rather How the Church of England hath separated from Babylon Gyff refut 2. transg Reuel 18.2 Ans fore-speech to Counterpoyse Shee cannot be a Mother of Children to God and no Church of God Notwithstanding Gods people would he say may be in her not of her So Babylon bore them not but Sion in Babylon But I feare not your excesse of charitie You flye to your Doctors challenge and aske what we say against you for vs which Rome will not say for her selfe against vs Will you iustifie this Plea of Rome or not If you will why doe you reuile her If you will not why doe you obiect it Heare then what wee say both to you and them our enemies both and yet the enemies of our enemies First wee disclaime and defie your Pedigree and theirs The Church of Rome was neuer our Mothers Mother Our Christian faith came not from the seuen-hilles Neither was deriued either from Augustine the Monke A Simone Zelota Niceph. Alij à Ios Arimath cuius hic sepulchrum cernitur Angli Pascha Graeco more celebrarunt Iacob Armin. Disp Cant. 8.8 Fr. Iun. l. sing de Eccle. or Pope Gregorie Britanie had a worthy Church before either of them lookt into the world It is true that the ancient Romane Church was sister to ours heere was neere kindred no dependance And not more consanguinity than while she continued faithfull Christian loue Now she is gone a whoring her chaste sister iustly spitteth at her yet euen still if you distinguish as your learned Antagonist hath taught you betwixt the Church and Papacie she acknowledges her Sisterhood though she refraines her conuersation as she hath many slauish factious abettors of her knowne and grosse errors to whom we deny this title affirming them the body whereof Antichrist is the head the great Whore and Mother of abominations so againe how many thousands hath she which retaining the foundation according to their knowledge as our learned Whitakers had wont to say of Bernard follow Absolom with a simple heart all which to reiect from Gods Church were no better than presumptuous cruelty It were well for you before God and the world if you could as easily wash your hands of vnnaturall impiety and trecherousnesse as we of Bastardy and vniust sequestration There can be no Bastardy where was neuer any Motherhood we were nephewes to that Church neuer sonnes vnlesse as Rome was the mother City of the world so by humane institution we suffered our selues to bee ranged vnder her Patriarchall authoritie as being the most famous Church of the West a matter of courtesie and pretended Order no necessity no spirituall obligation As for our sequestration your mouth and theirs may bee stopt with this Answer As all corrupted Churches so some things the Church of Rome still holds a right a true God in three persons true Scriptures though with addition a true Christ though mangled with foule and erroneous consequences true Baptisme though shamefully deformed with rotten Traditions and many other vndeniable truths of God some other things and too many her wicked Apostasie hath deuised and maintained abhominably amisse the body of her Antichristianisme grosse errors and by iust sequell heresies their Popes Supremacie infallibility Illimitation Transubstantiation Idolatrous and superstitious worship and a thousand other of this branne In regard of all these latter wee professe to the world a iust and ancient separation from this false faith and deuotion of the Romish Church which neither you will say nor they shall euer proue faulty yea rather they haue in all these separated from vs who still irrefragably professe to hold with the ancient from whom they are departed In regard of the other wee are still with them holding and embracing with them what they hold with Christ neither will you I thinke euer prooue that in these we should differ As for our communion they haue separated vs by their proud and foolish excommunications if they had not wee would iustly haue begun from their Tyranny and Antichristianisme from their miserable Idolatry but as for the body of their poore seduced Christians which remaine amongst them vpon the true foundation as doubtlesse there are thousands of them which laugh at their Pardons Miracles Superstitions and their trust in merits reposing onely vpon Christ we adhere to them in loue and pittie and haue testified our affection by our bloud ready vpon any iust call to doe it more Phil. Morn du Plesses Lib. de Eccle. cap. 10. neither would feare to ioyne with them in any true seruice of our common God But the full discourse of this point that honourable and learned Plesses hath so forestalled that whatsoeuer I say would seeme but borrowed Vnto his rich Treatise I referre my Reader for full satisfaction Would God this point were thorowly knowne and well weighed on all parts The neglect or ignorance whereof hath both bred and nursed your separation and driuen the weake and inconsiderate into strange extremities This say wee of our selues in no more Charity than Truth But for you how dare you make this shamelesse comparison Can your heart suffer your tongue to say that there is no more difference betwixt Rome and vs than
it not are glorious hypocrites The last that stake downe and reuoke it are damnable Apostats Take all these out of the societie of men and how many customers hath God that care to buy the Truth If Truth were some rich chattell it would be bought If Truth were some goodly Lordship or the reuersion of some good Office it would be bought If Truth were some Benefice or spirituall promotion Oh time it would be bought Yea how deare are we content to pay for our filthie lusts we will needs purchase them too oft with shame beggerie disease damnation only the sauing Truth of God will not off hand What is the reason of this First of all It is but bare simple plaine honest homely Truth without welt without guard It will abide none but natiue colours it scorneth to wooe fauour with farding and licking and counterfeisance it hates either bought or borrowed beauty and therefore like some natiue face among the painted lookes course and rusty There are two shops that get away all the custome from Truth The shop of Vanity the shop of Error The one sels knacks and gew-gawes the other false wares and adulterate both of their commodities are so gilded and gaudy and glittering that all fooles throng thither and complaine to want elbow-roome and striue who shall be first seru'd Whereas the secret worke of artlesse and vnpolisht Truth can winne no eie to view it no tongue to aske so much as What will it cost me Oh yee sonnes of men how long will ye loue vanitie and seeke after lies Secondly though Truth in it selfe be alwaies excellent yet the issue of it is not seldome distastefull Veritas odium There is one Michaiah whom I hate Am I become your enemie because I tell you the truth And this is the cause that Frier Menot alleages why Truth in his Time was so vnwelcome to the court But if truth be the mother of Hatred shee is the daughter of Time and Truth hath learn't this of Time to deuoure her owne brood So that in Time Truth shall consume hatred and at the last a galling Truth shall haue more thanks than a smoothing supparisitation In the meane time Veritas nihil erubescit praeterquā abscōdi Truth blusheth at nothing but secrecy as Tertull. How euer then fond or false hearts value the Truth let vs that should be wise Christians esteeme it as the pearle hid in the field which the man sold all that euer he had to purchase Would it not set any heart on fire with an holy anger to see wha the enemies of Truth bid and giue for falshood for faction Their liberty their country the life of their Soueraigne the eternall state of their soules hath not seemed too deare to cast away vpon an ill bargaine of mis-religion and shall not we bid so much as our zealous well-wishes our effectuall endeuours our carefull obseruances for the vndoubted truth of our Maker and Redeemer What shall I say to the miserable and stupid carelesnesse of these thriftlesse and godlesse times wherein euery thing is apprised euery thing is bought saue that which is most precious most beneficiall Truth Yee great ones are made for precedents to the inferiour world your example is able to bring either good or euill into fashion For Gods sake for your soules sake what euer transactions ye make for the world lay your plots for the blessed purchase of Truth Oh let not your fickle honours your vnsatisfying pleasures your worthlesse profits yea your momentany liues seeme deare to you in comparison of heauenly Truth It is no shame in other parts for great Peeres to be Merchants Mercatores tui erant principes saith the Angell concerning Babylon Reuel 18. Thy Merchants were the Princes of the earth And why should not yee great ones be the Merchants of Truth Blessed be the God of Truth yee are so It is no proud word to say that no Court vnder heauen hath so rich a stocke of Truth as this of Great Britaine yet let me tell you the very Angels knew not so much but they desired to know more Ephes 3.10 And if ye had already that vespertine knowledge of the Saints which ye shall once haue in heauen yet know that this Bargaine stands not more in the iudgement than in the affections What euer our speculations may be if our hearts be not set vpon Truth we may be Brokers we are not Merchants Brokers for others not Merchants for our selues As our Sauiour then when he bids vs sell all forsake all holds it done when in preparation of minde we are ready to abdicate all for his name though we doe it not so doth God hold vs to buy Truth when we bestow our best thoughts our dearest wel-wishes vpon it though we haue it already Oh stirre vp your languishing zeale ye noble Courtiers rouze vp your drouping loue to diuine Truth Giue your hearts to it ye cannot but giue all for it And if ye doe not finde the sweet gaine of this Bargaine in this lower Region of error and confusion ye shall once finde it in those eternall and empireall habitations of Truth where the God of Truth shall make vp the Truth of his promises with the euerlasting truth of his glorious performances where Mercy and Truth shall so meet and embrace one another that both of them shall embrace the faithfull soule for euer and euer This for the Bargaine of Truth The forbidden sale followeth sell it not Commonly what we buy we may sell Alexander not the Great but the good sold Miters Keyes Altars the verse giues the reason Emerat ille prius Hee bought them So Saint Austen of Simon Magus Volebat emere spiritum Sanctum quia vendere volebat spiritum Sanctum He would buy the Holy Ghost because he meant to sell it Giue me a man that buyes a Seat of Iudicature I dare not trust him for not selling of Iustice he that sits in the chaire of Symonie will not giue Orders will not sticke to sell soules Some things wee may buy to sell as Ioseph did the Egyptian corn some things wee must sell if wee buy as an Israelites inheritance Leu. 25. But here wee are charged to buy what it is a sinne to sell Buy the Truth and sell it not There is many a good thing ill sold Esau sels his birth-right for pottage Hanun and Shechem sell their Countrey for loue Dalilah sels her louer for a bribe The Patriarchs sell their Brother for twenty siluerrings Haman sels the Iewes for nought The Gentiles sell the Iewish girles for wine Ioel 3.3 Israel sels the righteous for siluer and the poore for shooes Amos 2.6 Their Iudges sell sins or innocencie for rewards Esa 5.23 Ahab sels himselfe to wickednesse Iudas sels his master Demas sels the Truth All these make an ill market And in all it is a sure rule the better the commodity is the more pernicious is the sale The indefinitenesse of the charge implies a generality Buy
THE WORKS OF JOSEPH HALL Doctor in Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER With a Table newly added to the whole Worke. LONDON Printed for Nath. Butter dwelling neere Saint Austins Gate 1625. TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY MONARCH OVR DEARE AND DREAD SOVERAIGNE LORD IAMES BY THE good prouidence of God King of Great BRITAINE FRANCE and IRELAND the most worthy and most able Defender of the Faith and most gracious Patron of the Church All Peace and Happinesse Most gracious Soueraigne I Cannot so ouer-loue this issue of my owne braine as to hold it worthy of your Maiesties iudicious eyes much lesse of the highest Patronage vnder Heauen Yet now my very duty hath bidden mee looke so high tels me it would be no lesse then iniurious if I should not lay down my work where I owe my seruice and that I should offend if I presumed not Besides whither should the riuers runne but into the Sea Jt is to your Maiesty vnder the Highest that wee owe both these sweete opportunities of good and all the good fruites of these happy opportunities Jf we should not therefore freely offer to your Maiestie some praemetiall handfulls of that croppe whereof you may challenge the whole haruest how could wee bee but shamelesly vnthankfull J cannot praise my Present otherwise then by the truth of that heart from which it proceedeth Onely this J may say that seldome any man hath offered to your Royall hands a greater bundle of his owne thoughts Some whereof as it must needs fall out amongst so many haue beene confessed profitable nor perhaps more varietie of discourse for here shall your Maiestie finde Moralitie like a good handmaid waiting on Diuinity and Diuinity like some great Lady euery day in seâ—â—â—â—dresses Speculation interchanged with experience Positiue Theologie with Polemicall Textuall with discursorie Popular with Scholasticall J cannot dissemble my ioy to haue done this little good And if it be the comfort and honour of your vnworthy seruant that the God of Heauen hath vouchsafed to vse his hand in the least seruice of his Church How can it bee but your Crowne and reioycing that the same God hath set apart your Maiesty as a glorious instrument of such an vniuersall good to the whole Christian World It was a madde conceit of that old Heresiarch which might iustly take his name from madnes That an huge Giant beares vp the earth with his shoulder which he changes euery thirtieth yeere for ease and with the remouall causes an Earthquake If by the deuice hee had meant onely an Embleme of Kings as our ancient Mythologists vnder their Saint George and Christopher haue described the Christian Souldier and good Pastor he had not done amisse for surely the burthen of the whole world lies on the shoulders of Soueraigne authoritie and it is no maruell if the Earth quake in the change As Kings are to the World so are good Kings to the Church None can be so blinde or enuious as not to grant that the whole Church of God vpon earth rests her selfe principally next to her stay aboue vpon your Maiesties Royall supportation You may truly say with Dauid Ego sustineo columnas eius What wonder is it then if our tongues and pens blesse you if we be ambitious of all occasions that may testifie our cheerefull gratulations of this happinesse to your Highnesse ours in you Which our humble prayers vnto him by whom Kings reigne shall labour to continue till both the Earth and Heauens be truly changed The vnworthiest of your Maiesties seruants IOS HALL THE SEVERALL TREATISES contained in this BOOKE MEditations and Vowes 3. Centuries Page 1 Heauen vpon earth One Booke 73 Art of Diuine Meditation One Booke 105 Holy Obseruations One Booke 135 Some few of Dauids Psalmes metaphrazed 155 Characters of Vertues and Vices Two Bookes 173 Salomons diuine Arts. Ethicks In foure Bookes 207 Politicks One Booke 229 Oeconomicks One Booke 239 The Song of Songs paraphrased 249 Epistles in six Decads Three Volumes 1. 275 2. 315 3. 361 Sermons 1. Pharisaisme and Christianity 407 2. The Passion Sermon 423 3. 4. The Imprese of God In two Sermons 441 451 5. A Farewell Sermon to the Family of Prince Henry 461 6. An holy Panegyrick 473 7. The deceit of Appearance 489 8. The great Impostor 501 9. The best Bargaine 515 10. A Sermon at S. Iohns 525 11. The true Peace-Maker 537 12. Noah's Doue A common Apology against the Brownists One Booke 549 A serious Disswasiue from Popery 613 No Peace with Rome One Booke 633 Quo vadis Or a Censure of Trauell 669 The Righteous Mammon 693 The honour of the Married Clergie In three Bookes 1. 719 2. 753 3. 771 A short Catechisme 799 Contemplations vpon the principall passages of the holy Story Eight Bookes In two Volumes 1. 809 2. 883 Contemplations the third Volume In three Bookes 1. 967 2. 993 3. 1017 Contemplations the fourth Volume In foure Bookes 1. 1043 2. 1073 3. 1099 4. 1027 Contemplations vpon the History of the new Testament the fifth Volume In two Bookes 1. 1159 2. 1185 Contemplations the sixt Volume In three Bookes 1. 1231 2. 1255 3. 1281 Contemplations the seuenth Volume In two Bookes 1. 1311 2. 1351 MEDITATIONS AND VOWES DIVINE AND MORALL SERVING FOR DIRECTION IN CHRISTIAN AND CIVILL PRACTICE III. Centuries 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 WORSHIPFVLL SIR ROBERT DRVRY KNIGHT ALL INCREASE OF TRVE HONOVR AND VERTVE SIR that I haue made these my homely Aphorismes publike needs no other reason but that though the world is furnished with other writings euen to satiety and surfet yet of those which reduce Christianitie to practice there is at least scarce enough wherein yet I must needs confesse I had some eye to my selfe For hauing after a sort vowed this austere course of iudgement practice to my selfe J thought it best to acquaint the world with it that it may either witnesse my answerable proceeding or checke me in my straying there-from By which meanes so many men as J liue amongst so many monitors I shall haue which shall poynt mee to my owne rules and vpbraid mee with my aberrations Why I haue dedicated them to your name cannot be strange to any that knowes you my Patron and mee your Pastor The regard of which bond easily drew mee on to consider that whereas my body which was euer weake began of late to languish more it would not be inexpedient at the worst to leaue behinde mee this little monument of that great respect which J deseruedly beare you And if it shall please God to reprieue me vntill a longer day yet it shall not repent me to haue sent this vnworthy scrowle to wait vpon you in your necessary absence neither shall it be I hope bootlesse for you to adioyne these my meane speculations vnto those grounds of vertue you haue so happily
I need not be so mopish as not to beleeue rather the language of the hand than of the tongue He that saies well and doth well is without exception commendable but if one of these must be seuered from the other I like him well that doth well and saith nothing 52 That which they say of the Pelican that when the Shepherds in desire to catch her lay fire not farre from her nest which she finding and fearing the danger of her young seekes to blow out with her wings so long till she burne her selfe and makes her selfe a prey in an vnwise pitty to her young I see morally verified in experience of those which indiscreetly medling with the flame of dissention kindled in the Church rather increase than quench it rather fire their owne wings than helpe others I had rather bewaile the fire afarre off than stirre in the coles of it I would not grudge my ashes to it if those might abate the burning but since I see this is daily increased with partaking I will behold it with sorrow and meddle no otherwise than by praiers to God and intreaties to men seeking my owne safety and the peace of the Church in the freedome of my thought and silence of my tongue 53 That which is said of Lucillaes faction that anger bred it pride fostered it and couetousnesse confirm'd it is true of all Schismes though with some inuersion For the most are bred through pride whiles men vpon an high conceit of themselues scorne to goe in the common road and affect singularitie in opinion are confirmed through anger whiles they stomacke and grudge any contradiction and are nourished through couetousnesse whiles they seeke abilitie to beare out their part In some others againe couetousnesse obtaines the first place anger the second pride the last Herein therefore I haue beene alwaies wont to commend and admire the humilitie of those great and profound wits whom depth of knowledge hath not lead to by-paths in iudgement but walking in the beaten path of the Church haue bent all their forces to the establishment of receiued truths accounting it greater glorie to confirme an ancient veritie than to deuise a new opinion though neuer so profitable vnknowne to their predecessors I will not reiect a truth for meere noueltie Old truths may come newly to light neither is God tied to times for the gift of his illumination but I will suspect a nouell opinion of vntruth and not entertaine it vnlesse it may be deduced from ancient grounds 54 The eare and the eie are the minds receiuers but the tongue is onely busied in expending the treasure receiued If therefore the reuenues of the minde bee vttered as fast or faster than they are receiued it cannot bee but that the minde must needs bee held bare and can neuer lay vp for purchase But if the receiuers take in still with no vtterance the minde may soone grow a burthen to it selfe and vnprofitable to others I will not lay vp too much and vtter nothing lest I be couetous nor spend much and store vp little lest I be prodigall and poore 55 It is a vaine-glorious flatterie for a man to praise himselfe An enuious wrong to detract from others I will therefore speake no ill of others no good of my selfe 56 That which is the miserie of Trauellers to finde many Oasts and few friends is the estate of Christians in their pilgrimage to a better life Good friends may not therefore be easily forgone neither must they bee vsed as suits of apparell which when wee haue worne threed-bare wee cast off and call for new Nothing but death or villanie shall diuorce mee from an old friend but still I will follow him so farre as is either possible or honest and then I will leaue him with sorrow 57 True friendship necessarily requires Patience For there is no man in whom I shall not mislike somewhat and who shall not as iustly mislike somewhat in mee My friends faults therefore if little I will swallow and digest if great I will smother them howeuer I will winke at them to others but louingly notifie them to himselfe 58 Iniuries hurt not more in the receiuing than in the remembrance A small iniurie shall goe as it comes a great iniurie may dine or sup with me but none at all shall lodge with me Why should I vex my selfe because another hath vexed me 59 It is good dealing with that ouer which we haue the most power If my state will not be framed to my minde I will labour to frame my minde to my estate 60 It is a great miserie to be either alwaies or neuer alone societie of men hath not so much gaine as distraction In greatest companie I will bee alone to my selfe in greatest priuacie in companie with God 61 Griefe for things past that cannot be remedied and care for things to come that cannot be preuented may easily hurt can neuer benefit me I will therefore commit my selfe to God in both and enioy the present 62 Let my estate bee neuer so meane I will euer keepe my selfe rather beneath than either leuell or aboue it A man may rise when he will with honour but cannot fall without shame 63 Nothing doth so befoole a man as extreme passion This doth both make them fooles which otherwise are not and shew them to bee fooles that are so Violent passions if I cannot tame them that they may yeeld to my ease I will at least smother them by concealement that they may not appeare to my shame 64 The minde of man though infinite in desire yet is finite in capacitie Since I cannot hope to know all things I will labour first to know what I needs must for their vse next what I best may for their conuenience 65 Though time be precious to me as all irreuocable good things deserue to be and of all other things I would not be lauish of it yet I will account no time lost that is either lent to or bestowed vpon my friend 66 The practises of the best men are more subiect to errour than their speculations I will honour good examples but I will liue by good precepts 67 As charitie requires forgetfulnesse of euill deeds so patience requites forgetfulnesse of euill accidents I will remember euils past to humble me not to vex me 68 It is both a miserie and a shame for a man to bee a Bankrupt in loue which hee may easily pay and be neuer the more impouerished I will be in no mans debt for good will but will at least returne euery man his owne measure if not with vsurie It is much better to bee a Creditor than a Debtor in any thing but especially of this yet of this I will so bee content to bee a Debtor that I will alwaies bee paying it where I owe it and yet neuer will haue so paid it that I shall not owe it more 69 The Spanish Prouerbe is too true Dead men and absent finde no friends
contemne it Embrace it when it is within my measure when aboue contemne it So embrace it that I may more humble my selfe vnder it and so contemne it that I may not giue heart to him that offers it nor disgrace him for whom I am contemned 84 Christ raised three dead men to life One newly departed another on the Bere a third smelling in the graue to shew vs that no degree of death is so desperate that it is past helpe My sinnes are many and great yet if they were more they are farre below the mercy of him that hath remitted them and the value of his ransome that hath payed for them A man hurts himselfe most by presumption but we cannot doe God a greater wrong than to despaire of forgiuenesse It is a double iniury to God first that we offend his iustice by sinning then that we wrong his mercy with despairing c. 85 For a man to be weary of the world through miseries that he meets with and for that cause to couet death is neither difficult nor commendable but rather argues a base weaknesse of minde So it may be a cowardly part to contemne the vtmost of all terrible things in a feare of lingering misery but for a man either liuing happily here on earth or resoluing to liue miserably yet to desire his remouall to Heauen doth well become a true Christian courage and argues a noble mixture of patience and faith Of patience for that he can and dare abide to liue sorrowfully of faith for that he is assured of his better Being other-where and therefore prefers the absent ioyes he looks for to those he feeles in present No sorrow shall make me wish my selfe dead that I may not be at all No contentment shall hinder me from wishing my selfe with Christ that I may be happier 86 It was not for nothing that the wise Creator of all things hath placed gold and siluer and all precious minerals vnder our feet to be trod vpon and hath hid them low in the bowels of the earth that they cannot without great labour be either found or gotten whereas he hath placed the noblest part of his creation aboue our heads and that so open to our view that we cannot chuse but euery moment behold them Wherein what did hee else intend but to draw away our mindes from these worthlesse and yet hidden treasures to which he fore-saw wee would be too much addicted and to call them to the contemplation of those better things which beside their beautie are more obuious to vs that in them wee may see and admire the glory of their Maker and withall seeke our owne How doe those men wrong themselues and misconstrue God who as if he had hidden these things because he would haue them sought and laid the other open for neglect bend themselues wholly to the seeking of these earthly commodities and doe no more minde Heauen than if there were none If we could imagine a beast to haue reason how could he be more absurd in his choice How easie is it to obserue that still the higher we goe the more puritie and perfection we finde So earth is the very drosse and dregs of all the elements water somewhat more pure than it yet also more feculent than the aire aboue it the lower aire lesse pure than his vppermost regions and yet these as farre inferior to the lowest heauens which againe are more exceeded by the glorious Empyriall seat of God which is the heauen of the iust Yet these brutish men take vp their rest and place their felicitie in the lowest and worst of all Gods workmanship not regarding that which with it owne glory can make them happy Heauen is the proper place of my soule I will send it vp thither continually in my thoughts whiles it soiournes with me before it goe to dwell there for euer 87 A man need not to care for more knowledge than to know himselfe he needs no more pleasure than to content himselfe no more victory than to ouercome himselfe no more riches than to enioy himselfe What fooles are they that seeke to know all other things are strangers in themselues that seeke altogether to satisfie other mens humors with their owne displeasure that seeke to vanquish Kingdomes and Countries when they are not Masters of themselues that haue no hold of their owne hearts yet seeke to be possessed of all outward commodities Goe home to thy selfe first vaine heart and when thou hast made sure worke there in knowing contenting ouercomming enioying thy selfe spend all the superfluitie of thy time and labour vpon others 88 It was an excellent rule that fell from the Epicure whose name is odious to vs for the father of loosnesse That if a man would be rich honorable aged he should not striue so much to adde to his wealth reputation yeeres as to detract from his desires For certainly in these things which stand most vpon conceit he hath the most that desireth least A poore man that hath little and desires no more is in truth richer than the greatest Monarch that thinketh hee hath not what hee should or what hee might or that grieues there is no more to haue It is not necessitie but ambition that sets mens hearts on the racke If I haue meat drinke apparell I will learne therewith to be content If I had the world full of wealth beside I could enioy no more than I vse the rest could please me no otherwise but by looking on And why can I not thus solace my selfe while it is others 89 An inconstant and wauering minde as it makes a man vnfit for societie for that there can bee no assurance of his words or purposes neither can wee build on them without deceit so besides that it makes a man ridiculous it hinders him from euer attaining any perfection in himselfe for a rolling stone gathers no mosse and the minde while it would bee euery thing proues nothing Oft changes cannot bee without losse Yea it keepes him from enioying that which he hath attained For it keepes him euer in worke building pulling downe selling changing buying commanding forbidding So whiles he can be no other mans friend hee is the least his owne It is the safest course for a mans profit credit and ease to deliberate long to resolue surely hardly to alter not to enter vpon that whose end hee fore-sees not answerable and when hee is once entered not to furcease till he haue attained the end he fore-saw So may he to good purpose beginne a new worke when he hath well finished the old 90 The way to Heauen is like that which Ionathan and his Armour-bearer passed betwixt two rocks one Bozez the other Seneh that is foule and thornie whereto wee must make shift to climbe on our hands and knees but when wee are come vp there is victorie and triumph Gods children haue three sutes of apparell whereof two are worne daily on earth the third laid vp
for them in the Ward-rope of Heauen They are euer either in blacke mourning in red persecuted or in white glorious Any way shall bee pleasant to me that leads vnto such an end It matters not what rags or what colours I weare with men so I may walke with my Sauiour in white and reigne with him in glorie 91 There is nothing more easie than to say Diuinitie by rote and to discourse of spirituall matters from the tongue or pen of others but to heare God speake it to the soule and to feele the power of Religion in our selues and to expresse it out of the truth of experience within is both rare and hard All that wee feele not in the matters of God is but hypocrisie and therefore the more wee professe the more wee sinne It will neuer be well with mee till in these greatest things I bee carelesse of others censures fearefull onely of Gods and my owne till sound experience haue really catechised my heart and made me know God and my Sauiour otherwise than by words I will neuer bee quiet till I can see and feele and taste God my hearing I will account as onely seruing to effect this and my speech onely to expresse it 92 There is no enemie can hurt vs but by our owne hands Satan could not hurt vs if our owne corruption betraied vs not afflictions cannot hurt vs without our owne impatience tentations cannot hurt vs without our owne yeeldance death could not hurt vs without the sting of our owne sinnes sinne could not hurt vs without our owne impenitence how might I defie all things if I could obtaine not to be my owne enemie I loue my selfe too much and yet not enough O God teach me to wish my selfe but so well as thou wishest me and I am safe 93 It grieues me to see all other creatures so officious to their Maker in their kinde that both winds and sea and heauen and earth obey him with all readinesse that each of these heares other and all of them their Creator though to the destruction of themselues and Man onely is rebellious imitating herein the euill spirits who in the receit of a more excellent kinde of reason are yet more peruerse hence it is that the Prophets are oft times faine to turne their speech to the earth void of all sense and life from this liuing earth informed with reason that onely which should make vs more pliable stifneth vs. God could force vs if hee pleased but hee had rather incline vs by gentlenesse I must stoope to his power why doe I not stoope to his will It is a vaine thing to resist his voice whose hand we cannot resist 94 As all naturall bodies are mixt so must all our morall disposition no simple passion doth well If our ioy be not allayed with sorrow it is madnesse and if our sorrow bee not tempered with some mixture of ioy it is hellish and desperate if in these earthly things we hope without all doubt or feare without all hope wee offend on both sides if we labour without all recreation we grow dull and heartlesse if wee sport our selues without all labour wee grow wilde and vnprofitable these compositions are wholsome as for the bodie so for the minde which though it bee not of a compounded substance as the body yet hath much varietie of qualities and affections and those contrarie to each other I care not how simple my heauenly affections are which the more free they are from composition are the neerer to God nor how compounded my earthly which are easily subiect to extremities if ioy come alone I will aske him for his fellow and euermore in spight of him couple him with his contrarie that so while each are enemies to other both may be friends to me 95 Ioy and sorrow are hard to conceale as from the countenance so from the tongue there is so much correspondence betwixt the heart and the tongue that they will moue at once euery man therefore speakes of his owne pleasure and care the Hunter and Falconer of his games the Plough-man of his teame the Souldier of his march and colours If the heart were as full of God the tongue could not refraine to talke of him The rarenesse of Christian communication argues the common pouertie of grace If Christ bee not in our hearts we are godlesse if hee be there without our ioy wee are senselesse if wee reioice in him and speake not of him wee are shamefully vnthankfull euery man taketh yea raiseth occasion to bring in speech of what he liketh As I will thinke of thee alwaies O Lord so it shall be my ioy to speake of thee often and if I finde not opportunitie I will make it 96 When I see my Sauiour hanging in so forlorne a fashion vpon the Crosse his head drouping downe his temples bleeding with thornes his hands and feet with the nailes and side with the speare his enemies round about him mocking at his shame and insulting ouer his impotence how should I thinke any otherwise of him than as himselfe complaineth forsaken of his Father But when againe I turne mine eies and see the Sunne darkened the earth quaking the rocks rent the graues opened the theefe confessing to giue witnesse to his Deitie and when I see so strong a guard of prouidence ouer him that all his malicious enemies are not able so much as to breake one bone of that body which seemed carelesly neglected I cannot but wonder at his glorie and safetie God is euer neere though oft vnseene and if he winke at our distresse he sleepeth not the sense of others must not bee iudges of his presence and care but our faith what care I if the world giue me vp for miserable whiles I am vnder his secret protection O Lord since thou art strong in our weaknesse and present in our senslesnesse giue mee but as much comfort in my sorrow as thou giuest mee securitie and at my worst I shall bee well 97 In sinnes and afflictions our course must bee contrarie wee must beginne to detest the greatest sinne first and descend to the hatred of the least wee must first beginne to suffer small afflictions with patience that we may ascend to the indurance of the greatest Then alone shall I be happy when by this holy method I haue drawne my soule to make conscience of the least euill of sinne and not to shrinke at the greatest euill of affliction 98 Prescription is no plea against the King much lesse can long custome pleade for error against that our supreme Lord to whom a thousand yeeres are but as yesterday yea Time which pleads voluntarily for continuance of things lawfull will take no fee not to speake against an euill vse Hath an ill custome lasted long it is more than time it were abrogated age is an aggrauation to sinne Heresie or abuse if it be gray-headed deserues sharper opposition to say I will doe ill because I haue done so is
vndertaken a great taske to teach men how to bee happy in this life J haue vndertaken and performed it wherein J haue followed Seneca and gone beyond him followed him as a Philosopher gone beyond him as a Christian as a Diuine Finding it a true censure of the best Moralists that they were like to goodly Ships graced with great titles the Sauegard the Triumph the Good-speed and such like when yet they haue beene both extremely Sea-beaten and at last wracked The volume is little perhaps the vse more J haue euer thought according to the Greeke Prouerbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What it is euen iustice challengeth it to him to whom the Author hath deuoted himselfe The children of the bondman are the goods of the parents Master J humbly betake it to your Honours protection and your Honour to the protection of the Highest Your Honours most humbly deuoted in all dutie and seruice IOS HALL The Analysis or Resolution of this Treatise concerning TRANQVILLITIE Our Treatise concerning Tranquillitie is partly Refutatorie where the precepts of the Heathen are Recited Reiected for Enumeration Insufficient Qualitie of remedies too weake Positiue which teacheth What it is and wherein it consists How to be attained Enemies of peace subdued whether those On the left hand Of sinnes done Whose trouble is In their guiltines consid How turbulent they are till the conscience be pacified How remedied Peace is through reconciliation Reconciliation through Remission Remission by Satisfaction Satisfaction Not by vs. By infinite merits of Where are considered The person and merits of Christ by whom peace is offered The receiuing of our offered peace by faith In their sollicitation Remedied by resolute resistance Where is the subduing and moderation of our Affections Of paine suffered Crosses Imaginarie How redressed True How preuented and prepared against by Expectation Exercise How to be born Contentedly in respect of their cause Thankefully in respect of their good effect Ioyfully in respect of their issue Death consid How fearefull Which way sweetned On the right Ouer-ioying Ouer-desiring Of Riches Honour Pleasure How to be esteemed As Not good in themselues Exposing vs to euill Rules and grounds of Peace set downe Maine or principall A continuall fruition of the presence of God to be renewed to vs by all holy exercises Subordinate In respect of our actions A resolution To refraine from all occasions of the displeasure of God To performe all required duties To doe nothing doubtingly In respect of our estate To depend wholly on the prouidence of God To account our owne estate best HEAVEN VPON EARTH OR Of true Peace of Minde SECT I. WHEN I had studiously read ouer the morall writings of some wise Heathen especially those of the Stoicall profession Censure of Philosophers I must confesse I found a little enuie and pitie striuing together within me I enuied nature in them to see her so witty in deuising such plausible refuges for doubting and troubled minds I pittied them to see that their carefull disquisition of true rest led them in the end but to meere vnquietnesse Wherein me thought they were as Hounds swift of foot but not exquisite in sent which in an hasty pursuit take a wrong way spending their mouthes and courses in vaine Their praise of ghessing wiâ—tily they shall not leese their hopes both they lost and whosoeuer followes them If Seneca could haue had grace to his wit what wonders would he haue done in this kinde what Diuine might not haue yeelded him the chaire for precepts of Tranquillity without any disparagement As he was this he hath gained Neuer any Heathen wrote more diuinely neuer any Philosopher more probably Neither would I euer desire better Master if to this purpose I needed no other mistris than Nature But this in truth is a taske which Nature hath neuer without presumption vndertaken and neuer performed without much imperfection Like to those vaine and wandring Empirickes which in Tables and pictures make great ostentation of Cures neuer approuing their skill to their credulous Patients And if she could haue truly effected it alone I know not what employment in this life she should haue left for grace to busie her selfe about nor what priuilege it should haue beene heere below to be a Christian since this that we seeke is the noblest worke of the soule and in which alone consists the only heauen of this world this is the summe of all humane desires which when we haue attained then onely we begin to liue and are sure we cannot thence-forth liue miserably No maruell then if all the Heathen haue diligently sought after it many wrote of it none attained it Not Athens must teach this lesson but Ierusalem SECT II. YEt something Grace scorneth not to learne of Nature What Tranquillity is and wherein it consists as Moses may take good counsell of a Midianite Nature hath euer had more skill in the end than in the way to it and whether shee haue discoursed of the good estate of the minde which wee call TRANQVILLITIE or the best which is happinesse hath more happily ghessed at the generall definition of them than of the meanes to compasse them Shee teacheth vs therefore without controlement that the Tranquillity of the minde is as of the Sea and weather when no wind stirreth when the waues doe not tumultuously rise and fall vpon each other but when the face both of the Heauen and waters is still faire and equable That it is such an euen disposition of the heart wherein the scoales of the minde neither rise vp towards the beame through their owne lightnesse or the ouerweening opinion of prosperity nor are too much depressed with any loade of sorrow but hanging equall and vnmoued betwixt both giue a man liberty in all occurrences to enioy himselfe Not that the most temperate minde can be so the master of his passions as not sometimes to ouer-ioy his griefe or ouer-grieue his ioy according to the contrary occasions of both for not the euenest weights but at their first putting into the ballance somewhat sway both parts thereof not without some shew of inequality which yet after some little motion settle themselues in a meet poyse It is enough that after some sudden agitation it can returne to it selfe and rest it selfe at last in a resolued peace And this due composednesse of minde we require vnto our Tranquillitie not for some short fits of good mood which soone after end in discontentment but with the condition of perpetuity For there is no heart makes so rough weather as not sometimes to admit of a calme and whether for that he knoweth no present cause of his trouble or for that he knoweth that cause of trouble is counteruailed with as great an occasion of priuate ioy or for that the multitude of euills hath bred carelesnesse the man that is most disordred findes some respits of quietnesse The balances that are most ill matched in their vnsteddy motions come to an equality
but stay not at it The franticke man cannot auoid the imputation of madnesse though he be sober for many Moones if he rage in one So then the calme minde must be setled in an habituall rest not then firme when there is nothing to shake it but then least shaken when it is most assayled SECT III. Insufficiency of humane precepts WHence easily appeares how vainely it hath beene sought either in such a constant estate of outward things as should giue no distaste to the minde whiles all earthly things varie with the weather and haue no stay but in vncertainty or in the naturall temper of the soule so ordered by humane wisdome as that it should not be affected with any casuall euents to either part since that cannot euer by naturall power be held like to it selfe but one while is cheerefull stirring and ready to vndertake another while drowsie dull comfortlesse prone to rest weary of it selfe loathing his owne purposes his owne resolutions In both which since the wisest Philosophers haue grounded all the rules of their Tranquillity it is plaine that they saw it afarre off as they did heauen it selfe with a desire and admiration but knew not the way to it whereupon alas how slight and impotent are the remedies they prescribe for vnquietnesse Senecaes rules of Tranquillity abridged For what is it that for the inconstancie and lazinesse of the minde still displeasing it selfe in what it doth and for that distemper thereof which ariseth from the fearefull vnthriuing and restlesse desires of it wee should euer bee imploying our selues in some publike affaires chusing our businesse according to our inclination and prosecuting what wee haue chosen wherewith being at last cloyed wee should retire our selues and weare the rest of our time in priuate studies that wee should make due comparatiue trials of our owne abilitie nature of our businesses disposition of our chosen friends that in respect of Patrimonie wee should bee but carelesly affected so drawing it in as it may be least for shew most for vse remouing all pompe bridling our hopes cutting off superfluities for crosses to consider that custome will abate and mitigate them that the best things are but chaines and burdens to those that haue them to those that vse them that the worst things haue some mixture of comfort to those that grone vnder them Or leauing these lower rudiments that are giuen to weake and simple nouices to examine those golden rules of Morality which are commended to the most wise and able practitioners what it is to account himselfe as a Tenant at will To fore-imagine the worst in all casuall matters To auoid all idle and impertinent businesses all pragmaticall medling with affaires of State not to fix our selues vpon any one estate as to bee impatient of a change to call backe the minde from outward things and draw it home into it selfe to laugh at and esteeme lightly of others mis-demeanours Not to depend vpon others opinions but to stand on our owne bottomes to carry our selues in an honest and simple truth free from a curious hypocrisie and affectation of seeming other than we are and yet as free from a base kinde of carelesnesse to intermeddle retirednesse wich societie so as one may giue sweetnesse to the other and both to vs So slackning the minde that we may not loosen it and so bending as we may nor breake it to make most of our selues chearing vp our spirits with varietie of recreations with satiety of meales and all other bodily indulgence sauing that drunkennesse mee thinkes can neither beseeme a wise Philosopher to prescribe nor a vertuous man to practise All these in their kindes please well Allowed yet by Seneâ—a in his last chapter of Tranquillitie Senecaes rules reiected as insufficient profit much and are as soueraigne for both these as they are vnable to effect that for which they are propounded Nature teacheth thee all these should be done shee cannot teach thee to doe them and yet doe all these and no more let mee neuer haue rest if thou haue it For neither are here the greatest enemies of our peace so much as descried afarre off nor those that are noted are hereby so preuented that vpon most diligent practice we can promise our selues any security wherewith who so instructed dare confidently giue challenge to all sinister euents is like to some skilfull Fencer who stands vpon his vsuall wards and plaies well but if there come a strange fetch of an vnwonted blow is put besides the rules of his Art and with much shame ouer-taken And for those that are knowne beleeue mee the minde of man is too weake to beare out it selfe hereby against all onsets There are light crosses that will take an easie repulse others yet stronger that shake the house side but breake not in vpon vs others vehement which by force make way to the heart where they finde none breaking open the doore of the soule that denies entrance Others violent that lift the minde off the hindges or rend the bars of it in peeces others furious that teare vp the very foundations from the bottome leauing no monument behinde them but ruine Antonius Pius The wisest and most resolute Moralist that euer was lookt pale when he should taste of his Hemlocke and by his timorousnesse made sport to those that enuied his speculations An Epistle to the Asians concerning the persecuted Christians The best of the Heathen Emperors that was honoured with the title of piety iustly magnified that courage of Christians which made them insult ouer their tormentors and by their fearelesnesse of earth-quakes and deaths argued the truth of their Religion It must be it can be none but a diuine power that can vphold the minde against the rage of maine afflictions and yet the greatest crosses are not the greatest enemies to inward peace Let vs therefore looke vp aboue our selues and from the rules of an higher Art supply the defects of naturall wisdome giuing such infallible directions for tranquillity that whosoeuer shall follow cannot but liue sweetly and with continuall delight applauding himselfe at home when all the world besides him shall be miserable Disposition of the worke To which purpose it shall be requisite first to remoue all causes of vnquietnesse and then to set downe the grounds of our happy rest SECT IV. I Finde on the hand two vniuersall enemies of Tranquillity Enemies of inward peace diuided into their rankes Conscience of euill done Sense or feare of euill sufferred The former in one word we call sinnes the latter Crosses The first of these must be quite taken away the second duely tempered ere the heart can be at rest For first how can that man be at peace that is at variance with God and himselfe How should peace be Gods gift if it could be without him if it could be against him It is the profession of sinne although faire-spoken at the first closing to be
those which fare better because they know it not Each man iudges of others conditions by his owne The worst sort would bee too much discontented if they saw how farre more pleasant the life of others is And if the better sort such we call those which are greater could looke downe to the infinite miseries of inferiours it would make them either miserable in compassion or proud in conceit It is good sometimes for the delicate rich man to looke into the poore mans Cupbord and seeing God in mercie giues him not to know their sorrow by experience to know it yet in speculation This shall teach him more thanks to God more mercie to men more contentment in himselfe 18 Such as a mans praier is for another it shall be in time of his extremitie for himselfe for though he loue himselfe more than others yet his apprehension of God is alike for both Such as his praier is in a former extremitie it shall be also in death this way we may haue experience euen of a thing future If God haue beene farre off from thee in a fit of thine ordinarie sicknesse feare lest he will not be neerer thee in thy last what differs that from this but in time Correct thy dulnesse vpon former proofes or else at last thy deuotion shall want life before thy body 19 Those that come to their meat as to a medicine as Augustine reports of himselfe liue in an austere and Christian temper and shall bee sure not to ioy too much in the creature nor to abuse themselues Those that come to their medicine as to meat shall be sure to liue miserably and die soone To come to meat if without a gluâ—â—onous appetite and palate is allowed to Christians To come to meat as to a sacrifice vnto the belly is a most base and brutish idolatrie 20 The worst that euer were euen Cain and Iudas haue had some Fautors that haue honoured them for Saints and the Serpent that beguiled our first Parents hath in that name had diuine honour and thanks Neuer any man trod so perillous and deepe steps but some haue followed and admired him Each master of Heresie hath found some clients euen hee that taught all mens opinions were true Againe no man hath beene so exquisite but some haue detracted from him euen in those qualities which haue seemed most worthy of wonder to others A man shall bee sure to be backed by some either in good or euil and by some shouldâ—â— in both It is good for a man not to stand vpon his Abâ—â—â—â—â—is but his quarrell and not to depend vpon others but himselfe 21 We see thousands of creatures die for our vse and neuer doe so much as pittie them why doe we thinke much to die once for God They are not ours so much as we are his nor our pleasure so much to vs as his glory to him their liues are lost to vs ours but changed to him 22 Much ornament is no good signe painting of the face argues an ill complexion of body a worse minde Truth hath a face both honest and comely and lookes best in her owne colours but aboue all Diuine Truth is most faire and most scorneth to borrow beautie of mans wit or tongue shee loueth to come forth in her natiue grace like a princely Matrone and counts it the greatest indignitie to bee dallied with as a wanton Strumpet she lookes to command reuerence not pleasure she would bee kneeled to not laughed at To pranke her vp in vaine dresses and fashions or to sport with her in a light and youthfull manner is most abhorring from her nature they know her not that giue her such entertainment and shall first know her angry when they doe know her Againe she would be plaine but not base not sluttish she would be clad not garishly yet not in ragges she likes as little to be set out by a base soile as to seeme credited with gay colours It is no small wisdome to know her iust guise but more to follow it and so to keepe the meane that while we please her we discontent not the beholders 23 In worldly carriage so much is a man made of as he takes vpon himselfe but such is Gods blessing vpon true humilitie that it still procureth reuerence I neuer saw Christian lesse honoured for a wise neglect of himselfe If our deiection proceed from the conscience of our want it is possible we should be as little esteemed of others as of our selues but if we haue true graces and prize them not at the highest others shall value both them in vs and vs for them and with vsury giue vs that honour we with-held modestly from our selues 24 He that takes his full libertie in what he may shall repent him how much more in what he should not I neuer read of Christian that repented him of too little worldly delight The surest course I haue still found in all earthly pleasures to rise with an appetite and to be satisfied with a little 25 There is a time when Kings goe not forth to warfare our spirituall warre admits no intermission it knowes no night no winter abides no peace no truce This calls vs not into garrison where we may haue ease and respit but into pitched fields continually we see our enemies in the face alwaies and are alwaies seene and assaulted euer resisting euer defending receiuing and returning blowes If either wee be negligent or weary we die what other hope is there while one fights and the other stands still We can neuer haue safetie and peace but in victory There must our resistance be couragious and constant where both yeelding is death and all treaties of peace mortall 26 Neutralitie in things good or euill is both odious and preiudiciall but in matters of an indifferent nature is safe and commendable Herein taking of parts maketh sides and breaketh vnitie In an vniust cause of separation he that fauoreth both parts may perhaps haue least loue of either side but hath most charitie in himselfe 27 Nothing is more absurd than that Epicurean resolution Let vs eat and drinke to morrow we shall die As if we were made onely for the paunch and liued that we might liue yet there was neuer any naturall man found sauour in that meat which he knew should be his last whereas they should say Let vs fast and pray to morrow we shall die for to what purpose is the bodie strengthned that it may perish Whose greater strength makes our death more violent No man bestowes a costly roofe on a ruinous tenement that mans end is easie and happy whom death findes with a weake bodie and a strong soule 28 Sometime euen things in themselues naturally good are to bee refused for those which being euill may be an occasion to a greater good Life is in it selfe good and death euill else Dauid Elias and many excellent Martyrs would not haue fled to hold life and auoid death nor Ezechiah haue praied
top-saile another to the maine a third to the plummet a fourth to the anchor as hee sees the need of their course and weather requires and doth no lesse by his tongue than all the Marriners with their hands On the Bench he is another from himselfe at home now all priuate respects of bloud alliance amity are forgotten and if his owne Sonne come vnder tryall hee knowes him not Pity which in all others is wont to be the best praise of humanity and the fruit of Christian loue is by him throwne ouer the barre for corruption as for Fauour the false Aduocate of the gracious he allowes him not to appeare in the Court there only causes are heard speake not persons Eloquence is then only not discouraged when she serues for a Client of truth meere narrations are allowed in this Oratory not Proems not excursions not Glosses Truth must strip her selfe and come in naked to his barre without false bodies or colors without disguises A bride in his Closet or a letter on the Bench or the whispering and winks of a great neighbour are answered with an angry and couragious repulse Displeasure Reuenge Recompence stand on both sides the Bench but he scornes to turne his eye towards them looking onely right forward at Equity which stands full before him His sentence is euer deliberate and guided with ripe wisdome yet his hand is slower than his tongue but when he is vrged by occasion either to doome or execution he shewes how much he hateth mercifull iniustice neither can his resolution or act be reuersed with partiall importunitie His forehead is rugged and seuere able to discountenance villany yet his words are more awfull than his brow and his hand than his words I know not whether he be more feared or loued both affections are so sweetly contempered in all hearts The good feare him louingly the middle sort loue him fearefully and only the wicked man feares him slauishly without loue He hates to pay priuate wrongs with the aduantage of his Office and if euer he be partiall it is to his enemy He is not more sage in his gowne than valorous in armes and increaseth in the rigour of discipline as the times in danger His sword hath neither rusted for want of vse nor surfetteth of bloud but after many threats is vnsheathed as the dreadfull instrument of diuine reuenge He is the Guard of good lawes the Refuge of innocency the Comet of the guilty the Pay-master of good deserts the Champion of iustice the Patron of peace the Tutor of the Church the Father of his Countrey and as it were another God vpon earth Of the Penitent HE hath a wounded heart and a sad face yet not so much for feare as for vnkindnesse The wrong of his sinne troubles him more than the danger None but he is the better for his sorrow neither is any passion more hurtfull to others than this is gainfull to him The more he seekes to hide his griefe the lesse it will bee hid Euery man may reade it not onely in his eyes but in his bones Whiles hee is in charity with all others he is so falne out with himselfe that none but God can reconcile him He hath sued himselfe in all Courts accuseth arraigneth sentenceth punisheth himselfe vnpartially and sooner may finde mercy at any hand than at his owne He onely hath pulled off the faire vizor of sinne so as that appeares not but masked vnto others is seene of him barefac'd and bewraies that fearefull vglinesse which none can conceiue but he that hath viewed it Hee hath lookt into the depth of the bottomlesse pit and hath seene his owne offence tormented in others and the same brands shaken at him He hath seene the change of faces in that euill one as a tempter as a tormenter and hath heard the noise of a conscience and is so frighted with all these that he can neuer haue rest till he haue runne out of himselfe to God in whose face at first hee findes rigour but afterwards sweetnesse in his bosome He bleeds first from the hand that heales him The Law of God hath made worke for mercy which he hath no sooner apprehended than he forgets his wounds and looks carelesly vpon all these terrors of guiltinesse When he casts his eye backe vpon himselfe he wonders where he was and how he came there and grants that if there were not some witchcraft in sinne he could not haue beene so sottishly gracelesse And now in the issue Satan findes not without indignation and repentance that hee hath done him a good turne in tempting him For he had neuer beene so good if he had not sinned he had neuer fought with such courage if he had not seene his bloud and beene ashamed of his foile Now hee is seene and felt in the front of the spirituall battell and can teach others how to fight and incourage them in fighting His heart was neuer more taken vp with the pleasure of sinne than now with care of auoiding it The very sight of that cup wherein such a fulsome potion was brought him turnes his stomacke the first offers of sinne make him tremble more now than he did before at the iudgements of his sinne neither dares he so much as looke towards Sodom All the powers and craft of hell cannot fetch him in for a customer to euill his infirmity may yeeld once his resolution neuer There is none of his senses or parts which hee hath not within couenants for their good behauiour which they cannot euer breake with impunity The wrongs of his sinne he repaies to men with recompence as hating it should be said he owes any thing to his offence to God what in him lies with sighs teares vowes and endeuours of amendment No heart is more waxen to the impressions of forgiuenesse neither are his hands more open to receiue than to giue pardon All the iniuries which are offered to him are swallowed vp in his wrongs to his Maker and Redeemer neither can hee call for the arrerages of his farthings when he lookes vpon the millions forgiuen him he feeles not what he suffers from men when he thinks of what hee hath done and should haue suffered He is a thankfull Herauld of the mercies of his God which if all the world heare not from his mouth it is no fault of his Neither did hee so burne with the euill fires of concupiscence as now with the holy flames of zeale to that glory which hee hath blemished and his eies are full of moisture as his heart of heat The gates of heauen are not so knockt at by any suter whether for frequence or importunitie You shall finde his cheekes furrowed his knees hard his lips sealed vp saue when he must accuse himselfe or glorifie God his eies humbly deiected and sometimes you shall take him breaking off a sigh in the midst as one that would steale an humiliation vnknowne and would be offended with any part that should not
he who all that his hand shall finde to doe doth it with all his power I haue seene indeed the trauell Ec. 3.20 that God hath giuen the sonnes of men to humble them thereby Ec. 1.8 Ec. 3.9 that all things are full of Labour man cannot vtter it But what profit hath he that worketh of the thing wherein he trauelleth Much euery way first Health The sleepe of him that trauelleth Ec. 5.11 Pr. 20.13 Pr. 10.4 Pr. 13.4 Pr. 14.23 Pr. 12.27 is sweet whether hee eat little or much Secondly Wealth Open thine eies and thou shalt be satisfied with bread yea The hand of the diligent maketh rich and his soule shall be fat and not sufficiency onely but in all labour there is abundance but the talke of the lips bringeth want yet more the riches that the diligent man hath are precious 3. Honour A diligent man shall stand before Kings and not before the base sort Pr. 22.19 Pr. 12.24 and The hand of the diligent shall beare rule but the idle shall be vnder tribute §. 18. Slothfulnesse The properties The danger of it Ec. 4.5 Pr. 19.24 THe slothfull is he that foldeth his hands and eateth vp his owne flesh That hideth his hand in his bosome and will not pull it out againe to his mouth That turneth on his bed Pr. 26.24 as a doore turneth on the hinges and saith Yet a little sleepe Pr. 6.10 a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleepe Euery thing that he ought to doe is troublesome The way of the slothfull man is an hedge of thornes which hee is loth to set foot in There is a Lion without saith he I shall bee slaine in the street Pr. 15.19 who although herein he be wiser in his owne conceit Pr. 22.13 Pr. 26.13 Pr. 26.16 Pr. 12.11 Pr. 13.4 Pr. 21.25 Pr. 18.9 Pr. 10.5 Pr. 19.15 Pr. 20.4 Pr. 20.13 Ec. 10.18 than seuen men that can render a reason Yet the truth is hee that so much as followes the idle is destitute of vnderstanding He lusteth indeed and affecteth great things but his soule hath nought so The very desire of the slothfull slayeth him for his hands refuse to worke And not only hee that is slothfull in his worke is brother to him that is a great waster but he that sleepeth and Slothfulnesse causeth to fall asleepe in haruest is the sonne of confusion and He that will not plough because of Winter shall beg in Summer and haue nothing Loue not sleepe therefore lest thou come to pouerty for what is it that hence commeth not to ruine For the house By slothfulnesse the roofe of the house goeth to decay and by idlenesse of the hands Pr. 24.30 Pr. 24.31 the house droppeth thorow For the Land I past by the field of the slothfull and by the Vineyard of the man destitute of vnderstanding and loe it was all growne ouer with thornes and nettles had couered the face of it and the stone wall thereof was broken downe Pr. 24.32 Then I beheld and considered it well I looked vpon it Pr. 10.4 Pr. 6.6 Pr. 6.7 Pr. 6.8 Pr. 6.9 Pr. 24.33 Pr. 6.11 and receiued instruction so in euery respect the slothfull hand maketh poore Goe to the Pismire therefore thou sluggard and behold her wayes and be wise For she hauing no Guide Gouernour nor Ruler prepareth her meat in Summer and gathereth her food in haruest How long wilt thou sleepe O sluggard when wilt thou arise out of thy sleepe Yet a little sleepe yet a little slumber yet a little folding of the hands to sleepe Therefore thy pouerty commeth as a speedy Traueller and thy necessity as an armed man SALOMONS ETHICKS THE FOVRTH BOOKE TEMPERANCE and FORTITVDE Temperance is the moderation of our desires whether in Diet Sobrietie in words and actions Modestie and Humilitie in affections continencie refraining of anger §. 1. Temperance in diet Excesse how dangerous to Body Soule Estate THe temperate in diet is hee that refraineth his appetite Pr. 25.28 Pr. 23.31 Pr. 23.2 Pr. 23.1 Pr. 25.16 Ec. 3.13 that lookes not on the wine when it is red that puts his knife to his throat when hee sits with a Ruler that when hee findes hony eats but that which is sufficient for him lest hee should bee ouer-full It is true that a man eateth and drinketh and seeth the commoditie of all his labour this is the gift of God yea Ec. 5.17 this I haue seene good that it is comely to eat and to drinke and to take pleasure in all his labour wherein hee trauelleth vnder the Sunne Ec. 9.7 Ec. 3 22. Ec. 2 24. Pr. 21.2 Ec. 2.3 Ec. 2.10 Pr. 27.7 Pr. 30.21 Pr. 30.21 the whole number of the daies of his life which God giueth him for this is his portion God allowes vs to eat our bread with ioy and drinke our wine with a cheerefull heart and there is nothing better than this yea there is no profit but this But not that a man should bee giuen to his appetite that hee should seeke in his heart to draw his flesh to wine or that whatsoeuer his eies desire hee should not with-hold it from them Such a man when hee is full despiseth an hony-combe whereas to the hungry euery bitter thing is sweet and in his excesse is outragious One of the three things yea foure Ec. 5.11 Pr. 23.29 for which the earth is moued and cannot sustaine it selfe is a foole when hee is filled with meat Neither doth this prosper with himselfe For his body The satietie of the rich will not suffer him to sleepe To whom is woe to whom is sorrow to whom is murmuring Pr. 23.30 to whom are wounds without cause and to whom is the rednesse of the eies Pr. 23.31 Pr. 23.32 Euen to them that tarry long at the wine to them that goe and seeke mixt wine For his soule Looke not on the wine when it is red Pr. 13.33 and sheweth his colour in the cup or goeth downe pleasantly In the end thereof it will bite like a Serpent and hurt like a Cockatrice Thine eies shall looke vpon the strange woman Pr. 23.34 Pr. 23.35 and thy lips shall speake lewd things and thou shalt be as one that sleepeth in the middest of the Sea and as hee that sleepeth in the top of the mast they haue stricken mee shalt thou say but I was not sicke they haue beaten me Pr. 25.28 Pr. 23.20 but I knew not when I awoke therefore will I seeke it yet still For his estate He is like a citie which is broken downe and without walls Keepe not company therefore with drunkards nor with gluttons for the glutton and drunkard shall bee poore Pr. 20.1 and the sleeper shall be clothed with rags and in all these Wine is a mocker and strong drinke is raging and whosoeuer is deceiued thereby is not wise §. 2. Modestie In words what it requires
palmes chrisme garments roses swords water salt the Pontificall solemnities of your great Master and whateuer your new mother hath besides plausible before he should see ought in all these worthy of any other entertainment then contempt Who can but disdaine that these things should procure any wise proselyte Cannot your owne memory recount those truly religious spirits which hauing fought Rome as resolued Papists haue left the world as holy Martyrs dying for the detestation of that which they came to adore Whence this They heard and magnified that which they now saw and abhorred Their fire of zeale brought them to the flames of Martyrdome Their innocent hopes promised them Religion they found nothing but a pretence promised deuotion and behold idolatry they saw hated suffered and now raigne whiles you wilfully and vnbidden will lose your soule where others meant to lose and haue found it Your zeale dies where theirs began to liue you like to liue where they would but dye They shall comfort vs for you they shall once stand vp against you While they would rather die in the heat of that fire then liue in the darknesse of their errors you rather die in the Egyptian darknesse of errors then liue in the pleasant light of Truth yea I feare rather in another fire then this Light Alas what shall we looke for of you Too late repentance or obstinate error Both miserable A Spira or a Staphylus Your friends your selfe shall wish you rather vnborne then either O thou which art the great Shepheard great in power great in mercy which leauest the ninety and nine to reduce one fetch home if thy will bee this thy forlorne charge fetch him home driue him home to thy Fold though by shame though by death Let him once recouer thy Church thou him it is enough Our common Mother I know not whether more pities your losse or disdaines thus to be robb'd of a son not for the need of you but her owne piety her owne loue For how many troops of better informed soules hath she euery day returning into her lap now breathing from their late Antichristianisme and embracing her knees vpon their owne She laments you not for that shee feares shee shall misse you but for that shee knowes you shall want her See you her teares and doe but pitty your selfe as much as she you And from your Mother Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge to descend to your Nurse Is this the fruit of such education Was not your youth spent in a society of such comely order strict gouernment wise lawes religious care it was ours yet let me praise it to your shame as may iustly challenge after all bragges either RHEMES or DOVVAY or if your Iesuits haue any other denne more cleanly and more worthy of ostentation And could you come out fresh and vnseasoned from the middest of those salt waues Could all those heauenly showres fall beside you while you like a Gedeons fleece want moisture Shall none of those diuine principles which your youth seem'd to drinke in check you in your new errors Alas how vnlike are you to your selfe to your name Iacob wrestled with an Angell and preuailed you grapple but with a Iesuit and yeeld Iacob supplanted his brother and Esau hath supplanted you Iacob changed his name for a better by a valiant resistance you by your cowardly yeelding haue lost your owne Iacob stroue with God for a blessing I feare to say it you against him for a curse for no common measure of hatred or ordinary opposition can serue a reuolter Either you must be desperately violent or suspected The mighty One of Israel for hee can doe it raise you falne returne you wandred and giue you grace at last to shame the Deuill to forsake your stepmother to acknowledge your true Parent to satisfie the world to saue your owne soule If otherwise I will say of you as Ieremy of his Israelites if not rather with more indignation My soule shall weepe in secret for your reuolt and mine eyes shall drop downe teares because one of the Lords flocke is caried away captiue To my Lord and Patrone the Lord DENNY Baron of Waltham EPIST. II. Of the contempt of the World MY Lord my tongue my pen my heart are all your seruants when you cannot heare me through distāce you must see me in my Letters You are now in the Senate of the Kingdome or in the concourse of the city or perhaps though more rarely in the royall face of the Court. All of them places fit for your place From all these let me call off your minde to her home aboue and in the midst of businesse shew you rest If I may not rather commend then admonish and before-hand confesse my counsell superfluous because your holy forwardnesse hath preuented it You can afford these but halfe of your selfe The better part is better bestowed Your soule is still retired and reserued You haue learned to vouchsafe these worldly things vse without affection and know to distinguish wisely betwixt a Stoicall dulnesse and a Christian contempt and haue long made the world not your God but your slaue And in truth that I may loose my selfe into a bold and free discourse what other respect is it worthy of I would adore it on my face if I could see any Maiesty that might command veneration Perhaps it loues me not so much as to shew me his best I haue sought it enough and haue seene what others haue doated on and wondred at their madnesse So may I looke to see better things aboue as I neuer could see ought here but vanitie and vilenesse What is fame but smoake and mettall but drosse and pleasure but a pill in suger Let some Gallants condemne this as the voice of a Melancholike Scholler I speake that which they shall feele and shall confesse Though I neuer was so I haue seen some as happy as the world could make them and yet I neuer saw any more discontented Their life hath bin neither longer nor sweeter nor their heart lighter nor their meales heartier nor their nights quieter nor their cares fewer nor their complaints Yea we haue knowne some that haue lost their mirth when they haue found wealth and at once haue ceased to be merry and poore All these earthly delights if they were sound yet how short they are and if they could bee long yet how vnsound If they were sound they are but as a good day betweene two agues or a sunne-shine betwixt two tempest And if they were long their honie is exceeded by their gall This ground beares none but maples hollow and fruitlesse or like the banks of the dead Sea a faire apple which vnder a red side containes nothing but dust Euery flower in this garden either pricks or smels ill If it be sweet it hath thornes and if it haue no thornes it annoyes vs with an ill sent Goe then ye wise idolatrous Parasites and erect shrines and offer sacrifices
knowledge partly and partly for health There was nothing that made not my iourney pleasant saue the labour of the way which yâ—â— was so sweetly deceiued by the society of Sir Edmund Bacon a Gentleman truly honourable beyond all titles that I found small cause to complaine The Sea brookt not me nor I it an vnquiet element made only for wonder vse not for pleasure Alighted once from that woodden conueyance and vneuen way I bethought my selfe how fondly our life is committed to an vnsteady and reeling peece of wood fickle winds restlesse waters while wee may set foot on stedfast and constant earth Loe then euery thing taught me euery thing delighted me so ready are we to be affected with those forrain pleasures which at home we should ouer-look I saw much as one might in such a span of earth in so few moneths The time fauoured me for now newly had the key of peace opened those parts which warre had before closed closed I say to all English saue either fugitiues or captiues All ciuill occurrences as what faire Cities what strange fashions entertainments dangers delights we found are fit for other eares and winter euenings What I noted as a Diuine within the sphere of my profession my paper shall not spare in some part to report and that to your selfe which haue passed a longer way with more happy fruit of obseruation Euen little streames empty themselues into great Riuers and they againe into the Sea Neither do I desire to tell you what you know not it shall be sufficient that I relate ought which others shall thinke memorable Along our way how many Churches saw we demolished Nothing left but rude heaps to tell the passenger there hath beene both deuotion and hostility O the miserable foot-steps of warre besides bloodshed ruine and desolation Furie hath done that there which Couetousnesse would doe with vs would doe but shall not The truth within shall saue the wals without And to speake truly what-euer the vulgar exclaime Idolatrie pull'd downe those wals not rage If there had beene no Hollander to raze them they should haue falne alone rather than hide so much impietie vnder their guilty roofe These are spectacles not so much of cruelty as iustice Cruelty of man Iustice of God But which I wondred at Churches fall and Iesuits Colledges rise euerywhere There is no city where those are not either rearing or built Whence commeth this Is it for that deuotion is not so necessary as policy Those men as we say of the Fox fare best when they are most cursed None so much spighted of their owne none so hated of all none so opposed by ours and yet these ill weeds grow Whosoeuer liues long shall see them feared of their owne which now hate them shall see these seuen leane kine deuoure al the fat beasts that feed on the medowes of Tyber I prophecie as Pharaoh dreamed The euent shall iustifie my confidence At Bruxelles I say some English-women professe themselues Vestals with a thousand rites I know not whether more ridiculous or magicall Poore soules they could not be fooles enough at home It would haue made you to pitty laugh disdain I know not which more to see by what cunning sleights and faire pretences that weake sexe was fetcht into a wilfull bondage and if those two can agree willingly constrained to serue a master whom they must and cannot obey whom they neither may forsake for their vow nor can please for their frailty What followes hence Late sorrow secret mischiefe misery irremediable Their forwardnesse for will-worship shall condemne our coldnesse for truth I talked there in more boldnesse perhaps then wisedome with Costerus a famous Iesuit an old man more teasty then subtle and more able to wrangle then satisfie Our discourse was long and roauing and on his part full both of words and vehemency He spake as at home I as a stranger yet so as he saw me modestly peremptory The particulars would swell my Letter too much It is enough that the Truth lost lesse then I gained At Gaunt a city that commands reuerence for age and wonder for the greatnesse we fell vpon a Cappucine nouice which wept bitterly because he was not allowed to be miserable His head had now felt the razor his backe the rod all that Laconicall discipline pleased him well which another being condemned to would iustly account a torment What hindred then Piety to his mother would not permit this which hee thought piety to God He could not be a willing begger vnlesse his mother must beg vnwillingly He was the onely heyre of his father the onely stay of his mother the comfort of her widowhood depended on this her orphane who now naked must enter into the world of the Cappucines as he came first into this leauing his goods to the diuision of the fraternity the least part whereof should haue beene hers whose hee wished all Hence those teares that repulse I pitied his ill bestowed zeale and rather wished then durst teach him more wisedome These men for deuout the Iesuits for learned and pragmaticall haue ingrossed all opinion from other Orders O hypocrisie No Cappucine may take or touch siluer for these are you know the quintessence of Franciscan spirits This mettall is as very an Anathema to these as the wedge of gold to Achan at the offer whereof he starts backe as Moses from the serpent yet he carries a boy with him that takes and carries it and neuer complaines of either mettall or measure I saw and laughed at it and by this open tricke of hypocrisie suspected more more close How could I chuse while commonly the least appeares of that which is especially of that which is loathsome in appearance much more in nature At Namurs on a pleasant and steepe hill-top we found one that was tearmed a maried Hermite approuing his wisedome aboue his fellowes that could make choice of so chearfull and sociable a solitarinesse Whence after a delightfull passage vp the sweet Riuer Mosa we visited the populous and rich Clergy of Leodium That great Citie might well be dichotomized into Cloysters and Hospitals If I might aduenture I could here play the Criticke after all the ruines of my neglected Philologie Old monuments and after them our Lipsius call this people Eburones I doubt whether it should not rather be written Ebriones yet without search of any other Records saue my owne eyes while yet I would those streets were more moist with wine then with blood wherein no day no night is not dismall to some No law no Magistrate layes hold on the knowne murderer if himselfe list for three dayes after his fact the gates are open and iustice shut priuate violence may pursue him publike iustice cannot whence some of more hot temper carue themselues of reuenge others take-vp with a small pecuniary satisfaction O ENGLAND thought I happy for iustice happy for security There you shall find in euery corner a Maumet at euery
the doore and the way hath taught vs that through many afflictions wee must enter into heauen There is but one passage and that a strait one If with much pressure vvee can get through and leaue but our superfluous ragges as torne from vs in the crowd we are happy He that made heauen hath on purpose thus framed it wide when wee are entred and glorious narrow and hard in the entrance that after our paine our glory might be sweeter And if before-hand you can climbe vp thither in your thoughts looke about you you shall see no more Palmes then crosses you shall see none crowned but those that haue wrestled with crosses and sorrowes to sweat yea to blood and haue ouercome All runnes here to the ouer comer and ouercomming implyes both fighting and successe Gird vp your loynes therefore and strengthen your weake knees resolue to fight for heauen to suffer fighting to persist in suffering so persisting you shall ouercome and ouercomming you shall be crowned Oh reward truely great aboue desert yea aboue conceit A crowne for a few groanes An eternal crowne of life and glory for a short and momentany suffering How iust is Saint Pauls account that the afflictions of this present life are not worthy of the glory which shal be shewed vnto vs O Lord let me smart that I may reigne vphold thou mee in smarting that thou mayest hold me worthy of reigning It is no matter how vile I be so I may be glorious What say you would you not be afflicted Whether had you rather mourne for a vvhile or for euer One must be chosen the election is easie Whether had you rather reioyce for one fit or alwayes You would doe both Pardon me it is a fond couetousnesse and idle singularitie to affect it What That you alone may fare better then all Gods Saints That God should strew Carpets for your nice feet onely to walke into your heauen and make that way smooth for you which all Patriarkes Prophets Euangelists Confessors Christ himselfe haue found rugged and bloodie Away with this selfe-loue and come downe you ambitious sonnes of Zebedee and ere you thinke of sitting neere the Throne be content to be called vnto the Cup. Now is your tryall Let your Sauiour see how much of his bitter potion you can pledge then shall you see how much of his glory he can afford you Be content to drinke of his vineger and gall and you shall drinke new wine with him in his Kingdome To Mr PETER MOVLIN Preacher of the Church at PARIS EP. VI. Discoursing of the late French occurrents and what vse God expects to bee made of them SInce your trauels here with vs we haue not forgotten you but since that your vvittie and learned trauels in the common affaires of Religion haue made your memorie both fresh and blessed Behold whiles your hand vvas happily busie in the defence of our King the heads and hands of traitors vvere busie in the massacring of your owne God doth no memorable and publike act which hee would not haue talked of read construed of all the world How much more of neighbors whom scarce a sea seuereth from each other how much yet more of brethren whom neither land nor sea can seuer Your dangers and feares and griefes haue beene ours All the salt water that runnes betwixt vs cannot vvash off our interest in all your common causes The deadly blow of that miscreant vvhose name is iustly sentenced to forgetfulnesse pierced euen our sides Who hath not bled within himselfe to thinke that he which had so victoriously out liued the swords of enemies should fall by the knife of a villaine and that hee should die in the peaceable streets vvhom no fields could kill that all those honorable and happy triumphs should end in so base a violence But oh our idlenesse and impietie if we see not a diuine hand from aboue striking vvith this hand of disloyaltie Sparrowes fall not to the ground vvithout him much lesse Kings One dyes by a tyle-sheard another by the splinters of a Launce one by Lice another by a Fly one by poison another by a knife What are all these but the executioners of that great God vvhich hath said Ye are Gods but ye shal die like men Perhaps God saw that we may guesse modestly at the reasons of his acts you reposed too much in this arme of flesh or perhaps he saw this scourge would haue beene too early to those enemies whose sinne though great yet was not full or perhaps hee saw that if that great spirit had beene deliberately yeelded in his bed you should not haue slept in yours Or perhaps the ancient conniuence at those streames of blood from your too common Duels was now called to reckoning or it may be that weake reuolt from the truth He whos 's the rod vvas knowes why he strooke yet may it not passe without a note that he fell by that religion to vvhich he fell How many Ages might that great Monarch haue liued vvhatsoeuer the ripe head of your more then mellow Cotton could imagine ere his least finger should haue bled by the hand of an Huguenot All religions may haue some monsters but blessed bee the God of heauen ours shall neuer yeeld that good Iesuite either a Mariana to teach treason or a Rauillac to act it But vvhat is that we heare It is no maruell That holy societie is a fit Gardian for the hearts of Kings I dare say none more loues to see them none takes more care to purchase them How happy were that Chappell thinke they if it vvere full of such shrines I hope all Christian Princes haue long and vvell learned so great is the courtesie of these good Fathers that they shall neuer by their vvils need bee troubled with the charge of their owne hearts An heart of a King in a Iesuites hand is as proper as a wafer in a Priests Iustly was it vvritten of old vnder the picture of Ignatius Loyola Cauete vobis Principes Be vvise O ye Princes and learn to be the keepers of your owne hearts Yea rather O thou keeper of Israel that neither slumbrest nor sleepest keepe thou the hearts of all Christian Kings vvhether aliue or dead from the keeping of this traiterous generation whose very religion is holy rebellion and whose merits bloody Doubtlesse that murderer hoped to haue stabbed thousands vvith that blow and to haue let out the life of religion at the side of her collapsed Patron God did at once laugh and frowne at his proiect and suffered him to liue to see himselfe no lesse a foole then a villaine O the infinite goodnesse of the wise and holy gouernour of the world Who could haue looked for such a calme in the middest of a tempest who would haue thought that violence could beget peace Who durst haue conceiued that King Henry should die alone and that Religion should lose nothing but his person This is the Lords doing and it
did his Rocke and bring downe riuers of teares to wash away your bloodshed Doe not so much feare your iudgement as abhorre your sinne yea your selfe for it And vvith strong cries lift vp your guilty hands to that God whom you offended and say Deliuer me from blood-guiltinesse O Lord. Let me tel you As vvithout repentance there is no hope so with it there is no condemnation True penitence is strong and can grapple with the greatest sinne yea with all the powers of hell What if your hands be red vvith blood Behold the blood of your Sauiour shall wash away yours If you can bathe your selfe in that your Scarlet soule shall bee as white as Snow This course alone shall make your Crosse the way to the Paradise of God This plaister can heale all the fores of the soule if neuer so desperate Onely take heed that your heart be deepe enough pierced ere you lay it on else vnder a seeming skin of dissimulation your soule shall fester to death Yet ioy vs with your true sorrow vvhom you haue grieued with your offence and at once comfort your friends and saue your soule To Mr. IOHN MOLE of a long time now prisoner vnder the Inquisition at Rome EPIST. IX Exciting him to his wonted constancy and encouraging him to Martyrdome WHat passage can these lines hope to find into that your strait and curious thraldome Yet who would not aduenture the losse of this paines for him which is ready to lose himselfe for Christ what doe we not owe to you which haue thus giuen your selfe for the common faith Blessed bee the name of that God who hath singled you out for his Champion and made you inuincible how famous are your bonds how glorious your constancy Oh that out of your close obscurity you could but see the honour of your suffering the affections of Gods Saints and in some an holy enuie at your distressed happinesse Those wals cannot hide you No man is attended with so many eyes from earth and heauen The Church your Mother beholds you not with more compassion then ioy Neither can it be sayd how shee at once pities your misery and reioyces in your patience The blessed Angels looke vpon you with gratulation and applause The aduersaries with an angry sorrow to see themselues ouercome by their captiue their obstinate cruelty ouer-matched with humble resolution and faithfull perseuerance Your Sauiour sees you from aboue not as a meere spectator but as a patient with you in you for you yea as an agent in your indurance and victory giuing new courage with the one hand and holding out a Crowne with the other Whom would not these sights incourage who now can pity your solitarines The hearts of all good men are with you Neither can that place be but full of Angels which is the continuall obiect of so many prayers yea the God of heauen was neuer so neere you as now you are remoued from men Let me speake a bold but true word It is as possible for him to be absent from his heauen as from the prisons of his Saints The glorified spirits aboue sing to him the persecuted soules below suffer for him and cry to him he is magnified in both present with both the faith of the one is as pleasing to him as the triumph of the other Nothing obligeth vs men so much as smarting for vs words of defence are worthy of thankes but paine is esteemed aboue recompence How do we kisse the wounds which are taken for our sakes professe that we would hate our selues if we did not loue those that dare bleed for vs How much more shall the God of mercies bee sensible of your sorrowes and crowne your patience To whom you may truly sing that ditty of the Prophet Surely for thy sake am I flaine continually and am counted as a sheepe for the slaughter What need I to stir vp your constancy which hath already amazed and wearied your persecutors No suspition shall driue me hereto but rather the thirst of your praise He that exhorts to persist in well-doing while he perswades commendeth Whither should I rather send you then to the fight of your owne Christian fortitude which neither prayers nor threats haue beene able to shake Here stands on the one hand liberty promotion pleasure life and which easily exceeds all these the deare respect of wife and children whom your only resolution shall make widow and orphanes these with smiles and vowes and teares seeme to importune you On the other hand bondage solitude horror death and the most lingring of all miseries tuine of posterity these with frownes and menaces labour to affright you Betwixt both you haue stood vnmoued fixing your eyes either right forward vpon the cause of your suffering or vpwards vpon the crowne of your reward It is an happy thing when our own actions may be either examples or arguments of good These blessed proceedings call you on to your perfection The reward of good beginnings prosecuted is doubled neglected is lost How vaine are those temptations which would make you a loser of all this praise this recompence Goe on therefore happily keepe your eyes where they are and your heart cannot be but where it is and where it ought Looke still for what you suffer and for whom For the truth for Christ what can be so precious as truth Not life it selfe All earthly things are not so vile to life as life to truth Life is momentarie Truth eternall Life is ours the Truth Gods Oh happy purchase to giue our life for the truth What can we suffer too much for Christ He hath giuen our life to vs hee hath giuen his owne life for vs. What great thing is it if he require what he hath giuen vs if ours for his Yea rather if he call for vvhat he hath lent vs yet not to bereaue but to change it giuing vs gold for clay glory for our corruption Behold that Sauiour of yours weeping and bleeding and dying for you alas our soules are too strait for his sorrowes wee can be made but paine for him He vvas made sinne for vs vvee sustaine for him but the impotent anger of men he strugled vvith the infinite vvrath of his Father for vs. Oh vvho can endure enough for him that hath passed thorow death and hell for his soule Thinke this and you shall resolue vvith Dauid I will bee yet more vile for the Lord. The worst of the despight of men is but Death and that if they inflict not a disease vvill or if not that Age. Here is no imposition of that vvhich vvould not be but an hastning of that which vvill be an hastning to your gaine For behold their violence shall turne your necessitie into vertue and profit Nature hath made you mortall none but an enemie can make you a Martyr you must die though they vvill not you cannot die for Christ but by them How could they else deuise to make you happie
one Head Christ one body the Church that being washed with one Baptisme ransomed with one price professing one Faith and holding the Vnity of the spirit in the bond of Peace we may at last happily enioy one and the same Heauen through Iesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father and the holy Spirit be ascribed all honour and glory for euermore Amen FINIS AN HOLY PANEGYRICK A SERMON PREACHED at Pauls Crosse vpon the anniuersarie Solemnitie of the happie Inauguration of our drad Soueraigne Lord King James March 24. 1613. 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 SIR JOHN SWINERTON Knight Lord Maior of the Citie of LONDON All Grace and Happinesse RIght Honourable MY owne forwardnesse whereof it repenteth me not hath sent forth other of my labours vnbidden but this your effectuall importunitie hath drawne forth into the common light It is an holy desire that the eye may second the eare in any thing that may helpe the soule and we that are fishers of men should bee wanting to our selues if wee had not baits for both those senses J plead not the disaduantage of a dead letter in respect of that life which elocution puts into any discourse Such as it is J make it both publike and yours J haue caused my thoughts so neere as J could to goe backe to the verie tearmes wherein J expressed them as thinking it better to fetch those words I haue let fall than to follow those J must take vp That therefore which it pleased your Lo. to heare with such patient attention and with so good affection to desire J not vnwillingly suffer abroad that these papers may speake that permanently to the eyes of all our Countrymen which in the passage found such fauour in the eares of your Citizens and such roome in so many hearts Besides your first and vehement motion for the Presse your knowne loue to learning deserues a better acknowledgement and no doubt findes it from more worthie hands And if my gratulation would adde any thing those should enuie you which will not imitate you For the rest God giue your Lo. a wise vnderstanding and couragious heart that you may prudently and strongly menage these wilde times vpon which you are fallen and by your holy example and powerfull endeuours helpe to shorten these reines of licentiousnesse That so this Citie which is better taught than any vnder heauen may teach all other places how to liue and may honour that profession which hath made it renowmed and all Gods Church ioyfull The welfare and happinesse whereof and your Lo. in it is vnfainedly wished by Your Lordships humbly deuoted IOS HALL AN HOLY PANEGYRICKE 1 SAM 12.24 25. Therefore feare you the Lord and serue him in truth with all your hearts and consider how great things he hath done for you But if you doe wickedly ye shall perish both ye and your King I Hold it no small fauour of God Right Honourable and beloued that hee hath called mee to the seruice of this day both in the name of such a people to praise him for his Anointed and in his name to praise his Anointed to his people The same hand that giues the opportunitie vouchsafe to giue successe to this businesse That which the Iewes sinned in but desiring it is our happinesse to enioy I need not call any other witnesse than this day wherein we celebrate the blessing of a King and which is more of a King higher than other Princes by the head and shoulders And if other yeeres had forgotten this tribute of their loyaltie and thankfulnesse yet the example of those ancient Romane Christians as Eusebius and Sozomen report would haue taught vs Decimum quemque annum Imperatores Romani magna festiuitate celebrant Sozom l. 1. 24. Idem Euseb de vita Const that the tenth compleat yeere of our Constantine deserues to be solemne and Iubilar And if our ill nature could be content to smother this mercy in silence the very Lepers of Samaria should rise vp against vs and say We doe not well this is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace My discourse yet shall not bee altogether laudatorie but as Samuels led in with exhortation and carried out with threatning For this Text is a composition of duties fauours dangers of duties which we owe of fauours receiued of dangers threatned The duties that God lookes for of vs come before the mention of the fauours we haue receiued from him though after their receit to teach vs that as his mercy so our obedience should be absolute and the danger followes both to make vs more carefull to hold the fauours and performe the duties And mee thinkes there cannot be a more excellent mixture If we should heare only of the fauors of God nothing of our duties wee should fall into conceitednesse if onely of our duties without recognition of his fauours we should prooue vncheerefull and if both of these without mention of any danger we should presume on our fauours and be slacke in our duties Prepare therefore your Christian eares and hearts for this threefold cord of God that through his blessing these dueties may draw you to obedience the dangers to a greater awe and the fauours to a further thankfulnesse The goodnesse of these outward this as is not such as that it can priuilege euery desire of them from sinne Iuxta Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Monarchie 〈…〉 and likeâ—â— to his rule that sits in the assembly of Gods One God 〈…〉 the acclamation of those ancient Christians and ye it was mis-desired of the Isrâ—â—â—es Wee may not euer desire that which is better in it selfe but that which is bâ—tter for vs Neither must wee follow our conceit in this iudgement but the appointment of God Now though God had appointed in time both a Scepter and a Law-giuer to 〈◊〉 yet they sinned in mending the pase of God and sputting on his decree And if they had staid his leisure so that they had desired that which was best in it selfe best for them appointed by God and now appointed yet the manner and ground offended For out of an humor of innouation out of discontent out of distrust out of an itch of conformitie to other Nations to aske a King it was not onely a sinne as they confesse vers 29. but ragnah rabbah a great wickednesse as Samuel tells them vers 17. and as oftentimes we may reade Gods displeasure in the face of heauen he shewes it in the weather God thunders and raines in the middest of wheat-â—aruest The thunder was fearefull the raine in that hot climate and season strangely vnseasonable both to bee in the instant of Samuels speech was iustly miraculous The heathen Poets bring in their fained God thundering in applause I neuer finde the true God did so Psal 29. This voice of
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
his Church must be framed your ciuill State c. Iust as that Donatist of old in Augustine Quid vobis c. What haue you to doe with worldly Emperours and as that other in Optatus Quid Imperatoricum Ecclesia What hath the Emperor to doe with the Church Yea your Martyr feares not to teach vs that Gods seruants being as yet priuate men may and must together build his Church though all the Princes of the World should prohibit the same vpon paine of death Belike then you should sinne hainously if you should not be Rebels The question is not whether we should aske leaue of Princes to be Christians but whether of Christian Princes we should aske leaue to establish circumstances of Gouernment God must be serued though we suffer our bloud is well bestowed vpon our Maker but in patience not in violence Priuate profession is one thing Publike Reformation and Iniunction is another Euery man must doe that in the maine none may doe this but they of whom God saies I haue said Ye are Gods and of them There is difference betwixt Christian and Heathen Princes If at least all Princes were not to you Heathen If these should haue beene altogether stayed for Religion had come late If the other should not be stayed for Religion would soone bee ouerlayd with confusion Lastly the body of Religion is one thing the skirts of outward Gouernment another that may not depend on men to be embraced or with loyaltie prosecuted these vpon those generall rules Christ both may and doe and must If you cut off but one lap of these with Dauid you shall bee touched To deny this power to Gods Deputies on Earth what is it but Ye take too much vpon you Moses and Aaron 1 Sam. 24.6 Numb 16.3 all the Congregation is holy wherefore lift ye your selues aboue the Congregation of the Lord See if herein you come not too neere the wals of that Rome which yee so abhorre and accurse in ascribing such power to the Church none to Princes Counterpoys pag. 2.30 Let your Doctor tell you 2 Chron. 13. 2 Chr. 14. 15. 2 Chron. 29. 2 Chron. 30. 2 Chron. 34. whether the best Israelites in the times of Abisah Asa Iehosaphat Ezekiah Iosiah tooke vpon them to reforme without or before or against their Princes Yea did Nehemiah himselfe without Arâ—â—hshat though an Heathen King set vpon the wals of Gods City Or what did â—erubbabel and Ieshua without Cyrus In whose time Haggâ—â— and Zechariah prophesied indeed but built not And when contrary Letters came from aboue they â—â—id by both Trowels and Swords They would be Iewes still they would not be Rebels for God Ezr. 4.23 24. Had those letters inioyned Swines flesh or Idolatry or forbidden the vse of the Law those which now yeelded had suffered and at once testified their obedience to authority and piety to him that sits in the Assembly of these earthen gods I vrge no more Perhaps you are more wise or lesse mutinous you might easily therefore purge your conscience from this sinne of wanting what you might not perforce enioy Say that your Church should imploy you backe to this our Babylon for the calling out of more proselytes you are intercepted imprisoned Shall it bee sinne in you not to heare the Prophesies at Amsterdam The Clinke is a lawfull excuse If your feet bee bound your conscience is not bound In these Negatiues outward force takes away both sinne and blame and alters them from the patient to the actor so that now you see your straight bonds if they were such loosed by obedience and ouer-ruling power SECTION XIX The bonds of Gods Word vniustly pleaded by the Separ BVT what bonds were these straight ones Gods Word and your owne necessitie Both strong and indissoluble Where God hath bidden God forbid that we should care for the forbiddance of men I reuerence from my soule so doth our Church their deare sister those worthy forraine Churches which haue chosen and followed those formes of outward Gouernment that are euery way fittest for their own condition It is enough for your Sect to censure them I touch nothing common to them with you * * Aug. Epist 58. Pastores autem Doctores quâ—â— maxime vt discernerâ—m voluisti eosdem puto esse sicut â—ibi visum est vt non alios Pastores alios Doctores intelligeremus sed ideo cùm praedixisset Pastores subiâ—â—xisse Doctores vt intelligerent Pastores ad officium suum pertinere doctrinam Barr. against Gyff inueighs for this cause against the Consistorie of Geneua Fr. Iohns complaints of the Dutch and Fr. Churches Description of a visible Church cannot make a Distinct in the Definition of their Offices State of Christians 119. Description of visible Church H. Clap. Epist before his Treatise of Sinne against the Holy Ghost Brownists 4. Position Trouble and Excom at Amster Fr. Iohns in a Letter to M. Smith While the world standeth where will it euer be shewed out of the Sacred Booke of God that hee hath charged Let there be perpetuall Lay-Elders in euery Congregation Let euery Assembly haue a Pastor and Doctor distinct in their charge and offices Let all Decisions Excommunications Ordinations bee performed by the whole multitude Let priuate Christians aboue the first turne in extremitie agree to set ouer themselues a Pastor chosen from amongst them and receiue him with Prayer and vnlesse that Ceremony be turned to pompe and Superstition by imposition of hands Let there bee Widowers which you call Releeuers appointed euery where to the Church-Seruice Let certaine discreet and able men which are not Ministers bee appointed to preach the Gospell and whole truth of God to the people All the learned Diuines of other Churches are in these left yea in the most of them censured by you Hath God spoken these things to you alone Plead not Reuelations and we feare you not Pardon so homely an example As soone and by the same illumination shall G. Iohns proue to your Consistory the lace of the Pastors wiues sleeue or rings or Whalebones or others amongst you as your Pastor confesseth knit-stockings or corke-shooes forbidden flatly by Scriptures as these commanded Wee see the letter of the Scriptures with you you shall fetch bloud of them with straining ere you shall wring out this sense No no M.R. neuer make God your stale Many of your ordinances came from no higher than your owne braine Others of them though God acknowledges yet he imposed not Pretend what you will These are but the cords of your owne conceit not bonds of Christian obedience SECTION XX. THe first of these then is easily vntwisted your second is necessity The necessity of their pretended ordinance Than which what can be stronger what law or what remedy is against necessity What wee must haue wee cannot want Oppose but the publike necessity to yours your necessity of hauing to the publike necessity of withholding and
bee no lesse Controuersie defacto than of the possibility of errour Besides there are other Popish opinions of the same stampe but more pragmaticall which are not more pernicious to the Church than to common-weales as those of the power of both Swords of the deposition of Princes disposing of Kingdomes absoluing of Subiects frustration of Oathes sufficiently canuased of late both by the Venetian Diuines and French and ours which are so palpably opposite to the libertie of Christian Gouernment that those Princes and Peeple which can stoope to such a yoke are well worthy of their seruitude and can they hope that the great Commanders of the World will come to this bent we all as the Comick Poet said truly had rather be free than serue but much more Princes or on the contrary can wee hope that the Tyrants of the Church will be content to leaue this hold What a fopperie were this For both those Princes are growne more wise and these Tyrants more arrogant and as Ruffinus speakes of George Ruff. l. 1. c. 23. Procaciter vt raptum Episcopatum gerunt c. the Arrian Gallant they insolently gouerne an vsurped Bishopricke as if they thought they had the managing of a proud Empire and not of a Religious Priesthood SECTION VI. That the other Opinions of the Romish Church will not admit Reconciliation BVt let vs bee so liberall as to grant this to our selues which certainely they will neuer grant vs for this olde Grandame of Cities thinkes her selfe borne to command and will either fall or rule Neyther doth that Mitred Moderator of the World affect any other Embleme than that which Iulian iestingly ascribes to Iulius Caesar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To rule all Iulian. Caesares or to Alexander the Great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to conquer all It was a degenerating spirit of Adrian the Sixt which caused to bee written vpon his Tombe Binius in vita Adrian in the Church of Saint Peter That nothing in all his life fell out so vnhappily to him Socrat. l. 5. c. 20. c. 14. as that he gouerned Let this I say be granted vs There want not I know some milder spirits Theodosians that can play with both hands which thinke if these busie points were by the moderation of both parts quietly composed it might bee safe for any man so it be without noyse to thinke what hee list concerning the other differences of Religion These are the Ghosts of that Heretike Appelles whose speech it was Euseb l. 5. c. 13. ex Roâ—nâ— That it is sufficient to beleeue in Christ crucified and that there should bee no discussing of the particular warrants and reason of our faith Or the brood of Leonas one of the courtiers of Constantius Socrat. l. 2. c. 32. and his Deputie in the Seleucian Councell which when the Fathers hotely contended as there was good cause for the Consubstantialitie of the Sonne Get you home said hee and trouble not the Church still with these trifles Saint Basil was of another minde from these men who as Theodoret reports when the Lieutenant of Valens the Emperor Theodor. lâ— c. 27. perswaded him to remit but one letter for peace sake answered Those that are nursed with the sincere Milke of Gods Word may not abide one sillable of his sacred Truth to be corrupted but rather than they will indure it are ready to receiue any kinde of torment or death Elâ—â—sius and Syluanus which were Orthodox Bishops and those other worthy Gardians and as Athanasius his title was Champions of the truth were of another minde from these coole and indifferent Mediators Epiph. l. 1. Initio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cypr. de simplic praelat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So farre as the Sacred truth will allow vs wee will accompany them gladly but if they vrge vs further wee stand still or start backe and those two courses which Epiphanius aduised as the remedies of Heresie Heed and Auoydance both those doe we carefully vse and performe Great is the offence of discord and vnexpiable and such in the graue iudgement of Cyprian as is not purged with the bloud of our passion and iustly doe we thinke that Fiend of Homer worthy of no place but Hell But yet wee cannot thinke concord a meete price of truth which it is lawfull for vs to buy at any rate but to sell vpon any termes is no lesse than pâ—cular Let vs therefore a little discusse the seuerall differences and as it vses to bee done when the house is too little for the stuffe Let vs pile vp all close together It shall bee enough in this large Haruest of matter to gather some few Eares out of euery Shocke and to make a compendious dispatch of so long a taske 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The grossest of the Popish Heresies and as HIEROME obiects to ORIGEN the most venomous opinions of Rome which haue bred so much trouble and danger at this day to the Church of God are either such as doe concerne our selues not without some â—â—spect to God or such as concerne God not without some respect to vs Of the former sort are those which in a certaine order such as it is of discourse are conuersant about Iustification Free-will the merit of our workes humane satisfaction Indulgences Purgatory and the differences of mortall and Veniall sinnes These therefore first offer themselues to our examination SECTION VII The Romish Heresie concerning Iustification THat point of Iustification of all other is exceeding important Caluin De vera Pacific contra Interim insomuch as CALVIN was faine to perswade that if this one head might bee yeelded safe and intire it would not quite the cost to make any great quarrell for the rest Would to God that word of CASSANDER might bee made good Consultat de Iustific which doubted not to say That which is affirmed that men cannot bee iustified before God by their owne strength merits or workes but that they are freely iustified by faith was alwaies allowed and receiued in the Church of God and is at this day approued by all Ecclesiasticall Writers Yea I would they would bee ruled by their Thomas Aquinas in this In Galat. in Iâ—c 2. who attributes Iustification to workes not as Iustification is taken for an infusion of grace but as it is taken for an exercise or manifestation or consummation of Iustice If this were all in this point all would be peace Concil Trid. sess 6. c. 7. si quis dixerit sola fide c. Com. 9. But whilst the Tridentine Fathers take vpon them to forge the formall cause of our Iustification to be our owne inherent Iustice and thrust Faith out of Office what good man can choose but presently addresse himselfe to an opposition Who would not rather dye than suffer the ancient Faith of the Church to be depraued with these idle Dreames Goe now ye great Trent Diuines and bragge of your selues as
or care then to be willingly guilty of our owne shame oh that the hands of supreme authoritie vvould bee pleased to locke vs vvithin our owne doores and to keepe the keyes at their owne girdle And to speake truth to vvhat purpose are those strait and capitall inhibitions of the returne of our factious fugitiues into this Kingdom if whiles the vvicket is shut vpon them that they should not come to vs the Posterne be open to vs that we may goe to them As all intercourse is perilous so that is most vvhich is by our owne prouocation Here yet they dare but lurke in secret and take only some sudden snatches at a vveake prey like vnto euening-wolues that neuer walke forth but vnder the cloake of the night but in their owne territories they can shew the Sunne their spoiles and thinke this act worthy of garlands and trophees Here wee haue mastiues to secure our flockes there the prey goes stragling alone to the mouth of their dennes vvithout protection without assistance and offers to be deuoured Yee whom the choice of God hath made the great Shepheards of his people whose charge it is to feed them by gouernment suffer not their simplicitie to betray their liues vnto the fangs of these cruell beasts but chase them home rather from the wilfull search of their owne perdition and shut them vp together in your strong and spacious folds that they may be at once safe and yee glorious SECT XXIV LAstly for those whom necessary occasions draw forth of their own coasts that we may haue done with those which like foolish Papists goe on pilgrimage to see another blocke better dressed then at home let me say to them as Simeon that propheticall Monke said to the pillars which he whipped before the earth-quake Stand fast for ye shall be shaken And therefore as the Crane when shee is to fly against an high wind doth ballace her selfe with stones in her bill that she may cut the ayre with more steddinesse so let them carefully fore-instruct and poize themselues with the sound knowledge of the Principles of Religion that they may not be caried about with euery winde of doctrine Whereto if they adde but those lessons which they are taught by the State in their letters of passage there may bee hope they shall bring backe the same soules they caried It was at least an inclination to a fall that Eue tooke boldnesse to hold chat with the Serpent And as subtill Lawyers desire no more aduantage in the quarrell which they would picke at conueyances then many words so neither do our Aduersaries Whiles our eares are open and our tongues free they wil hope well of our very denials Error is crafty and out of the power of his Rhetorical insinuations oft-times caries away probabilitie from truth I remember in that famous Embassie of of three Philosophers which Athens sent to Rome Critolaus Diogenes and Carneades there falling out many occasions of discourse wise Cato perswaded the Senate to a speedie dismission of those otherwise welcome ghests Because said he whiles Carneades disputes scarce any man can discerne which is the truth There is more danger of these spirituall Sophisters by how much the businesse is more important and their subtilty greater Let our passenger therefore as that wise Grecian serued his fellowes stop vp his eares with waxe against these Syrens Our Sauiour would not giue Satan audience euen whiles he spake true because he knew that truth was but to countenance error There is euer true corne strowed vnder a pitfall those eares are full and weightie vvhich we dresse with Lime to deceiue the poore birds in a snow No fisher lets downe an empty hooke but cloathed vvith a proper and pleasing bait These Impostors haue no other errand but deceit If he loue himselfe let him be afraid of their fauours and thinke their frownes safer then their smiles And if at any time as no fly is more importunate they thrust themselues into his conuersation let him as those which must necessarily passe by a carrion in the way hold his breath and hasten to be out of their aire And if they yet follow him in his flight let him turne backe to them vvith the Angels farewell Increpet te Dominus FINIS THE RIGHTEOVS MAMMON AN HOSPITALL SERMON PREACHED IN THE SOLEMNE ASSEMBLY OF THE CITY ON Munday in Easter weeke 1618. BY IOS HALL LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO MY MVCH HONOR'D FRIEND Sr HENRY BAKER Knight and Baronet SIR AMongst many to whom my poore labours owe much for their acceptation J know none that can challenge so deepe a debt as your selfe If others haue tasted of my well-meant papers you haue fed heartily on them and so made them your owne that your memory may compare with others eyes and your practice with the speculation of others Neither haue your hand or tongue beene niggardly dissemblers of your spirituall gaine Vnto you therefore to whose name I had long since in my desires deuoted my next doe J send this meane present A Sermon importunately desired of many That which the present Auditors found vsefull the Presse shall communicate to posteritie The gaine of either or both is no lesse mine I doubt not but you haue already so acted that part of this discourse which concerneth you that the direction I giue to others is but an historie of what you haue done And goe on happily worthy Sir in those your holy courses which shal leade you to immortalitie and so vse your riches that they may be made vp into a Crowne for your head in a better world My hearty well-wishes shall not be wanting to you and your vertuous Ladie as whom you haue obliged to be iustly Worcester April 14. Yours IOS HALL THE RIGHTEOVS MAMMON 1. TIM 6.17 Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded nor trust in vncertaine riches but in the liuing God who giueth vs richly all things to enioy c. THose things which are excellent beneficiall in their vse are dangerous in their miscariage It were lost labour for me to perswade you how good riches are your pains and your cares are sufficient proofes of your estimation and how deadly the abuse of them is many a soule feeles that cannot returne to complaine There is nothing more necessarie therefore for a Christian heart then to be rectified in the menaging of a prosperous estate and to learne so to be happy here that it may bee more happie hereafter a taske which this Text of ours vndertakes and if ye be not wanting to it and your selues will be sure to performe What should I need to entreat your attention Right Honorable right Worshipfull and beloued to a businesse so neerely concerning you The errand is Gods the vse of it yours I neuer held it safe to pull Scripture in pieces these vvords fall alone into their parts Timothy is set vpon the spirituall Bench
affirmes Anselme to be the first that forbade mariage to the Clergy Reader in stead of all other ponderations weigh the words u u Henr. Huntinâ—d edit Sauil. p. 378. Eodem anno ad festum S. Michaelis tenuit Anselmus Archiepiscopus Concilium apud Londoniam in quo prohibuit vxores sacerdotibus Anglorum antea non prohibitas i. The same yeare on the Feast of S. Michael Archbishop Anselme held a Synode at London wherein hee forbade wiues to the Priests of England before not forbidden and tell mee vvhether my Detector be true The vvords are too plaine hee will wrangle yet with the sense and tels vs that the word Before may signifie perhaps Immediately before in the raigne of the Williams and not all succession of times It were well if he could escape so But this starting hole will not hide him For not to send him to Schoole to learne the difference betwixt Antea and Dudum or Pridem The same Author in the following words shewes vs the censures and conceits that passed vpon this Act as an absolute and vnheard-off noueltie like as in Germany the Historians brand this same act in Hildebrand with a nouo exemplo and inconsiderato praeiudicio And for the times preceding Polydore Virgil giues the very same witnesse Neither let him fly for succour to his Dunstan who neuer can be proued to haue prohibited the mariage of Priests though he disliked that Monasteries and Cathedrall Churches should be possessed by maried Clerkes Lastly â—here the testimonie is displeasing Refut p. 343. the vvitnesse himselfe must bee disgraced Curiositie led my Detector to search who this H. Huntingdon might be with one inquiry he might find him to be a Canon Regular of Austins Order and for dignity an Archdeacon a person past exception But for his parentage hee went no further then to the next Leafe to finde that he was the sonne of a noted and in those dayes eminent Clergy man Vid. supra His Epitaph at Lincolne shewes him to haue been the starre of the Clergie no whit dimmed in his acknowledged light or hindred in his influence by his coniunction in lawfull wedlocke What better instance could my Refuter haue giuen against himselfe If he thinke to insinuate that his birth made him partiall The Reader will easily consider that if such Parentage had been then accounted shamefull the Historian would haue had the wit to haue suppressed it And withall that hee durst not writing in the times when this thing was so familiarly and vniuersally knowne haue offered such a Proposition to the light out of a vaine partialitie to incurre the controlment of all eyes SECT XV. AS for our Fabian if C.E. finde him a Merchant Refut p. 333. I finde him to haue been Sheriffe of the Honorable Citie of London A man whose credit would scorne to be poised with an hundred namelesse Fugitiues parasiticall petty-chapmen of the late small-wares of Rome Neither can the name of a Citizen disparage him to any wise iudge How many haue our times yeelded of that ranke whom both Academicall education and experience and trauell and study haue wrought to an eminent perfection in all Arts especially in Mathematicks and History Such was Fabian whose fidelitie besides his other worths was neuer that I find taxed but by this insolent Pen that hath learned to forbeare no man He was too old for vs to bribe and too credible for C.E. to disgrace If hee would haue lent Rome but this one lye no man had beene more authenticall now his truth makes him fabulous Fabian That one fault hath marred our Archdeacon of Huntingdon also The Story which hee tels of the Cardinall of Crema the Popes Legate taken in bed after his busie indeuours against the maried Clergie the same day with an Harlot Refut p. 348. hath vndone his reputation Why will C. E. stirre this sinke No man prouoked him If hee did not long to blazon the shame of his friends hee had rather smothered this foule occurrence but since he will be medling Res apertissima negari non potuit celari non debuit saith Huntingdon The thing was most openly knowne it could not be denyed it might not be concealed Yet now comes an Vpstart-Nouice and dares tell vs from Baronius that this was a meere Fable how publike and notorious soeuer Huntingdon makes it with these men this rule is vniuersall whatsoeuer may tend to the dishonour of the Church of Rome is false and fabulous Indeed I remember what their Glosse said of old x x Dist 96. In script Clericus amplectens mulierem praesumitur bene agere si ergo Clericus amplectitur mulierem interpraetabuitur quòd causa benedicendi eam hoc faciat That is A Clergie man imbracing a woman must bee presumed to doe well if therefore a Clerke take a woman by the middle it must bee interpreted that he doth it to giue her his blessing * * So the Chronicle tels vs of Adelme Abbot of Malmesbury who when he was stirred to the vice of the flesh had wont to despite the Deuill and torment himselfe with holding a faire yong Virgin in his bed so long as he might say ouer the whole Pâ—alter Vid. Paâ—k Def. Polyd suppressing the name telleth the History Perhaps the good Legate was but bestowing his ghostly blessing on so needfull a subiect but that he was found in bed with her if C. E. were not as shamelesse as that Cardinal or his bed-fellow he durst not deny For what impudency is this to cast this relation only vpon H. Huntingdon when so many vncontrolable Pens haue recorded it to the world Men of their own stampe for Religion for Deuotion Matthew Paris Ranulfus Cestrensis Roger Houeden Polydore Virgil Fabian Matthaeus Westmonasteriensis otherwise called Florilegus Dictus Ioannes qui in Concilio c. saith he The said Iohn which in the open Councell had grieuously condemned all the y y Viz the maried so did the enemies of Mariage disgracefully terme the maried Clergie and so are the words of the Legate to bee vnderstood de latere meretricis be then railing against Mariage not whoredome property was deprehended in whoredome Concubinary Priests was taken himselfe in the same crime Now let my Reader iudge whether this Priests Truth or that Cardinals honesty were greater SECT XVI HIs third Ponderation is the same with the first Euery thing eekes His S. Dunstan and Anselme Gregory and Beda are againe laid in our dish we cannot feed on these ouer-oft-sod Coleworts I am challenged here to produce any Priest or Deacon that liued in Wedlocke before the times of Dunstan The man presumes vpon the suppression of Records For one I name him hundreds Who were they that Dunstan and his fellow Saints found seated in the Cathedrall Churches of this Land vvhom did they eiect Were they not maried Priests What did the eâ—ected Clergy plead but ancient possession After that in the Synod which Archbishop
the iourney and curse of the couetous prophet if God had not stayed him How oft are wicked men cursed by a diuine hand euen in those sins which their heart stands to It is no thank to lewd men that their wickednesse is not prosperous Whence is it that the world is not ouer-run with euill but from this that men cannot be so ill as they would The first entertainment of this message would make a stranger thinke Balaam wife and honest Hee will not giue a sudden answer but craues leasure to consult with God and promises to returne the answer he shall receiue Who would not say This man is free from rashnesse from partiality Dissimulation is crafty able to deceiue thousands The words are good when he comes to action the fraud bewaries it selfe For both he insinuates his own forwardnesse and casts the blame of the prohibition vpon God and which is worse deliuers but halfe his answer he sayes indeed God refuses to giue them leaue to goe He sayes not as it was He charges me not to curse them for they are blessed So did Balaam deny as one that wisht to be sent for againe Perhaps a peremptory refusall had hindered his further sollicitation Concealement of some truths is sometimes as faulty as a deniall True fidelity is not niggardly in her relations Where wickednesse meets with power it thinkes to command all the world and takes great scorne of any repulse So little is Balac discouraged with one refusall that he sends so much the stronger message Mo Princes and more honorable Oh that wee could be so importunate for our good as wicked men are for the compassing of their owne designes A deniall doth but whet the desires of vehement suitors Why are we faint in spirituall things when we are not denied but delayed Those which are themselues transported with vanity and ambition thinke that no heart hath power to resist these offers Balacs Princes thought they had strooke it dead when they had once mentioned promotion to great honour Selfe-loue makes them thinke they cannot be slaues whiles others may be free and that all the world would be glad to runne on madding after their bait Nature thinks it impossible to contemn honor and wealth and because too many soules are thus taken cannot beleeue that any would escape But let carnall hearts know there are those can spit the world in the face and say Thy gold and siluer perish with thee and that in comparison of a good conscience can tread vnder foot his best proffers like shadowes as they are and that can doe as Balaam said How neere truth and falshood can lodge together Here was piety in the lips and couetousnesse in the heart Who can any more regard good words that heares Balaam speake so like a Saint An housefull of gold siluer may not peruert his tongue his heart is won with lesse for if he had not already swallowed the reward and found it sweet why did he againe sollicit God in that which was peremptorily denyed him If his mind had not beene bribed already why did he stay the messenger why did he expect a change in God why was he willing to feed them with hope of successe which had fed him with hope of recompence One prohibition is enough for a good man Whiles the delay of God doth but hold vs in suspence importunity is holy and seasonable but when once he giues a resolute deniall it is prophane saucinesse to sollicit him When we aske what we are bidden our suites are not more vehement then welcome but when we begge prohibited fauours our presumption is troublesome and abhominable No good heart will endure to be twice forbidden Yet this opportunity had obtained a permission but a permission worse then a deniall I heard God say before Go not nor curse them Now he sayes Goe but curse not Anon he is angry that he did not goe Why did he permit that which he forbade if he be angry for doing that which he permitted Some things God permits with an indignation not for that he giues leaue to the act but that he giues a man ouer to his sinne in the act this sufferance implies not fauour but iudgement so did God bid Balaam to goe as Salomon bids the yong man follow the wayes of his owne heart It is one thing to like another thing to suffer Moses neuer approued those legall diuorces yet he tolerated them God neuer liked Balaams iourney yet he displeasedly giues way to it as if he said Well since thou art so hot set on this iourney be gone And thus Balaam tooke it else when God after professed his displeasure for the iourney it had beene a ready answer Thou commandedst me but herein his confession argues his guilt Balaams suite and Israels Quailes had both one fashion of grant in anger How much better is it to haue gracious denials then angry yeeldings A small perswasion hartens the willing It booted not to bid the couetous prophet hasten to his way Now he makes himselfe sure of successe His corrupt hart tels him that as God had relented in his licence to goe so he might perhaps in his licence to curse and he saw how this curse might blesse him with abundance of wealth hee rose vp earely therefore and saddled his Asse The night seemed long to his forwardnesse Couetous men need neither clocke nor bell to awaken them their desires make them restlesse O that we could with as much eagernesse seeke the true riches which onely can make vs happy We that see onely the out-side of Balaam may maruell why he that permitted him to goe afterward opposes his going but God that saw his heart perceiued what corrupt affections caried him hee saw that his couetous desires and wicked hopes grew the stronger the neerer he came to his end An Angell is therefore sent to with-hold the hasty Sorcerer Our inward disposition is the life of our actions according to that doth the God of spirits iudge vs whiles men censure according to our externall motions To goe at all when God had commanded to stay was presumptuous but to goe with desire to curse made the act doubly sinfull and fetcht an Angell to resist it It is one of the worthy imployments of good Angels to make secret opposition to euill designes Many a wicked act haue they hindered without the knowledge of the agent It is all one with the Almighty to worke by Spirits and men It is therefore our glory to be thus set on worke To stop the course of euill either by disswasion or violence is an Angelicall seruice In what danger are wicked men that haue Gods Angels their opposites The Deuill moued him to goe a good Angell resists him If an heauenly Spirit stand in the way of a Sorcerers sinne how much more ready are all those spirituall powers to stop the miscariages of Gods deare children How oft had we falne yet more if these Guardians had not
greatest Citie Ioshua himselfe was full of Gods Spirit and had the Oracle of God ready for his direction yet now he goes not to the Propitiatorie for consultation but to the Spyes Except where ordinary means faile vs it is no appealing the immediate helpe of GOD we may not seeke to the posterne but where the common gate is shut It was promised Ioshua that he should leade Israel into the promised Land yet he knew it was vnsafe to presume The condition of his prouident care was included in that assurance of successe Heauen is promised to vs but not to our carelesnesse infidelitie disobedience He that hath set this blessed Inheritance before vs presupposes our wisdome faith holinesse Either force or policy are fit to be vsed vnto Canaanites He that would be happy in this spirituall warfare must know where the strength of his enemy lyeth and must frame his guard according to the others assault It is a great aduantage to a Christian to know the fashion of Satans onsets that he may the more easily compose himselfe to resist Many a soule hath miscaried through the ignorance of his enemy which had not perished if it had well knowne that the weaknesse of Satan stands in our faith The Spyes can finde no other lodging but Rahabs house Shee was a victualler by profession and as those persons and trades by reason of the commonnesse of entertainment were amongst the Iewes infamous by name and note shee was Rahab the Harlot I will not thinke she professed filthinesse onely her publike trade through the corruption of those times hath cast vpon her this name of reproach yea rather will I admire her faith then make excuses for her calling How many women in Israel now Miriam was dead haue giuen such proofes of their knowledge and faith How noble is that confession which she makes of the power and truth of God Yea I see here not onely a Disciple of God but a Prophetesse Or if she had once been publike as her house was now 〈…〉 worthy Coâ—â—t and so approued her selfe for honest and wise behauiour that she is â—â—ought wâ—â—hy to bee the great Grandmother of Dauids Father and â—e holy Line of the Messias is not ashamed to admit her into 〈◊〉 happy Pedegreeâ—â—he mercy of our God doth not measure vs by what wâ— were It would be wide with the best of vs if the eye of God should looke backward to our former estate there â—e should see Abraham an Idolater Paul a Persecuâ—â— Manasses a Necromancer Mary Magdalen a Curtizan and the best vile enough to be ashamed of himselfe Who can despaire of mercy that sees euen Rahab fetcht into the blood of Israel and line of Christ If Rahab had not receiued these Spies but as vnknowne passengers with respect to their money and not to their errand it had been no praise for in such cases the thanke is rather to the ghest then to the Oast but now she knew their purpose she knew that the harbor of them was the danger of her owne life and yet shee hazards this entertainment Either faith or friendship are neuer tried but in extremities To shew countenance to the messengers of God whiles the publike face of the State smiles vpon them is but a courtesie of course but to hide out owne liues in theirs when they are persecuted is an act that lookes for a reward These times need not fauour wee know not what may come Alas how likely is it they would shelter them in danger which respect them not in prosperity All intelligences of State come first to the Court It most concernes Princes to harken after the affaires of each other If this poore Inholder knew of the Sea dried vp before Israel and of the discomfiture of Og and Sehon Surely this rumour was stale with the King of Iericho he had heard it and feared and yet in stead of sending Ambassadors for peace hee sends Pursuiâ—nts for the Spyes The spirit of Rahab 〈◊〉 with that same report wherewith the King of Iericho was hardâ—ed all make not and vse of the messages of the proceedings of God The King sends to tell her what she knew shee had not hid them if shee had not knowne their errand I know not whether first to wonder at the gracious prouision of God for the Spies or at the strong faith which hee hath wrought in the heart of a weake woman two strangers Israelites Spies and noted for all these in a foraine in an hostile Land haue a safe harbour prouided them euen amongst their enemies In Iericho at the very Court gate against the Proclamation of a King against the indeuours of the people Where cannot the God of heauen either find or raise vp friends to his owne cause and seruants Who could haue hoped for such faith in Rahab which contemned her life for the present that she might saue it for the future neglected her owne King and Country for strangers which she neuer saw and more feared the destruction of that Citie before it knew that it had an aduersarie then the displeasure of her King in the mortall reuenge of that which he would haue accounted treacherie She brings them vp to the roofe of her house and hides them with stalkes of Flax That plant which was made to hide the body from nakednesse and shame now is vsed to hide the Spies from death Neuer could these stalkes haue been improued so well with all her houswifery after they were bruised as now before they were fitted to her wheele Of these shee hath wouen an euerlasting web both of life and propagation And now her tongue hides them no lesse then her hand her charitie was good her excuse was not good Euill may not be done that good may come of it we may doe any thing but sinne for promoting a good cause And if not in so maine occasions how shall God take it that weare not dainty of falshoods in trifles No man will looke that these Spies could take any sound sleepe in these beds of stalkes It is enough for them that they liue though they rest not And now when they heard Rahab comming vp the staires doubtlesse they looked for an executioner but behold she comes vp with a message better then their sleepe adding to their protection aduice for their future safety whereto she makes way by a faithfull report of Gods former wonders and the present disposition of her people and by wise capitulations for the life and security of her Family The newes of Gods miraculous proceedings for Israel haue made her resolue of their successe and the ruines of Iericho Then only doe we make a right vse of the workes of God when by his iudgements vpon others weare warned to auoid our owne He intends his acts for presidents of iustice The parents and brethren of Rahab take their rest They are not troubled with the feare and care of the successe of Israel but securely goe with the current of the present
crueltie FJNIS Contemplations VPON THE PRINCIPALL PASSAGES OF THE Holy Storie The fourth Volume By I. H. D. D. LONDON Printed for THO PAVIER MILES FLESHER and Iohn Haviland 1625. Contemplations THE TWELFTH BOOKE Containing The Arke and Dagon The Arkes reuenge and returne The remoue of the Arke The meeting of SAVL and SAMVEL The Jnauguration of SAVL SAMVELS contestation SAVLS sacrifice IONATHANS victorie and SAVLS oath BY IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE MY SINGVLAR GOOD LORD the Lord Hay Baron of Saley One of his Maiesties most honourable Priuy Councell RIGHT HONORABLE VPon how iust reason these my Contemplations goe forth so late after their Fellowes it were needlesse to giue account to your Lordship in whose traine I had the honour since my last to passe both the Sea and the Twede All my priuate studies haue gladly vailed to the publike seruices of my Soueraigne Master No sooner could I recouer the happinesse of my quiet thoughts then J renued this my diuine taske Wherein J cannot but professe to place so much contentment as that J wish not any other measure of my life then it What is this other then the exaltation of ISAACS delight to walke forth into the pleasant fields of the Scriptures and to meditate of nothing vnder heauen Yea what other then IACOBS sweet vision of Angels climbing vp and downe that sacred Ladder which God hath set betweene heauen and earth Yea to rise yet higher what other then an imitation of holy Moyses in his conuersing with God himselfe on the Horeb of both Testaments And if J may call your Lo. forth a little from your great affaires of Court and State to blesse your eyes with this prospect how happy shall you confesse this change of obiects and how vnwillingly shall you obtaine leaue of your thoughts to returne vnto these sublunary imployments Our last Discourse left Gods Arke amongst the Philistims now we returne to see what it doth there and to fetch it thence Wherein your Lo. shall find the reuenges of God neuer so deadly as when he giues most way vnto men The vaine confidence of wickednesse ending in a late repentance The fearfull plagues of a presumptuous sawcinesse with God not preuented with the honesty of good intentions The mercy of God accepting the seruices of an humble faithfulnesse in a meaner dresse From thence you shall see the dangerous issue of an affected innouation although to the better The errors of credulitie and blind affection in the holiest Gouernours guilty of the peoples discontentment The stubborne headdinesse of a multitude that once finds the reynes slacke in their necks not capable of any pause but their owne fall The vntrusty promises of a faire outside and a plausible entrance shutting vp in a wofull disappointment What doe J forestall a Discourse so full of choice your Lo. shall finde euery line vsefull and shall willingly confesse that the Story of God can make a man not lesse wise then good Mine humble thankfulnesse knowes not how to expresse it selfe otherwise then in these kind of presents and in my heartie prayers for the encrease of your honour and happinesse which shall neuer be wanting from Your Lo. sincerely and thankfully deuoted IOS HALL Contemplations THE TWELFTH BOOKE The Arke and Dagon IF men did not mistake God they could not arise to such height of impiety The acts of his iust iudgement are imputed to impotence that God would send his Arke captiue to the Philistims is so construed by them as if hee could not keepe it the wife of Phinehas cryed out that glory was departed from Israel The Philistims dare say in triumph that glory is departed from the God of Israel The Arke was not Israels but Gods this victory reaches higher then to men Dagon had neuer so great a day so many sacrifices as now that he seemes to take the God of Israel prisoner Where should the captiue be bestowed but in the custody of the victor It is not loue but insultation that lodges the Arke close beside Dagon What a spectacle was this to see vncircumcised Philistims laying their prophane hands vpon the Testimony of Gods presence to see the glorious Mercy-seat vnder the roofe of an idoll to see the two Cherubims spreading their wings vnder a false god Oh the deepe and holy wisedome of the Almighty which ouer-reaches all the finite conceits of his creatures who whiles he seemes most to neglect himselfe fetches about most glory to his owne name He winkes and fits still on purpose to see what men would doe and is content to suffer indignity from his creature for a time that he may be euerlastingly magnified in his iustice and power That honour pleaseth God and men best which is raised out of contempt The Arke of God was not vsed to such Porters The Philistims carie it vnto Ashdod that the victory of Dagon may bee more glorious What paines Superstition puts men vnto for the triumph of a false cause And if prophane Philistims can thinke it no toyle to carrie the Arke where they should not what a shame is it for vs if wee doe not gladly attend it where we should How iustly may Gods truth scorne the imparitie of our zeale If the Israelites did put confidence in the Arke can wee maruell that the Philistims did put confidence in that power which as they thought had conquered the Arke The lesse is euer subiect vnto the greater What could they now thinke but that heauen and earth were theirs Who shall stand out against them when the God of Israel hath yeelded Security and presumption attend euer at the threshold of ruine God will let them sleepe in this confidence in the morning they shall fine how vainly they haue dreamed Now they begin to find they haue but gloried in their owne plague and ouerthrowne nothing but their owne peace Dagon hath an house when God hath but a Tabernacle It is no measuring of Religion by outward glory Into this house the proud Philistims come the next morning to congratulate vnto their god so great a captiue such diuine spoiles and in their early deuotions to fall downe before him vnder whom the God of Israel was fallen and loe where they find their god fallen downe on the ground vpon his face before him whom they thought both his prisoner and theirs Their god is forced to doe that which they should haue done voluntarily although God casts downe that dumbe riuall of his for scorne not for adoration Oh ye foolish Philistims could ye thinke that the same house will hold God and Dagon could ye thinke a senselesse stone a fit companion and guardian for the liuing God Had ye laid your Dagon vpon his face prostrate before the Arke yet would not God haue endured the indignity of such a lodging but now that ye presume to set vp your carued stone equall to his Cherubins goe reade your folly in the floore of your Temple and know
perhaps doth not let downe this nourishing liquour so freely so easily Euen so small a variety â—â—fresâ—eth a weake Infant Neither will there perhaps want some palâ—tes which wil finde a more quick pleasing relish in this fresher sustenaÌ„ce these I thought good to please with a taste ere they come to sate themselues with a full Meale of this diuine nourishment in emulation of the good Scribe that brings forth both olde and new If it please God to inable my life and opportunities I hope at last to present his Church with the last seruice of the Historie of either Page wherein my Joy and my Crowne shall bee the edification of many Jn the meane time I dedicate this part vnto your Name whom J haue so much cause to obserue and honour The blessing of that God whose Church you haue euer made your chiefe Client bee still vpon your head and that honorable Societie which reioyces in so worthy a Leader To it and your selfe J shall be euer as I haue cause humbly and vnfainedly deuoted IOS HALL Contemplations THE ANGELL AND ZACHARIE WHen things are at the worst then God beginnes a change The state of the Iewish Church was extremly corrupted immediately before the newes of the Gospell yet as bad as it was not onely the Priesthood but the courses of attendance continued euen from Dauids time till Christs It is a desperately depraued condition of a Church where no good orders are left Iudea passed many troubles many alterations yet this orderly combination endured aboue an eleuen hundred yeares A setled good will not easily be defeated but in the change of persons will remayne vnchanged and if it be forced to giue way leaues memorable footsteps behinde it If Dauid fore-saw the perpetuation of this holy Ordinance how much did he reioyce in the knowledge of it who would not bee glad to doe good on condition that it may so long out-liue him The successiue turnes of the Legall ministration held on in a Line neuer interrupted Euen in a forlorne and miserable Church there may bee a personall succession How little were the Iewes better for this when they had lost the Vrim and Thummim sinceritie of Doctrine and Manners This stayed with them euen whiles they and their Sonnes crucified Christ What is more ordinary than wicked Sonnes of holy Parents It is the succession of Truth and Holinesse that makes or institutes a Church what euer become of the persons Neuer times were so barren as not to yeeld some good The greatest dearth affoords some few good Eares to the Gleaners Christ would not haue come into the World but hee would haue some faithfull to entertayne him Hee that had the disposing of all times and men would cast some holy ones into his owne times There had bin no equalitie that all should either ouer-run or follow him and none attend him Zachary and Elizabeth are iust both of Aarons bloud and Iohn Baptist of theirs whence should an holy Seede spring if not of the Loynes of Leui 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 certaintie but there is likelyhood of an holy Generation when the Parents are such Elizabeth was iust as well as Zachary that the fore-runner of a Sauiour might bee holy on both sides If the stocke and the griffe bee not both good there is much danger of the fruit It is an happy match when the Husband and the Wife are one not only in themselues but in God not more in flesh than 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 obserue that the New Testament affordeth more store of good women than the old Elizabeth led the ring of this mercy whose barrennesse ended in a miraculous fruit both of her body and of her time This religious paire made no lesse progresse in vertue than in age and yet their vertue could not make their best age fruitfull Elizabeth was barren A iust soule and a barren wombe may well agree together Amongst the Iewes barrennesse was not a defect only but a reproach yet while this good woman was fruitfull of holy obedience shee was barren of children as Iohn which was miraculously conceiued by man was a fiâ— fore-runner of him that was conceiued by the Holy Ghost so a barren Matron was meet to make way for a Virgin None but a sonne of Aaron might offer incense to God in the Temple and not euery sonne of Aaron and not any one at all seasons God is a God of order and hates confusion no lesse than irreligion Albeit he hath not so straitned himselfe vnder the Gospell as to tie his seruice to persons or places yet his choice is now no lesse curious because it is more large Hee allowes none but the authorised Hee authoriseth none but the worthy The Incense doth euer smell of the hand that offers it I doubt not but that perfume was sweeter which ascended vp from the hand of a iust Zacharie The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to God There were courses of ministration in the legall seruices God neuer purposed to burthen any of his creatures with deuotion How vaine is the ambition of any soule that would loade it selfe with the vniuersall charge of all men How thanklesse is their labour that doe wilfully ouer-spend themselues in their ordinarie vocations As Zacharie had a course in Gods house so hee carefully obserued it The fauour of these respites doubled his diligence The more high and sacred our calling is the more dangerous is our neglect It is our honour that wee may be allowed to wait vpon the God of heauen in these immediate seruices Woe be to vs if we slacken those duties wherein God honours vs more than we can honour him Many sonnes of Aaron yea of the same familie serued at once in the Temple according to the varietie of imployments To auoid all difference they agreed by lot to assigne themselues to the seuerall 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 designement Matters of good order in holy affaires 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 seene in all the passages that concerned his great Prophet that as the person so the occasion might be of Gods owne choosing In lots and their seeming casuall disposition God can giue a reason though wee can giue none Morning and Euening twise a day their Law called them to offer Incense to God that both parts of the day might be consecrate to the maker of
bestowed any gift that should leade vs away from himselfe It is an ignorant conceit that inquiry into nature should make men Atheous No man is so apt to see the Star of Christ as a diligent disciple of Philosophy doubtlesse this light was visible vnto more onely they followed it which knew it had more than nature He is truly wise that is wise for his owne soule If these wise men had bin acquainted with all the other stars of heauen had not seene the Star of Christ they had had but light enough to lead them into vtter darknes Philosophy without the star is but the wispe of error These Sages were in a meane betweene the Angels and the shepherds God would in all the ranks of intelligent creatures haue some to be witnesses of his Son The Angels direct the shepherds the Star guides the Sages the duller capacity hath the more cleare powerfull helps the wisdome of our good God proportions the meanes vnto the disposition of the persons their Astronomy had taught them this star was not ordinary whether in sight or in brightnes or in motion The eies of nature might well see that some strange newes was portended to the world by it but that this star designed the birth of the Messias there needed yet another light If the star had not besides had the commentary of a reuelation from God it could haue led the wise men only into a fruitlesse wonder giue them to be the of-spring of Balaam yet the true prediction of that false prophet was not enough warrant If he told them the Messias should arise as a star out of Iacob he did not tell them that a star should arise far from the posterity of Iacob at the birth of the Messias He that did put that Prophesie into the mouth of Balaâ—m did also put this illumination into the heart of the Sages the Spirit of God is free to breathe where he listeth Many shall come from the East and the West to seeke Christ when the Children of the Kingdome shall be shut out euen theÌ„ God did not so confine his election to the pale of the Church as that he did not sometimes looke out for speciall instruments of his glory Whither doe these Sages come but to Ierusalem where should they hope to heare of the new King but in the mother City of the Kingdome The conduct of the star was first only generall to Iudea the rest is for a time left to enquiry They were not brought thither for their owne sakes but for Iewries for the worlds that they might helpe to make the Iewes inexcusable and the world faithfull That their tongues therefore might blazon the birth of Christ they are brought to the head Citie of Iudea to report and inquire their wisdome could not teach them to imagine that a King could be borne to Iudea of that note and magnificence that a Star from heauen should publish him to the earth and that his subiects should not know it and therefore as presupposing a common notice they say Where is he that is burne King of the Iewes There is much deceit in probabilities especially when we meddle with spirituall matters For God vses still to goe a way by himselfe If we iudge according to reason and appearance who is so likely to vnderstand heauenly truths as the profound Doctors of the world these God passeth ouer and reueales his will to babes Had these Sages met with the shepherds of the villages neere Bethleem they had receiued that intelligence of Christ which they did vainely seeke from the learned Scribes of Hierusalem The greatest clarks are not alwaies the wisest in the affaires of God these things goe not by discourse but by reuelation No sooner hath the Starre brought them within me noise of Ierusalem then it is vanished out of sight God would haue their eies leade them so farre as till their tongues might be set on worke to winne the vocall attestation of the chiefe Priests and Scribes to the fore-appointed place of our Sauiours natiuity If the Star had carried them directly to Bethleem the learned Iewes had neuer searched the truth of those prophecies wherewith they are since iustly conuinced God neuer withdrawes our helps but for a further aduantage Howsoeuer our hopes seeme crossed where his Name may gaine we cannot complaine of losse Little did the Sages thinke this question would haue troubled Herod they had I feare concealed their message if they had suspected this euent Sure they thought it might be some Sonne or grandchild of him which then held the Throne so as this might winne fauour from Herod rather than an vnwelcome feare of riuality Doubtlesse they went first to the Court where else should they aske for a King The more pleasing this newes had bin if it had falne vpon Herods owne loynes the more grieuous it was to light vpon a stranger If Herod had nor ouer-much affected greatnesse he had not vpon those indirect termes aspired to the Crowne of Iewry so much the more therefore did it trouble him to heare the rumour of a successor and that not of his owne Setled greatnesse cannot abide either change or partnership If any of his subiects had moued this question I feare his head had answered it It is well that the name of forrainers could excuse these Sages Herod could not be brought vp among the Iewes and not haue heard many and confident reports of a Messias that should ere long arise out of Israel and now when he heares the fame of a King borne whom a Starre from heauen signifies and attends he is netled with the newes Euery thing affrights the guilty Vsurpation is full of ielousies and feare no lesse full of proiects and imaginations it makes vs thinke euery bush a man and euery man a thiefe Why art thou troubled O Herod A King is borne but such a King as whose Scepter may euer concurre with lawfull soueraignty yea such a King as by whom Kings doe hold their Scepters not lose them If the wise-men tell thee of a King the Starre tells thee he is heauenly Here is good cause of security none of feare The most generall enmities and oppositions to good arise from mistakings If men could but know how much safety and sweetnesse there is in all diuine truth it could receiue nothing from them but welcomes and gratulations Misconceits haue beene still guilty of all wrongs and persecutions But if Herod were troubled as Tyranny is still suspicious why was all Ierusalem troubled with him Ierusalem which now might hope for a relaxation of her bonds for a recouery of her liberty and right Ierusalem which now onely had cause to lift vp her drooping head in the ioy and happinesse of a redeemer yet not Herods Court but euen Ierusalem was troubled so had this miserable City beene ouer-toyled with change that now they were setled in a condition quietly euill they are troubled with the newes of better They had now got
perceiuing more than Art or nature in this draught he falles downe at the knees of Iesus saying Lord goe from me for I am a sinfull man Himselfe is caught in this Net Hee doth not greedily fall vpon so vnexspected profitable a bootie but he turnes his eyes from the draught to himselfe from the act to the Author acknowledging vilenesse in the one in the other Maiestie Goe from me Lord for I am a sinfull man It had beene pitie the honest Fisher-man should haue beene taken at his Word Oh Simon thy Sauiour is come into thine owne ship to call thee to call others by thee vnto blessednesse and doest thou say Lord goe from me As if the patient should say to the Physician Depart from me for I am sicke It was the voice of astonishment not of dislike the voice of humilitie not of discontentment yea because thou art a sinfull man therefore hath thy Sauiour need to come to thee to stay with thee and because thou art humble in the acknowledgement of thy sinfulnesse therefore Christ delights to abide with thee and will call thee to abide with him No man euer fared the worse for abasing himselfe to his God Christ hath left many a soule for froward and vnkind vsage neuer any for the disparagement of it self and intreaties of humilitie Simon could not deuise how to hold Christ faster than by thus suing to him to be gone than by thus pleading his vnworthinesse O my soule be not weary of complaining of thine owne wretchednesse disgrace thy selfe to him that knowes thy vilenesse be astonished at those mercies which haue shamed thine ill deseruings Thy Sauiour hath no power to goe away from a prostrate heart Hee that resists the proud heartens the lowly Feare not for I will make thee hence-forth a Fisher of men Loe this Humilitie is rewarded with an Appstleship What had the Earth euer more glorious than a Legacy from Heauen Hee that bade Christ goe from him shall haue the honour to goe fastâ— this happy errand This was a Trade that Simon had no skill of it could not but be enough to him That Christ said I will make thee the miracle shewed him able to make good his word hee that hath power to command the Fishes to be taken can easily enable the hands to take them What is this diuine Trade of ours then but a spirituall Piscation The World is a Sea Soules like Fishes swim at liberty in this Deepe the Nets of wholsome Doctrine draw vp some to the shore of Grace and Glory How much skill and toyle and patience is requisite in this Art Who is sufficient for these things This Sea these Nets the Fishers the Fish the Vessels are all thine O God doe what thou wilt in vs and by vs Giue vs ability and grace to take giue men will and grace to be taken and take thou glory by that which thou hast giuen The marriage in Cana. WAs this then thy first miracle O Sauiour that thou wroughts in Cana of Galile And could there bee a greater miracle than this that hauing beene thirtie yeares vpon earth thou didst no miracle till now That thy diuinitie did hide it selfe thus long in flesh that so long thou wouldest lye obscure in a corner of Galile vnknowne to that world thou camest to redeeme That so long thou wouldest straine the patient expectation of those who euer since thy Starre waited vpon the reuelation of a Messias We silly wretches if we haue but a dram of vertue are ready to set it out to the best shew thou who receiuedst not the Spirit by measure wouldst content thy selfe with a willing obscuritie and concealedst that power that made the world in the roofe of an humane brest in a cottage of Nazareth O Sauiour none of thy miracles is more worthy of astonishment than thy not doing of miracles What thou didst in priuate thy wisedome thought fit for secrecy but if thy blessed Mother had not beene acquainted with some domesticall wonders shee had not now expected a miracle abroad The Starres are not seene by day the Sunne it selfe is not seene by night As it is no small art to hide Art so is it no small glorie to conceale glorie Thy first publique miracle graceth a marriage It is an ancient and laudable institution that the Rights of matrimony should not want a solemne celebration When are feasts in season if not at the recouery of our lost ribbe If not at this mayne change of our estate wherein the ioy of obtayning meets with the hope of further comforts The Sonne of the Virgin and the Mother of that Sonne are both at a wedding It was in all likelihood some of their kindred to whose nuptiall feast they were inuited so farre yet was it more the honour of the act than of the person that Christ intended He that made the first marriage in Paradise bestowes his first miracle vpon a Galilean marriage Hee that was the Author of matrimonie and sanctified it doth by his holy presence honest the resemblance of his eternall vnion with his Church How boldly may we spit in the faces of all the impure aduersaries of wedlocke when the Sonne of God pleases to honour it The glorious Bride-groome of the Church knew well how ready men would be to place shame euen in the most lawfull coniunctions and therefore his first worke shall be to countenance his owne Ordinance Happy is that wedding where Christ is a guest O Sauiour those that marry in thee cannot marry without thee There is no holy Marriage whereat thou art not how euer inuisible yet truely present by thy Spirit by thy gracious benediction Thou makest marriages in heauen thou blessest them from heauen Oh thou that hast betrothed vs to thy selfe in Truth and Righteousnesse doe thou consummate that happy marriage of ours in the highest heauens It was no rich or sumptuous Bridall to which Christ with his mother and Disciples vouchsafed to come from the further parts of Galile I finde him not at the magnificent feasts or triumphs of the Great the proud pompe of the World did not agree with the state of a seruant This poore needy Bride-groome wants drinke for his guests The blessed Virgin though a stranger to the house out of a charitable compassion and a friendly desire to maintaine the decencie of an Hospitall entertaynment inquires into the wants of her Host pitties them bemones them where there was power of redresse When the wine failed the mother of Iesus said vnto him They haue no wine How well doth it beseeme the eyes of pietie and Christian loue to looke into the necessities of others Shee that conceiued the God of mercies both in her heart and in her wombe doth not fixe her eyes vpon her owne trencher but searcheth into the penurie of a poore Israelite and feeles those wants whereof he complaines not They are made for themselues whose thoughts are are onely taken vp with their owne store or indigence There
beene worthy to inioy him for her honest compassion Not more iustly then wisely therefore doth Salomon trace the true mother by the footsteps of loue and pity and adiudgeth the child to those bowels that had yearned at his danger Euen in morality it is thus also Truth as it is one so it loues intirenesse falshood diuision Satan that hath no right to the heart would be content with a peece of it God that made it all will haue either the whole or none The erroneous Church striues with the true for the liuing childe of sauing doctrine each claimes it for her owne Heresie conscious of her owne iniustice could be content to goe away with a leg or an arme of sound principles as hoping to make vp the rest with her owne mixtures Truth cannot abide to part with a ioynt and will rather endure to leese all by violence then a peece through a willing conniuency The Temple IT is a weak and iniurious censure that taxeth Salomons slacknesse in founding the house of God Great bodies must haue but slow motions He was wise that said the matters must be all prepared without ere we build within And if Dauid haue laid ready a great part of the metals and timber yet many a tree must be felled and squared and many a stone hewne and polished ere this foundation could be laid neither could those large Cedars be cut sawne seasoned in one yeare Foure yeares are soone gone in so vast a preparation Dauid had not beene so intire a friend to Hiram if Hiram had not beene a friend to God Salomons wisdome hath taught him to make vse of so good a neighbour of a fathers friend he knowes that the Tyrians skill was not giuen them for nothing Not Iewes onely but Gentiles must haue their hand in building the Temple of God Onely Iewes medled with the Tabernacle but the Temple is not built without the aide of Gentiles They together with vs make vp the Church of God Euen Pagans haue their Arts from heauen how iustly may we improue their graces to the seruice of the God of Heauen if there be a Tyrian that can worke more curiously in gold in siluer in brasse in iron in purple and blew silke then an Israelite why should not hee be imployed about the Temple Their heathenisme is their own their skill is their Makers Many a one workes for the Church of God that yet hath no part in it Salomon raises a tribute for the worke not of money but of men Thirty thousand Israelites are leauied for the seruice yet not continuedly but with intermission their labour is more generous and lesse pressing it is enough if they keep their courses one moneth in Lebanon two at home so as euer ten thousand worke whiles twentie thousand breathe So fauourable is God to his creature that he requires vs not to be ouer-toyled in the workes of his owne seruice Due respirations are requisite in the holiest acts The maine stresse of the worke lyes vpon Proselytes whose both number and paines was herein more then the Natiues An hundred and fifty thousand of them are imployed in bearing burthens in hewing stones besides their three thousand three hundred ouer-seers Now were the despised Gibeonites of good vse and in vaine doth Israel wish that the zeale of Saul had not robbed them of so seruiceable drudges There is no man so meane but may bee some way vsefull to the House of God Those that cannot worke in gold and siluer and silke yet may cut and hew and those that can doe neither yet may cary burdens Euen the seruices that are more homely are not lesse necessarie Who can dis-hearten himselfe in the conscience of his owne insufficiency when he sees God can as well serue himselfe of his labour as of his skill The Temple is framed in Lebanon and set vp in Sion Neither hammer nor axe was heard in that holy structure There was nothing but noise in Lebanon nothing in Sion but silence and peace What euer tumults are abroad it is fit there should bee all quietnesse and sweet concord in the Church Oh God that the axes of schisme or the hammers of furious contentions should bee heard within thy Sanctuary Thine house is not built with blowes with blowes it is beaten downe Oh knit the hearts of thy seruants together in the vnity of the spirit and the bond of peace that we may minde and speak the same things that thou who art the God of peace maist take pleasure to dwell vnder the quiet roofe of our hearts Now is the foundation laid and the wals rising of that glorious fabricke which all Nations admired and all times haue celebrated Euen those stones which were laid in the Base of the building were not ragged and rude but hewne and costly the part that lyes couered with earth from the eyes of all beholders is no lesse precious then those that are most conspicuous God is not all for the eye he pleaseth himselfe with the hidden value of the liuing stones of his spirituall Temple How many noble graces of his seruants haue been buried in obscuritie not discerned so much as by their owne eyes which yet as hee gaue so hee crowneth Hypocrites regard nothing but shew God nothing but truth The matter of so goodly a frame striues with the proportion whether shall more excell Here was nothing but white Marble without nothing but Cedar and Gold within Vpon the Hill of Sion stands that glittering and snowy pile which both inuiteth and dazeleth the eyes of passengers a farre off so much more precious within as Cedar is better then stone gold then Cedar No base thing goes to the making vp of Gods House If Satan may haue a dwelling he cares not though he patch it vp of the rubbish of stone or rotten sticks or drosse of metals God will admit of nothing that is not pure and exquisite His Church consists of none but the faithfull his habitation is in no heart but the gracious The fashion was no other then that of the Tabernacle onely this was more costly more large more fixed God was the same that dwelt in both hee varied not the same mysterie was in both Onely it was fit there should be a proportion betwixt the worke and the builder The Tabernacle was erected in a popular estate the Temple in a Monarchy it was fit this should sauour of the munificence of a King as that of the zeale of a multitude That was erected in the flitting condition of Israel in the desert this in their setled residence in the promised Land it was fit therefore that should bee framed for motion this for rest Both of them were distinguished into three remarkable diuisions whereof each was more noble more reserued then other But what doe we bend our eyes vpon stone and wood and metals God would neuer haue taken pleasure in these dead materials for their owne sakes if they had not had a further intendment Me thinkes
should not import enough since others haue beene honoured by this name in Type he addes for full distinction The Sonne of the most High God The good Syrophenecian and blind Bartemeus could say The Sonne of Dauid It was well to acknowledge the true descent of his pedigree according to the flesh but this infernall spirit lookes aloft and fetcheth his line out of the highest heauens The Sonne of the most high God The famous confession of the prime Apostle which honoured him with a new name to immortalitie was no other then Thou art the Christ the Sonne of the liuing God and what other doe I heare from the lips of a fiend None more diuine words could fall from the highest Saint Nothing hinders but that the veriest miscreant on earth yea the foulest Deuill in Hell may speake holily It is no passing of iudgement vpon loose sentences So Peter should haue been cast for a Satan in denying forswearing cursing and the Deuill should haue beene set vp for a Saint in confessing Iesus the Sonne of the most high God Fond hypocrite that pleasest thy selfe in talking well heare this Deuil and when thou canst speake better then he looke to fare better but in the meane time know that a smooth tongue and a foule heart caries away double iudgements Let curious heads dispute whether the Deuill knew Christ to bee God In this I dare beleeue himselfe though in nothing else he knew what hee beleeued what hee beleeued what he confessed Iesus the Sonne of the most high God To the confusion of those semi-Christians that haue either held doubtfully or ignorantly mis-knowne or blasphemously denied what the very Deuils haue professed How little can a bare speculation auaile vs in these cases of Diuinitie So farre this Deuill hath attained to no ease no comfort Knowledge alone doth but puffe vp it is our loue that edifies If there be not a sense of our sure interest in this Iesus a power to apply his merits and obedience we are no wâ—â—t the safer no whit the better onely we are so much the wiser to vnderstand who shall condemne vs. The piece of the clause was spoken like a Saint Iesus the Sonne of the most high God the other piece like a Deuill What haue I to doe with thee If the disclamation were vniuersall the latter words would impugne the former for whiles hee confesses Iesus to be the Sonne of the most high God hee withall confesses his owne ineuitable subiection Wherefore would he beseech if he were not obnoxious He cannot hee dare not say What hast thou to doe with me but What haue I to doe with thee Others indeed I haue vexed thee I feare in respect then of any violence of any personall prouocation What haue I to doe with thee And doest thou aske O thou euill spirit what thou hast to doe with Christ whiles thou vexest a seruant 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 concernes his owne person Heare that great and iust Iudge sentencing vpon his dreadfull Tribunall In as much as thou didst it vnto one of these little ones thou didst it vnto me It is an idle misprision to seuer the sense of an iniury done to any of the members from the head Hee that had humilitie enough to kneele to the Son of God hath boldnesse enough to expostulate Art thou come to torment vs before our time Whether it were that Satan who vseth to enioy the torment of sinners whose musick it is to heare our shrieks and gnashings held it no small piece of his torment to bee restrained in the exercise of his tyrannie Or whether the very presence of Christ were his racke For the guilty spirit proiecteth terrible things and cannot behold the Iudge or the executioner without a renouation of horror Or whether that as himselfe professeth he were now in a fearfull expectation of being commanded downe into the deepe for a further degree of actuall torment which he thus deprecates There are tortures appointed to the very spirituall natures of euill Angels Men that are led by sense haue easily granted the body subiect to torment who yet haue not so readily conceiued this incident to a spirituall substance The holy Ghost hath not thought it fit to acquaint vs with the particular manner of these inuisible acts rather willing that wee should herein feare then enquire but as all matters of faith though they cannot be proued by reason for that they are in an higher sphere yet afford an answer able to stop the mouth of al reason that dares bark against them since truth cannot be opposite to it selfe so this of the sufferings of spirits There is therefore both an intentionall torment incident to spirits and a reall For as in blessednes the good spirits find themselues ioined vnto the chiefe good and herevpon feele a perfect loue of God and vnspeakable ioy in him and rest in themselues so contrarily the euill spirits perceiue themselues eternally excluded from the presence of God and see themselues setled in a wofull darknesse and from the sense of this separation arises an horrour not to be expressed not to be conceiued How many men haue wee knowne to torment themselues with their owne thoughts There needs no other gibbet then that which their troubled spirit hath erected in their owne heart and if some paines begin at the body and from thence afflict the soule in a copartnership of griefe yet others arise immediately from the soule and draw the body into a participation of misery Why may we not therefore conceiue meere and separate spirits capable of such an inward excruciation Besides which I heare the Iudge of men and Angels say Goe yee cursed into euerlasting fire prepared for the Deuill and his Angels I heare the Prophet say Tophet is prepared of old If with feare and without curiositie wee may looke vpon those flames Why may we not attribute a spirituall nature to that more then naturall fire In the end of the world the elements shall be dissolued by fire and if the pure quintessentiall matter of the skie and the element of fire it selfe shall be dissolued 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 eternitie created a fire of another nature proportionable euen to spirituall essences Or why may wee not distinguish of fire as it is it selfe a bodily creature and as it is an instrument of Gods iustice so working not by any materiall vertue or power of it owne but by a certain height of supernaturall efficacie to which it is exalted by the omnipotence of that supreme and righteous Iudge Or lastly why may wee not conceiue that though spirits haue nothing materiall in their nature which that fire should worke vpon yet by the iudgement of the almightie Arbiter of the world iustly
right Commentary vpon Gods intention in this act for the terrour of the disobedient and to giue his voice to the certaintie of that future iudgement which his late guest had threatned to Israel sometimes it pleased the wisedome of God to expresse and iustifie himselfe euen by the tongues of faulty Instruments Withall he hath so much faith and courage as to fetch that carkasse from the Lion so much piety and compassion as to weepe for the man of God to interre him in his owne Sepulcher so much loue as to wish himselfe ioyned in death to that body which he had hastened vnto death It is hard to finde a man absolutely wicked Some grace will bewray it selfe in the most forsaken brests It is a cruell courtesie to kill a man and then to helpe him to his graue to betray a man with our breath and then to bedew him with our teares The Prophet had needed no such friend if hee had not met with such an enemy The mercies of the wicked are cruell IEROBOAMS Wife IT is no measuring of Gods fauour by the line of outward welfare Ieroboam the idolatrous vsurper of Israel prospers better then the true heires of Dauid Hee liues to see three successions in the throne of Iuda Thus the Iuy liues when the oake is dead Yet could not that mis-gotten crown of his keep his head alwaies from aching He hath his crosses too God whips sometimes more then his own His enemies smart from him as well as his children his children in loue his enemies in iudgement Not simply the rod argues loue but the temper of the hand that weelds it and the backe that feeles it First Ieroboams hand was striken now his Sonne Abijah the eldest the best sonne of Ieroboam is smitten with sicknesse As children are but the pieces of their Parents in another skin so Parents are no lesse striken in their children then in their naturall lims Ieroboam doth not more feele his arme then his sonne Not wicked men onely but beasts may haue naturall affections It is no thanke to any creature to loue his owne Nature wrought in Ieroboam no grace He is enough troubled with his sons disgrace no whit bettered I would haue heard him say God followes me with his afflictions it is for mine impiety what other measure can I expect from his iustice Whiles mine Idols stand how can I look that my house should prosper I will turne from my wickednes O God turne thou from thy wrath These thoughts were too good for that obdured heart His son is sick he is sorrowfull but as an amazed man seeks to go forth at the wrong doore his distraction sends him to a false help He thinks not of God he thinks of his Prophet He thinks of the Prophet that had foretold him he should be a King he thinks not of the God of that Prophet who made him a King It is the property of a carnall heart to confine both his Obligations and his hopes to the meanes neglecting the Author of good Vaine is the respect that is giuen to the seruant where the Master is contemned Extremity drawes Ieroboams thoughts to the Prophet whom else he had not cared to remember-The King of Israel had Diuines enow of his owne Else hee must needs haue thought them miserable gods that were not worth a Prophet And besides there was an old Prophet if he yet suruiued dwelling within the smoke of his Palace whose visions had bin too well approued why would Ieroboam send so farre to an Ahijah Certainly his heart despised those base Priests of his high places neither could trust either to the gods or the Clergie of his own making His conscience rests vpon the fidelity of that man whose doctrine hee had forsaken How did this Idolater striue against his owne heart whiles he inwardly despised those whom he professed to honour and inwardly honoured them whom hee professed to despise Wicked brests are false to themselues neither trusting to their owne choice nor making choice of that which they may dare to trust They will set a good face vpon their secretly-vnpleasing sinnes and had rather be selfe-condemned then wise and penitent As for that old Seer it is like Ieraboam knew his skill but doubted of his sinceritie that man was too much his neighbour to be good s Ahijahs truth had beene tryed in a case of his owne Hee whose word was found iust in the prediction of his Kingdome was well worthy of credit in the newes of his sonne Experience is a great encouragement of our trust It is a good matter to be faithfull this loadstone of our fidelity shall draw to vs euen hearts of iron hold them to our reliance As contrarily deceit doth both argue and make a bankrupt who can trust where he is disappointed O God so oft so euer haue we found thee true in all thy promises in all thy performances that if we doe not seeke thee if wee doe not trust thee in the sequell wee are worthy of our losse worthy of thy desertions Yet I do not see that Ieroboam sends to the Prophet for his aide but for intelligence Curiositie is guilty of this message and not deuotion hee cals not for the prayers not for the benediction of that holy man but for meere information of the euent He well saw what the prayers of a Prophet could doe That which cured his hand might it not haue cured his sonne Yet he that said to a man of God Intreat the face of the Lord thy God that he may restore my hand sayes not now in his message to Ahijah Intreat thy God to restore my Sonne Sinne makes such a strangenesse betwixt God and man that the guilty heart either thinkes not of suing to God or feares it What a poore contentment it was to foreknow that euill which hee could not auoid and whose notice could but hasten his misery Yet thus fond is our restlesse curiosity that it seekes ease in the drawing on of torment He is worthy of sorrow that will not stay till it comes to him but goes to fetch it Whom doth Ieroboam send on this message but his wife how but disguised Why her and why thus Neither durst he trust this errand with another nor with her in her own forme It was a secret that Ieroboam sends to a Prophet of God none might know it but his owne bosome and she that lay in it if this had bin noised in Israel the example had been dangerous Who would not haue said the King is glad to leaue his counterfeit deities and seek to the true Why should we adhere to them whom he forsakes As the message must not be knowne to the people so shee that beares it must not bee knowne to the Prophet her name her habit must be changed shee must put off her robes and put on a russet coat she must put off the Queene and put on the peasant in stead of her Scepter she must take vp
vid. Kings and Princes How it pleaseth the people to heare the gouernors taxed 1920 Corrupt gouernours lose the comfort of their owne breast 921 A praying gouernour ibid. No small happinesse to an estate to haue their gouernors chosen by worthinesse 941 Gouernours must not respect their owne ends in publike actions 984 Grace It will grow p. 8. How chained 136 Patience is a good proofe of grace 913 The folly of them that refuse Gods graces because they are found in ill men 1000 It is iust with God that those that want grace should want wit too 1044 Grace is not tyed either to number or meanes 1050 Grace is by gift and not by inheritance 1052 An vnmannerly vngodlinesse not to say grace at meat 1055 Nothing but grace can make vs to make vse of others iudgements 1058 A speciall token of a gracious heart 1100 The graces of God how they should attract our Loue. 1109 Grace makes no differences of sexes 1160 Greatnesse Not respected of any but of man 1 There is an affable familiarity that becomes greatnesse 1055 Dishonestie growes bold when it is countenanced by greatnesse 1138 Setled greatnesse cannot endure change or partnership 1171 Guides A Christian must in all his wayes haue three guides First Truth Secondly Wisedome Thirdly Charitie 137 It is a great confirmation to any people to see God to bee their guide 883 No better guide then God in his Word Sacraments 948 949 Guiltinesse what feare there is in it 909 It needs no Prophet to assure vs of punishment 1035 Euery thing affrights the guilty 1171 H HAlfe an halfe Christian liues most miserably 62 Hanun Of him and Dauids Ambassadors 1133 Happinesse How to bee happy in despight of all the world 52 Who is happy enough 58 A happy mans Character 181 Wherein it is not 201 c. Wherein it is 209 The suddennesse of mans happinesse 515 A good heart cannot endure to be happy alone 867 Hardnesse or hardning How to keepe from it 329 Many hardned by the Word 836 Harlot Her deadly danger prettily described 1007 Hast Of making hast to bee good p. 2 Iust iealousie of being ouer hastily holy 33 Hatred Betweene the Christian and the world 61 62 Hearing a note for bearers that come for eloquence 62 An enducement to heare often 149 Heart How small how great 6 The heart tongues correspondence 38 A true signe of a false hart is to be nice in small matters and contrarie in great 147 How to keepe from hardnesse of heart 329 The heart hath many names 502 Deceitfull in euery faculty ibid. A mans inward disposition presageth his euent 948 A good heart can frame it selfe to all conditions 1080 Saul the very picture of a false heart 1087 The foulest heart doth oft enioy good motions 1089 No heart but sometimes will relent 1101 Our heart compared to a City enclosed 1243 Heauen its pleasure prettily described 5 811 Heauen compared to an hill 10 The way to heauen foule and thornie 37 Hell is not more obscure in comparison of the earth then the Earth in respect of Heauen 66 Heauenly and earthly things represented vnto vs by the two lights of Heauen the Sun and the Moone 68 the different degrees of heauens glory 326 Heauens ioyes prettily expressed 467 468 Heauen double Gloriae Ecclesiae 529 The three Heauens notably described 811 812 Neuer any enterd heauen with ease 1371 Heeles what the iniquity of ones heeles is 1101 Henry A lamentation for prince Henry 63 Heraldry its antiquity 443 Hereticks How farre t is lawfull to haue conuerse with them 330 Herod of his trouble about Christs birth 1171 His feare dissembled 1172 Of him the Infants 1176 His slaughter of the Infants 1178. Holy dayes how they are obserued in the Church of England 586 Holinesse Fearfully abusâ—d by the Pope 445 A double holinesse one for vse another for vertue 445 446 Our shame in the want of holinesse and a sharpe reproofe for it 446 Of whom it is reiected ibid. Who so holy as sinnes not example in Miriam and Aaron against Moses 914 Holinesse not tyed to any profession 1010 The Throne and the Pulpit chiefly call for holinesse 1060 Holy duties how regarded of the wicked 1066 No man brags so much of holinesse as hee that hath it not 1075 A little honesty worth much illumination 1320 No temptation so dangerous as that which comes vnder the vale of holinesse ibid. Honest or honesty its character 174 Honest actions neuer shame their doers 1110 Honor How honor and charge are of an inseparable connexion 48 An Epistle of true honor 278 They that are most vnworthy of it are in hottest chase for it 985 Honor is heauy wheÌ„ it comes on the best termes 1057 Honor will shew the man 1086 Hope It is not more necessary for men to bee cheeted with hopes then to be feared with dangers 1051 The description of an hopelesse man 1100 Hosts God stiled The God of Hosts an hundred and thirtie times by the Prophets with the vse thereof 531 Housholder His properties 239 Humiliation It is a right vse of affliction 1132 T is the way to glory ibid. Humilitie how God accepts of it 145 The character of an humble man 175 Humilitie with the contrarie vice 224 Humility is both a signe of following glory and the way vnto it 977 Humility is euer the way to honor 1026 True humility finds out the worst of himselfe 1207 Hunger Sweet comforts to the hungry soule 65 66 Husband how hee must cary himselfe 239 Hypocrite or Hypocrisie reasons why it is a very madnesse to be an hypocrite 4 A worldling is an hypocrite 6 The Hypocrites Character 185 A worthy caution for an hypocrite 416 Prettily described in the profession of holinesse 446 Hypocrites how contrary to Moses in the vailing his face 910 Hypocrisie gets this that it may doe euill vnsuspected 936 No meanes hath so inriched hell as beautifull faces 937 Hypocrits haue good tongues 1048 Hypocrites onely rest in formalities 1063 An Hypocrite wil sooner find out another mans sinne then his owne 1066 The folly and impudency of Hypocrysie descryed 1075. Saul the very character of hypocrisie 1067 1087 Hypocrites partial in their detestaâ—ions 1121 A special note of an hypocrite euen to make vse of God for his owne purposes 1121 Wicked Hypocrites care not how they play with God so they may mocke men 1150 What an idlenesse it is in Hypocrites to hope that they shall dance in a 〈◊〉 vnseene of heauen 1325 I IAel and Sisera 973 Of Iaels courtesie to Sisera 974 Iaels expostulations about Sisera's death ibid. Iacob The contemplation of Iacob and Esau 843 Idlenes It is very troublesome 34 The Idol man is the deuils Cushion 54 55. God neuer graceth the idle with visions 870 Idlenesse what it does 1137 Idols and Idolatry Things abused to it may bee imployed to Gods seruice 978 no trusting the honestie of an Idolater 1011 The obstinacie of Idolatry 1045 Ieptha 991