enmitie But there are some enmities more secret and which doe not outwardly bewray themselues but behold heere is publique resistance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not subiect But perhaps it will once yeeld of it selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It cannot Xiphil Epist Dionis sayth the Spirit of God See in how rebellious an estate we are to God What pronenesse is heere to will good what abilitie to performe it Let the Papists if they will sacrifice to themselues as Seianus had wont of old or to their nets as the Prophet speaketh As for vs come what can come vpon our opposition wee neither can nor dare arrogate vnto our selues those things which by an holy reseruation incommunicablenesse are proper onely vnto the Highest It is safe indeed for the Papists when they will to come vp to vs but we cannot goe downe to them without a fearefull precipitation of our soules Consult Cass cit Bonauent in haec verba hoc piaruÌ„ mentium est vt nil sibi tribuunt c. Let Cassander witnesse this for vs Let Bonauenture himselfe witnes it for him This is the propertie of holy minds to attribute nothing to themselues but all to the grace of God So that how much soeuer a man ascribe to the grace of God hee swarueth not from true pietie though by giuing much to grace hee withdraw something from the power of nature or Free-will but when any thing is withdrawne from the grace of God and ought attributed to nature which is due to grace there may bee great danger to the soule Thus farre those two ingenuous Papists But to inferre wee giue all to grace the Papists something to nature and what they giue to nature we giue to God Therefore we doe and say that which is fit for holy minds they if Bonauenture may be witnesse that which swerues from piety and is ioyned with much danger of their soule SECTION IX Concerning Merits THe foundation of Popish Iustification is the freedome of our will and vpon the walls of Iustification is merit raised wee will haue no quarrell about the word Bucer cit à Cass Cypr. l. 3. ep 20. Prâ—â— Iud. The holy Fathers of old as wee all grant tooke the word in a good sense which the later Diuines haue miserably corrupted About the thing it selfe wee must striue eternally we promise a reward to good workes yea an euerlasting one It is a true word of the Iewes He that labours in the Euen shall eat on the Sabbath Qui laborauit in vespera comedet in Sabbatho Conc. Trident. Orthod expl l. 6. Caiet in Galat. for God hath promised it and will performe who yet crowneth vs in mercy and compassion as the Psalmist speaks not as the Papists in the rigour of iustice not as Andradius according to the due desert of our worke By the free gift of God and not our merits as Caietan wisely and worthily Or if any man like that word better God doth it in Iustice but in respect of his owne promise not the very dignity of our workes That a iust mans worke in the truth of the thing it selfe is of a value worthy of the reward of heauen which industrious and learned Morton cites out of the English Professor of Dowâ—y and hath a meet proportion both of equality and dignity Weston de Tripl hom off l. 2. Vid. protest Appeal lib. 2. c. 11. Tom. 1. in Th. 3. d. 11. to the recompence of eternall life as Pererius and that in it selfe without any respect of the merits and death of Christ which Suarez and Bajus shamed not to write seemes iustly to vs little lesse than blasphemie But say our moderate Papists CHRIST hath merited this merit of ours neither can any other workes challenge this to themselues but those which are done in GOD as Andradius speaks but those which are dipped and dyed in the bloud of CHRIST as our later Papists elegantly and emphatically speake But what is this but to coozen the world and to cast a mist before the eyes of the vnskilfull Our sinnes are dyed in the bloud of CHRIST not our merits Or if they also Hath CHRIST then deserued that our workes should bee perfect How comes it about that the workes of the best men are so lame and defectiue Hath he deserued that though they bee imperfect yet they might merit What iniurie is this to God what contradiction of termes Behold now so many Sauiours as good men what I doe is mine what I merit is mine whosoeuer giues me either to do or to merit Whosoeuer rides on a lame horse cannot but moue vn-euenly vneasily vncertainly what insolent ouer-weeners of their owne workes are these Papists which proclaime the actions which proceed from themselues worthy of no lesse than heauen To whom wee may iustly say as Constantine said to Acesius the Novatian Set vp ladders O yee Papists and clime vp to heauen alone Socr. l. 1. c. 7. Erigâ—â— vobis scalus c. Homo iustus 〈◊〉 c. Who can abide that noted speech of Bellarmine A iust man hath by a double title right to the same glory one by the merits of CHRIST imparted to him by grace another by his owne merits contrary to that of the Spirit of God The wages of sinne is death but The gift of God is eternall life vpon which words another Cardinall Caietan speakes in a holier fashion thus He doth not say that the wages of our righteousnesse is eternall life but The gift of God is eternall life that wee may vnderstand and learne that we attaine eternall life not by our owne merits but by the free gift of God for which cause also he addes By Iesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. fin Behold the merit behold the righteousnesse whose wages is eternall life but to vs in respect of IESVS CHRIST it is a free gift Thus Caietan Caiet Câ—â— in Rom. 6. What could either Luther or Caluin or any Protestant say more plainly How imperfect doth the Scripture euery where proclaime both Gods graces in vs and our workes to him and though the graces of God were absolutely perfect yet they are not ours if our workes were so yet they are formerly due And if they be due to God what recompence of transcendent glory is due to vs Behold wee are both seruants and vnprofitable Not worthy saith God worthy and more say the Papists Ephess 2. By grace yee are saued through faith and that not of your selues saith God By grace indeed but yet of our selues say the Papists What insolencie is this Let our Monkes now goe and professe wilfull pouertie whiles Ezekiah did neuer so boast of his heaps of treasure as these of their spirituall wealth Hier. Epitaph Fabiolae Hierome said truely It is more hard to bee stripped of our pride than of our Gold and Iewels for euen when those outward ornaments are gone many times these inward rags swell vp the soule
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
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
different actions as persons yet all haue one common intention of good to themselues true in some but in the most imaginary The glorified Spirits haue but one vniforme worke wherein they all ioyne The praise of their Creator This is one difference betwixt the Saints aboue and below They aboue are free both from businesse and distraction these below are free though not absolutely from distraction not at all from businesse Paul could thinke of the cloke that he left at Troas and of the shaping of his skins for his Tents yet thorow these he look't still at heauen This world is made for businesse my actions must vary according to occasions my end shall be but one and the same now on earth that it must be one day in heauen 3 To see how the Martyrs of God died and the life of their persecutors would make a man out of loue with life and out of all feare of death They were flesh and bloud as well as we life was as sweet to them as to vs their bodies were as sensible of paine as ours wee goe to the same heauen with them How comes it then that they were so couragious in abiding such torments in their death as the very mention strikes horror into any Reader and we are so cowardly in encountering a faire and naturall death if this valour had beene of themselues I would neuer haue looked after them in hope of imitation Now I know it was he for whom they suffered and that suffered in them which sustained them They were of themselues as weake as I and God can bee as strong in me as hee was in them O Lord thou art not more vnable to giue me this grace but I am more vnworthie to receiue it and yet thou regardest not worthinesse but mercie Giue mee their strength and what end thou wilt 4 Our first age is all in hope When wee are in the wombe who knowes whether wee shall haue our right shape and proportion of body being neither monstrous nor deformed When wee are borne who knowes whether with the due features of a man wee shall haue the faculties of reason and vnderstanding When yet our progresse in yeeres discouereth wit or follie who knowes whether with the power of reason wee shall haue the grace of faith to bee Christians and when wee begin to professe well whether it bee a temporarie and seeming or a true and sauing faith Our middle age is halfe in hope for the future and halfe in proofe for that is past Our old age is out of hope and altogether in proofe In our last times therefore we know both what wee haue beene and what to expect It is good for youth to looke forward and still to propound the best things vnto it selfe for an old man to looke backward and to repent him of that wherein he hath failed and to recollect himselfe for the present but in my middle age I will looke both backward and forward comparing my hopes with my proofe redeeming the time ere it be all spent that my recouerie may preuent my repentance It is both a folly and miserie to say This I might haue done 5 It is the wonderfull mercie of God both to forgiue vs our debts to him in our sinnes and to make himselfe a debtor to vs in his promises So that now both waies the soule may be sure since hee neither calleth for those debts which hee hath once forgiuen nor withdraweth those fauours and that heauen which hee hath promised but as hee is a mercifull creditor to forgiue so is hee a true debtor to pay whatsoeuer hee hath vndertaken whence it is come to passe that the penitent sinner owes nothing to God but loue and obedience and God owes still much and all to him for he owes as much as he hath promised and what he owes by vertue of his blessed promise we may challenge O infinite mercie Hee that lent vs all that wee haue and in whose debt-bookes wee runne hourely forward till the summe be endlesse yet owes vs more and bids vs looke for payment I cannot deserue the least fauour hee can giue yet will I as confidently challenge the greatest as if I deserued it Promise indebteth no lesse than loane or desert 6 It is no small commendation to manage a little well He is a good Waggoner that can turne in a narrow roome To liue well in abundance is the praise of the estate not of the person I will studie more how to giue a good account of my little than how to make it more 7 Many Christians doe greatly wrong themselues with a dull and heauie kinde of fullennesse who not suffering themselues to delight in any worldly thing are thereupon oft-times so heartlesse that they delight in nothing These men like to carelesse guests when they are inuited to an excellent banquet lose their dainties for want of a stomacke and lose their stomacke for want of exercise A good conscience keepes alwaies good cheereâ— hee cannot chuse but fare well that hath it vnlesse hee lose his appetite with neglect and slothfulnesse It is a shame for vs Christians not to finde as much ioy in God as worldlings doe in their forced meriments and lewd wretches in the practice of their sinnes 8 A wise Christian hath no enemies Many hate and wrong him but hee loues all men and all pleasure him Those that professe loue to him pleasure him with the comfort of their societie and the mutuall reflection of friendship those that professe hatred make him more warie of his waies shew him faults in himselfe which his friends would either not haue espied or not censured send him the more willingly to seeke fauour aboue and as the worst doe bestead him though against their wills so hee againe doth voluntarily good to them To doe euill for euill as Ioab to Abner is a sinfull weaknesse To doe good for good as Ahasuerus to Mordecai is but naturall iustice To doe euill for good as Iudas to Christ is vnthankfulnesse and villanie Onely to doe good for euill agrees with Christian profession And what greater worke of friendship than to doe good If men will not be my friends in loue I will perforce make them my friends in a good vse of their hatred I will be their friend that are mine and would not be 9 All temporall things are troublesome For if wee haue good things it is a trouble to forgoe them and when wee see they must bee parted from either wee wish they had not beene so good or that wee neuer had enioyed them Yea it is more trouble to lose them than it was before ioy to possesse them If contrarily wee haue euill things their very presence is troublesome and still we wish that they were good or that we were disburdened of them So good things are troublesome in euent euill things in their vse They in the future these in present they because they shall come to an end these because they doe
One makes a man wise the other good One serues that we may know our dutie the other that we may performe it I will labour in both but I know not in whether more Men cannot practise vnlesse they know and they know in vaine if they practise not 36 There be two things in euery good worke honour and profit The latter God bestowes vpon vs the former he keepes to himselfe The profit of our works redoundeth not to God My weldoing extendeth not to thee The honour of our worke may not be allowed vs. My glorie I will not giue to another I will not abridge God of his part that he may not bereaue me of mine 37 The proud man hath no God the enuious man hath no neighbour the angry man hath not himselfe What can that man haue that wants himselfe What is a man better if he haue himselfe and want all others What is he the neerer if hee haue himselfe and others and yet want God What good is it then to be a man if he be either wrathfull proud or enuious 38 Man that was once the soueraigne Lord of all creatures whom they seruiceably attended at all times is now sent to the very basest of all creatures to learne good qualities Goe to the Pismire c. and see the most contemptible creatures prefer'd before him The Asse knoweth his owner wherein we like the miserable heire of some great Peere whose house is decaied through the treason of our progenitors heare and see what Honours and Lord-ships wee should haue had but now finde our selues below many of the vulgar we haue not so much cause of exaltation that wee are men and not beasts as we haue of humiliation in thinking how much we were once better than we are and that now in many duties we are men inferiour to beasts so as those whom we contemne if they had our reason might more iustly contemne vs and as they are may teach vs by their examples and doe condemne vs by their practice 39 The idle man is the Deuils cushion on which hee taketh his free case who as hee is vncapable of any good so he is fitly disposed for all euill motions The standing water soone stinketh whereas the current euer keepes cleere and cleanly conueying downe all noisome matter that might infect it by the force of his streame If I doe but little good to others by my endeuours yet this is great good to me that by my labour I keepe my selfe from hurt 40 There can be no neerer coniunction in nature than is betwixt the body and the soule yet these two are of so contrarie disposition that as it falls out in an ill-marched man and wife those seruants which the one likes best are most dispraised of the other so here one still takes part against the other in their choice what benefits the one is the hurt of the other The glutting of the body pines the soule and the soule thriues best when the body is pinched Who can wonder that there is such faction amongst others that sees so much in his very selfe True wisdome is to take not with the stronger as the fashion of the world is but with the better following herein not vsurped power but iustice It is not hard to discerne whose the right is whether the seruant should rule or the mistresse I will labour to make and keepe the peace by giuing each part his owne indifferently but if more bee affected with an ambitious contention I will rather beat Hagar out of dores than she shall ouer-rule her mistresse 41 I see Iron first heated red hot in the fire and after beaten and hardened with cold water Thus will I deale with an offending friend first heat him with deserued praise of his vertue and then beat vpon him with reprehension so good nurses when their children are fallen first take them vp and speake them faire chide them afterwards Gentle speech is a good preparatiue for rigor He shall see that I loue him by my approbation and that I loue not his faults by my reproofe If he loue himselfe he will loue those that mislike his vices if he loue not himselfe it matters not whether he loue me 42 The liker we are to God which is the best and onely good the better and happier we must needs be All sinnes make vs vnlike him as being contrary to his perfect holinesse but some shew more direct contrarietie such is enuie For whereas God bringeth good out of euill the enuious man fetcheth euill out of good wherein also his sinne proues a kinde of punishment for whereas to good men euen euill things worke together to their good contrarily to the enuious good things worke together to their euill The euill in any man though neuer so prosperous I will not enuie but pittie The good graces I will not repine at but holily emulate reioicing that they are so good but grieuing that I am no better 43 The couetous man is like a Spider as in this that he doth nothing but lay his nets to catch euery Flie gaping onely for a bootie of gaine so yet more in that whiles hee makes nets for these Flies he consumeth his owne bowels so that which is his life is his death If there be any creature miserable it is he and yet hee is least to be pitied because he makes himselfe miserable such as he is I will acount him and will therefore sweepe downe his webs and hate his poyson 44 In heauen there is all life and no dying in hell is all death and no life In earth there is both liuing and dying which as it is betwixt both so it prepares for both So that he which here below dies to sinne doth after liue in heauen and contrarily hee that liues in sinne vpon earth dies in hell afterwards What if I haue no part of ioy here below but still succession of afflictions The wicked haue no part in heauen and yet they enioy the earth with pleasure I would not change portions with them I reioyce that seeing I cannot haue both yet I haue the better O Lord let me passe both my deaths here vpon earth I care not how I liue or die so I may haue nothing but life to looke for in another world 45 The conceit of proprietie hardens a man against many inconueniences and addeth much to our pleasure The mother abides many vnquiet nights many painfull throes and vnpleasant sauours of her childe vpon this thought It is my owne The indulgent father magnifies that in his owne sonne which he would scarce like in a stranger The want of this to God-ward makes vs so subiect to discontentment and cooleth our delight in him because we thinke of him aloofe as one in whom we are not interessed If we could thinke It is my God that cheereth me with his presence and blessings while I prosper that afflicteth me in loue when I am deiected my Sauiour is at Gods right hand my
their present feeling or their expectation both of them when they meet with weake mindes so extremely distempering them that the patient for the time is not himselfe How many haue we knowne which through a lingring disease weary of their paine weary of their liues haue made their owne hands their executioners How many meeting with a headstrong griefe which they could not manage haue by the violence of it beene carried quite from their wits How many millions what for incurable maladies what for losses what for defamations what for sad accidents to their children rub out their liues in perpetuall discontentment therefore liuing because they cannot yet die not for that they like to liue If there could be any humane receit prescribed to auoid euils it would bee purchased at an high rate but both it is impossible that earth should redresse that which is sent from Heauen and if it could be done euen the want of miseries would proue miserable for the minde cloyed with continuall felicity would grow a burden to it selfe loathing that at last which intermission would haue made pleasant Giue a free horse the full reynes and he will soone tire Summer is the sweetest season by all consents wherein the earth is both most rich with increase and most gorgeous for ornament yet if it were not receiued with interchanges of cold frosts and piercing windes who could liue Summer would be no Summer if Winter did not both lead it in and follow it we may not therefore either hope or striue to escape all crosses some we may what thou canst flie from what thou canst not allay and mitigate in crosses vniuersally let this be thy rule Make thy selfe none escape some beare the rest sweeten all SECT IX APprehension giues life to crosses and if some be simply Of crosses that arise from conceit most are as they are taken I haue seene many which when God hath meant them no hurt haue framed themselues crosses out of imagination and haue found that insupportable for weight which in truth neuer was neither had euer any but a fancied being Others againe laughing out heauie afflictions for which they were bemoaned of the beholders One receiues a deadly wound and lookes not so much as pale at the smart another heares of many losses and like Zeno after newes of his shipwracke as altogether passion-lesse goes to his rest not breaking an houres sleepe for that which would breake the heart of some others Greenham that Saint of ours whom it cannot disparage that he was reserued for our so loose an age can lie spread quietly vpon the forme looking for the Chirurgians knife binding himselfe as fast with a resolued patience as others with strongest cords abiding his flesh carued and his bowels rifled and not stirring more than if he felt not while others tremble to expect and shrinke to feele but the pricking of a veyne There can be no remedie for imaginary crosses but wisdome which shall teach vs to esteeme of all euents as they are like a true glasse representing all things to our mindes in their due proportion So as crosses may not seeme that are not nor little and gentle ones seeme great and intolerable Giue thy body Ellebore thy minde good counsell thine eare to thy friend and these fantasticall euills shall vanish away like themselues SECT X. IT were idle aduice to bid men auoid euils Of true and reall crosses Nature hath by a secret instinct taught brute creatures so much whether wit or sagacity and our selfe-loue making the best aduantage of reason will easily make vs so wise and carefull It is more worth our labour since our life is so open to calamities and nature to impatience to teach men to beare what euills they cannot auoid and how by a well-disposednesse of minde we may correct the iniquitie of all hard euents Wherein it is hardly credible how much good Art and precepts of resolution may auaile vs. I haue seene one man by the helpe of a little engine lift vp that weight alone which forty helping hands by their cleare strength might haue endeuoured in vaine Wee liue here in an Ocean of troubles wherein we can see no firme land one waue falling vpon another ere the former haue wrought all his spight Mischiefes striue for places as if they feared to lose their roome if they hasted not So many good things as we haue so many euills arise from their priuation besides no fewer reall and positiue euills that afflict vs. To prescribe and apply receits to euery particular crosse were to write a Saâ—meron-like commentary vpon Petrarchs remedies and I doubt whether so the worke would be perfect a life would be too little to write it and but enough to reade it SECT XI The first remedy of crosses before they come THe same medicines cannot helpe all diseases of the body of the soule they may Wee see Fencers giue their schollers the same common rules of position of warding and weilding their weapon for offence for defence against all commers such vniuersall precepts there are for crosses In the first whereof I would prescribe Expectation that either killeth or abateth euills For Crosses after the nature of the Cockatrice die it they be foreseene whether this prouidence makes vs more strong to resist or by some secret power makes them more vnable to assault vs. It is not credible what a fore-resolued minde can doe can suffer Could our English Milo of whom Spaine yet speaketh since their last peace haue ouerthrowne that furious Beast made now more violent through the rage of his baiting if he had not setled himselfe in his station and expected The frighted multitude ran away from that ouer-earnest sport which begun in pleasure ended in terrour If he had turned his backe with the rest where had beene his safety where his glory and reward Now he stood still expected ouercame by one fact he at once preserued honoured enriched himselfe Euills will come neuer the sooner for that thou lookest for them they will come the easier it is a labour well lost if they come not and well bestowed if they doe come We are sure the worst may come why should wee bee secure that it will not Suddennesse findes weake mindes secure makes them miserable leaues them desperate The best way therefore is to make things present in conceit before they come that they may be halfe past in their violence when they doe come euen as with woodden wasters we learne to play at the sharp As therefore good Souldiers exercise themselues long at the pale and there vse those actiuities which afterwards they shall practise vpon a true aduersarie so must we present to our selues imaginary crosses and manage them in our minde before God sends them in euent Now I eat sleepe digest all soundly without complaint what if a languishing disease should bereaue me of my appetite and rest that I should see dainties and loath them surfetting of the very smell of
is all one as to come to Gods flaming bush on the hill of visions with our shooes on our feet Thou seest the bird whose feathers are limed vnable to take her former flight so are we when our thoughts are clinged together by the world to soare vp to our heauen in Meditation The paire of brothers must leaue their nets if they will follow Christ Elisha his oxen if hee will attend a Prophet It must bee a free and a light minde that can ascend this Mount of Contemplation ouercomming this height this steepenesse Cares are an heauy load and vneasie these must bee laid downe at the bottome of this hill if wee euer looke to attaine the top Thou art loaded with houshold cares perhaps publike I bid thee not cast them away euen these haue their season which thou canst not omit without impietie I bid thee lay them downe at thy Closet doore when thou attemptest this worke Let them in with thee thou shalt finde them troublesome companions euer distracting thee from thy best errand Thou wouldest thinke of heauen thy Barne comes in thy way or perhaps thy Count-Booke or thy Coffers or it may be thy minde is beforehand trauelling vpon the morrowes iourney So while thou thinkest of many things thou thinkest of nothing while thou wouldest goe many waies thou standest still And as in a crowde while many presse forward at once thorow one doore none proceedeth so when variety of thoughts tumultuously throng in vpon the minde each proueth a barre to the other and all an hinderance to him that entertaines them CHAP. VII Thirdly that he be constant and that First in time and matter ANd as our Clyent of Meditation must both bee pure and free in vndertaking this taske so also constant in continuing it Constant both in time and in matter both in a set course and houre reserued for this worke and in an vnwearied prosecution of it once begunne Those that meditate by snatches and vncertaine fits when onely all other employments forsake them or when good motions are thrust vpon them by necessitie let them neuer hope to reach to any perfection For these feeble beginnings of luke-warme grace which are wrought in them by one fit of serious Meditation are soone extinguished by intermission and by mis-wonting perish This daies meale though large and liberall strengthens thee not for to morrow the body languisheth if there bee not a daily supply of repast Thus feede thy soule by Meditation Set thine houres and keepe them and yeeld not to an easie distraction There is no hardnesse in this practice but in the beginning vse shall giue it not ease onely but delight Thy companion entertaineth thee this while in louing discourses or some inexpected businesse offers to interrupt thee Neuer any good worke shall want some hinderance Either breake through the lets except it be with inciuility or losse or if they bee importunate pay thy selfe the time that was vnseasonably borrowed and recompence thine omitted houres with the double labours of another day For thou shalt finde that deferring breeds beside the losse an indisposition to good So that what was before pleasant to thee being omitted to morrow growes harsh the next day vnnecessary afterward odious To day thou canst but wilt not to morrow thou couldest but listest not the next day thou neither wilt nor canst bend thy minde on these thoughts So I haue seene friends that vpon neglect of dutie grow ouerly vpon ouerlinesse strange vpon strangenesse to vtter defiance Those whose very trade is Diminitie mee thinkes should omit no day without his line of Meditation those which are secular men not many remembring that they haue a common calling of Christianitie to attend as well as a speciall vocation in the world and that other being more noble and important may iustly challenge both often and diligent seruice CHAP. VIII ANd as this constancie requires thee to keepe day with thy selfe Secondly that he be constant in the continuance vnlesse thou wilt proue bankrupt in good exercises so also that thy minde should dwell vpon the same thought without flitting without wearinesse vntill it haue attained to some issue of spirituall profit otherwise it attempteth much effecteth nothing What auaileth it to knock at the doore of the heart if we depart ere we haue an answer What are we the warmer if we passe hastily along by the heart and stay not at it Those that doe onely trauell thorow Africke become not Blackmores but those which are borne there those that inhabit there We account those damosels too light of their loue which betroth themselues vpon the first sight vpon the first motion and those we deeme of much price which require long and earnest solliciting Hee deceiueth himselfe that thinketh grace so easily wonne there must be much suit and importunity ere it will yeeld to our desires Not that wee call for a perpetuity of this labour of Meditation Humane frailty could neuer beare so great a toile Nothing vnder Heauen is capable of a continuall motion without complaint It is enough for the glorified spirits aboue to be euer thinking and neuer weary The minde of man is of a strange metall if it be not vsed it rusteth if vsed hardly it breaketh briefly is sooner dulled than satisfied with a continuall Meditation Whence it came to passe that those ancient Monkes who intermedled bodily labour with their contemplations proued so excellent in this diuine businesse when those at this day which hauing mewed and mured vp themselues from the world spend themselues wholly vpon their Beads and Crucifix pretending no other worke but Meditation haue cold hearts to God and to the world shew nothing but a dull shadow of deuotion for that if the thoughts of these latter were as diuine as they are superstitious yet being without all interchangeablenesse bent vpon the same discourse the minde must needs grow weary the thoughts remisse and languishing the obiects tedious while the other refreshed themselues with this wise variety employing the hands while they called off the minde as good Comoedians so mixe their parts that the pleasantnesse of the one may temper the austerenesse of the other whereupon they gained both enough to the body and to the soule more than if it had beene all the while busied Besides the excellency of the obiect letteth this assiduity of Meditation which is so glorious that like vnto the Sunne it may abide to haue an eye cast vp to it for a while will not be gazed vpon whosoeuer ventureth so farre loseth both his hope and his wits If we hold with that blessed Monica that such like cogitations are the food of the minde yet euen the minde also hath her satiety and may surfet of too much It shall be sufficient therefore that we perseuere in our Meditation without any such affectation of perpetuity and leaue without a light ficklenesse making alwaies not our Houre-glasse but some competent increase of our deuotion the measure
precept of the Philosopher who taught him that by sitting and resting the minde gathereth wisdome * * Guliel Paris Another leaning to some Rest towards the left side for the greater quieting of the heart * * Dâ—onys Carthus A third standing with the eies lift vp to Heauen but shut for feare of distractions But of all other me thinketh Isaacs choice the best who meditated walking In this let euery man be his owne master so be we vse that frame of body that may both testifie reuerence and in some cases helpe to stirre vp further deuotion which also must needs be varied according to the matter of our Meditation If we thinke of our sinnes Ahabs soft pase the Publicans deiected eies and his hand beating his brest are more seasonable If of the ioyes of heauen Steuens countenance fixed aboue and Dauids hands lift vp on high are most fitting In all which the body as it is the instrument and vassall of the soule so will easily follow the affections thereof and in truth then is our deuotion most kindly when the body is thus commanded his seruice by the Spirit and not suffered to goe before it and by his forwardnesse to prouoke his master to emulation CHAP. XII NOw time and order call vs from these circumstances Of the matter and subiect of our â—editation to the matter and subiect of Meditation which must be Diuine and Spirituall not euill nor worldly O the carnall and vnprofitable thoughts of men We all meditate one how to doe ill to others another how to doe some earthly good to himselfe another to hurt himselfe vnder a colour of good as how to accomplish his lewd desires the fulfilling whereof proueth the bane of the soule how he may sinne vnseene and goe to hell with the least noise of the world Or perhaps some better mindes bend their thoughts vpon the search of naturall things the motions of euery heauen and of euery starre the reason and course of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea the manifold kinds of simples that grow out of the earth and creatures that creepe vpon it with all their strange qualities and operations Or perhaps the seuerall formes of gouernment and rules of State take vp their busie heads so that while they would be acquainted with the whole world they are strangers at home and while they seeke to know all other things â—â—â—y remaine vnknowne of themselues The God that made them the vilenesse of their nature the danger of their sinnes the multitude of their imperfections the Sauiour that bought them the Heauen that he bought for them are in the meane time as vnknowne as vnregarded as if they were not Thus doe foolish children spend their time and labour in turning ouer leaues to looke for painted babes not at all respecting the solid matter vnder their hands We fooles when will we be wise and turning our eies from vanity with that sweet Singer of Israel make Gods statutes our song and meditation in the house of our pilgrimage Earthly things proffer themselues with importunity Heauenly things must with importunity be sued to Those if they were not so little worth would not be so forward being forward need not any Meditation to solicit them These by how much more hard they are to intreat by so much more precious they are being obtained and therefore worthier our endeuor As then we cannot goe amisse so long as we keep our selues in the tracke of Diuinitie while the soule is taken vp with the thoughts either of the Deitie in his essence and persons sparingly yet in this point and more in faith and admiration than inquiry or of his attributes his Iustice Power Wisdome Mercy Truth or of his workes in the creation preseruation gouernment of all things according to the Psalmist I will meditate of the beauty of thy glorious Maiesty and thy wonderfull workes so most directly in our way and best fitting our exercise of Meditation are those matters in Diuinitie which can most of all worke compunction in the heart and most stirre vs vp to deuotion Of which kinde are the Meditations concerning Christ Iesus our Mediator his Incarnation Miracles Life Passion Buriall Resurrection Ascension Intercession the benefit of our Redemption the certainty of our Election the graces and proceeding of our Sanctification our glorious estate in Paradise lost in our first Parents our present vilenesse our inclination to sinne our seuerall actuall offences the tentations and sleights of euill Angels the vse of the Sacraments nature and practice of Faith and Repentance the miseries of our life with the frailty of it the certainty and vncertainty of our death the glory of Gods Saints aboue the awfulnesse of iudgement the terrors of hell and the rest of this quality wherein both it is fit to haue variety for that euen the strongest stomacke doth not alwaies delight in one dish and yet so to change that our choice may be free from wildnesse and inconstancy CHAP. XIII The order of the worke it selfe NOw after that we haue thus orderly suited the person and his qualities with the due circumstances of time place disposition of body and substance of the matter discussed I know not what can remaine besides the maine businesse it selfe and the manner and degrees of our prosecution thereof which aboue all other calleth for an intentiue Reader and resolute practice Wherein that we may auoid all nicenesse and obscurity since wee striue to profit we will giue direction for the Entrance Proceeding Conclusion of this Diuine worke CHAP. XIIII The entrance into the worke A Goodly building must shew some magnificence in the gate and great personages haue seemely Vshers to goe before them who by their vncouered heads command reuerence and way Euen very Poets of old had wont before their Ballads to implore the aid of their gods And the heathen Romans entred not vpon any publike ciuill businesse without a solemne apprecation of good successe 1 The common entrance which is Prayer How much lesse should a Christian dare to vndertake a spirituall worke of such importance not hauing craued the assistance of his God which me thinkes is no lesse than to professe he could doe well without Gods leaue When we thinke euill it is from our selues when good from God As Prayer is our speech to God so is each good Meditation according to Bernard Gods speech to the heart The heart must speake to God that God may speake to it Prayer therefore and Meditation are as those famous twinnes in the story or as two louing Turtles whereof separate one the other languisheth Prayer maketh way for Meditation Meditation giueth matter strength and life to our prayers By which as all other things are sanctified to vs so we are sanctified to all holy things This is as some royall Eunuch to perfume and dresse our soules that they may be fit to conuerse with the King of Heauen But the prayer that leadeth in
comfort 78 Many a man sends others to heauen and yet goes to hell himselfe and not few hauing drawne others to hell yet themselues returne by a late repentance to life In a good action it is not good to search too deepely into the intention of the agent but in silence to make our best benefit of the worke In an euill it is not safe to regard the qualitie of the person or his successe but to consider the action abstracted from all circumstances in his owne kinde So we shall neither neglect good deeds because they speed not well in some hands nor affect a prosperous euill 79 God doth some singular actions wherein we cannot imitate him some wherein we may not most wherein he may and would faine be followed He fetcheth good out of euill so may we turne our owne and others sinnes to priuate or publike good wee may not doe euill for a good vse but we must vse our euill once done to good I hope I shall not offend to say that the good vse which is made of sinnes is as gainefull to God as that which arises from good actions Happy is that man that can vse either his good well or his euill 80 There is no difference betwixt anger and madnesse but continuance for raging anger is a short madnesse What else argues the shaking of the hands and lips palenesse or rednesse or swelling of the face glaring of the eies stammering of the tongue stamping with the feet vnsteady motions of the whole body rash actions which we remember not to haue done distracted and wilde speeches And madnesse againe is nothing but a continued rage yea some madnesse rageth not such a milde madnesse is more tolerable than frequent and furious anger 81 Those that would keepe state must keepe aloofe off especially if their qualities bee not answerable in height to their place For many great persons are like a well-wrought picture vpon a course cloth which a farre off shewes faire but neere hand the roundnesse of the threed marres the good workmanship Concealement of gifts after some one commended act is the best way to admiration and secret honour but hee that would profit must vent himselfe oft and liberally and shew what he is without all priuate regard As therefore many times honor followes modesty vnlookt for so contrarily a man may shew no lesse pride in silence and obscuritie than others which speake and write for glory And that other pride is so much the worse as it is more vnprofitable for whereas those which put forth their gifts benefit others whiles they seeke themselues these are so wholly deuoted to themselues that their secrety doth no good to others 82 Such as a mans delights and cares are in health such are both his thoughts and speeches commonly on his death-bed The proud man talkes of his faire sutes the glutton of his dishes the wanton of his beastlinesse the religious man of heauenly things The tongue will hardly leaue that to which the heart is inured If wee would haue good motions to visit vs while we are sicke wee must send for them familiarly in our health 83 He is a rare man that hath not some kinde of madnesse raigning in him One a dull madnesse of melancholy another a conceited madnesse of pride another a superstitious madnesse of false deuotion a fourth of ambition or couetousnesse a fift the furious madnesse of anger a sixt the laughing madnesse of extreme mirth a seuenth a drunken madnesse an eight of outragious lust a ninth the learned madnesse of curiositie a tenth the worst madnesse of profanenesse and Atheisme It is as hard to reckon vp all kindes of madnesses as of dispositions Some are more noted and punished than others so that the mad man in one kinde as much condemnes another as the sober man condemnes him Onely that man is both good and wise and happy that is free from all kindes of phrensie 84 There be some honest errors where-with I neuer found that God was offended That an husband should thinke his owne Wife comely although ill-fauoured in the eies of others That a man should thinke more meanely of his owne good parts than of weaker in others To giue charitable though mistaken constructions of doubtfull actions and persons which are the effects of naturall affection humilitie loue were neuer censured by God Herein alone we erre if we erre not 85 No maruell if the worldling escape earthly afflictions God corrects him not because he loues him not He is baâ—e borne and begot God will not doe him the fauour to whip him The world afflicts him not because it loues him for each one is indulgent to his owne God vses not the rod where he meanes to vse the sword The Pillorie or scourge is for those malefactors which shall escape execution 86 Weake stomacks which cannot digest large meales feed oft and little For our soules that which wee want in meaâ—â—â—â— we must supply in frequence We can neuer fully enough comprehend in our thoughts the ioyes of heauen the meritorious sufferings of Christ the terrors of the second death therefore we must meditate of them often 87 The same thoughts doe commonly meet vs in the same places as if we had left them there till our returne For that the minde doth secretly frame to it selfe memoratiue heads whereby it recals easily the same conceits It is best to imploy our minde there where it is most fixed Our deuotion is so dull it cannot haue too many aduantages 88 I finde but one example in all Scripture of any bodily cure which our Sauiour wrought by degrees onely the blinde man whose weake faith craued helpe by others not by himselfe saw men first like trees then in their true shape All other miraculous cures of Christ were done at once and perfect at first Contrarily I finde but one example of a soule fully healed that is sanctified and glorified both in a day all other by degrees and leisure The steps of grace are soft and short Those externall miracles he wrought immediatly by himselfe and therefore no maruell if they were absolute like their Author The miraculous worke of our Regeneration he works together with vs He giueth it efficacy we giue it imperfection FINIS SOME FEW OF DAVIDS PSALMES METAPHRASED for a taste of the rest By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO MY LOVING AND LEARNED COVSIN Mr. SAMVEL BVRTON Archdeacon of Glocester INdeed my Poetrie was long sithence out of date and yeelded her place to grauer studies but whose veine would it not reuiue to looke into those heauenly Songs I were not worthy to be a Diuine if it should repent mee to be a Poet with Dauid after I shall haue aged in the Pulpit This work is holy and strict abides not any youthfull or heathenish libertie but requires hands free from profanenesse loosenesse affection It is
Gods fooles Euery vertue hath his slander and his iest to laugh it out of fashion euery vice his colour His vsuallest theame is the boast of his young sinnes which he can still ioy in though he cannot commit and if it may be his speech makes him worse than he is He cannot thinke of death with patience without terrour which hee therefore feares worse than hell because this hee is sure of the other he but doubts of He comes to Church as to the Theater sauing that not so willingly for company for custome for recreation perhaps for sleepe or to feed his eies or his eares as for his foule he cares no more than if he had none He loues none but himselfe and that not enough to seeke his true good neither cares hee on whom hee treads that he may rise His life is full of licence and his practice of outrage Hee is hated of God as much as he hateth goodnesse and differs little from a Deuill but that he hath a body Of the Male-content HE is neither well full nor fasting and though he abound with complaints yet nothing dislikes him but the present for what hee condemned while it was once past he magnifies and striues to recall it out of the iawes of Time What he hath he seeth not his eies are so taken vp with what he wants and what he sees hee cares not for because he cares so much for that which is not When his friend carues him the best morsell he murmures that it is an happy feast wherein each one may cut for himselfe When a present is sent him he askes Is this all and What no better and so accepts it as if he would haue his friend know how much hee is bound to him for vouchsafing to receiue it It is hard to entertaine him with a proportionable gift If nothing he cries out of vnthankfulnesse if little that he is basely regarded if much he exclaimes of flatterie and expectation of a large requitall Euery blessing hath somewhat to disparage and distaste it Children bring cares single life is wilde and solitarie eminencie is enuious retirednesse obscure fasting painfull satietie vnwieldie Religion nicely seuere libertie is lawlesse wealth burdensome mediocritie contemptible Euery thing faulteth either in too much or too little This man is euer head-strong and selfe willed neither is hee alwaies tied to esteeme or pronounce according to reason some things he must dislike he knowes not wherefore but he likes them not and other-where rather than not censure he will accuse a man of vertue Euery thing hee medleth with he either findeth imperfect or maketh so neither is there any thing that soundeth so harsh in his eare as the commendation of another whereto yet perhaps he fashionably and coldly assenteth but with such an after-clause of exception as doth more than marre his former allowance and if he list not to giue a verball disgrace yet he shakes his head and smiles as if his silence should say I could and will not And when himselfe is praised without excesse hee complaines that such imperfect kindnesse hath not done him right If but an vnseasonable showre crosse his recreation he is ready to fall out with heauen and thinkes he is wronged if God will not take his times when to raine when to shine He is a slaue to enuie and loseth flesh with fretting not so much at his owne infelicitie as at others good neither hath he leisure to ioy in his owne blessings whilest another prospereth Faine would hee see some mutinies but dares not raise them and suffers his lawlesse tongue to walke thorow the dangerous paths of conceited alterations but so as in good manners hee had rather thrust euery man before him when it comes to acting Nothing but feare keepes him from conspiracies and no man is more cruell when he is not manicled with danger Hee speakes nothing but Satyrs and Libels and lodgeth no ghests in his heart but Rebels The inconstant and he agree well in their felicitie which both place in change but herein they differ the inconstant man affects that which will be the male-content commonly that which was Finally he is a querulous curre whom no horse can passe by without barking at yea in the deepe silence of night the very moone-shine openeth his clamorous mouth hee is the wheele of a well-couched fire-worke that flies out on all sides not without scorching it selfe Euery eare is long agoe wearie of him and he is now almost wearie of himselfe Giue him but a little respit and he will die alone of no other death than others welfare Of the Vnconstant THe inconstant man treads vpon a mouing earth and keepes no pase His proceedings are euer heady and peremptorie for he hath not the patience to consult with reason but determines meerely vpon fancie No man is so hot in the pursuit of what he liketh no man sooner wearie He is fierie in his passions which yet are not more violent than momentanie it is a wonder if his loue or hatred last so many daies as a wonder His heart is the Inne of all good motions wherein if they lodge for a night it is well by morning they are gone and take no leaue and if they come that way againe they are entertained as ghests not as friends At first like another Ecebolius he loued simple truth thence diuerting his eies hee fell in loue with idolatrie those heathenish shrines had neuer any more doting and besotted client and now of late he is leapt from Rome to Munster and is growne to giddie Anabaptisme what hee will be next as yet he knoweth not but ere he haue wintred his opinion it will be manifest Hee is good to make an enemie of ill for a friend because as there is no trust in his affection so no rancor in his displeasure The multitude of his changed purposes brings with it forgetfulnesse and not of others more than of himselfe He saies sweares renounces because what he promised he meant not long enough to make an impression Herein alone he is good for a Common-wealth that he sets many on worke with building ruining altering and makes more businesse than Time it selfe neither is he a greater enemie to thrift than to idlenesse Proprietie is to him enough cause of dislike each thing pleases him better that is not his owne Euen in the best things long continuance is a iust quarrell Manna it selfe growes tedious with age and Noueltie is the highest stile of commendation to the meanest offers neither doth he in bookes and fashions aske How good but How new Varietie carries him away with delight and no vniforme pleasure can be without an irksome fulnesse Hee is so transformable into all opinions manners qualities that he seemes rather made immediatly of the first matter than of well-tempered elements and therefore is in possibilitie any thing or euery thing nothing in present substance Finally hee is seruile in imitation waxe to perswasions wittie to wrong
that path there is no death and attending thereon Pr. 20.6 Pr. 12.2 all Blessings are vpon the head of the righteous Wouldst thou haue fauour A good man getteth fauour of the Lord. Ioy The righteous shall sing and reioyce and surely to a man that is good in his sight Pr. 29.6 Ec. 2.26 God giueth wisdome and knowledge and ioy so that the light of the righteous reioyceth but the candle of the wicked shall bee put out Preseruation and deliuerance Lo Pr. 13.9 Pr. 10.25 Pr. 10.29 Pr. 10.30 Pr. 11.4 Pr. 12.13 Pr. 11.8 Pr. 13.6 Pr. 15.6 Pr. 14.11 Pr. 10.27 Pr. 12.7 Ec. 8.12 Pr. 10.24 Pr. 29.18 the righteous is an euerlasting foundation for the way of the Lord is strength to the vpright man so as the righteous shall neuer be remoued and if he be in trouble Riches auaile not in the day of wrath but righteousnesse deliuereth from death so the righteous shall come out of aduersitie and escape out of trouble and the wicked shall come in his stead thus euery way Righteousnesse preserueth the vpright in heart Prosperity and wealth The house of the righteous shall haue much treasure and his tabernacle shall flourish Long life The feare of the Lord increaseth the daies and not onely himselfe but his house shall stand And though a sinner doe euill an hundred times and God prolong his daies yet know I that it shall be well to them that feare the Lord and doe reuerence before him And lastly whatsoeuer good God will grant the desire of the righteous and he that keepeth the Law is blessed §. 7. In the estate of wickednesse our good things are accursed Wealth Life Fame Deuotions Prayers Sacrifices Euill inflicted of Losse Paine Affliction Death Damnation Pr. 10.2 Pr. 10.3 COntrarily there is perfect misery in wickednesse Looke on all that might seeme good in this estate Wealth The treasures of the wicked profit nothing the Lord will not famish the soule of the righteous but he either casteth away the substance of the wicked Pr. 13.25 so that the belly of the wicked shall want or else employeth it to the good of his for the wicked shall be a ransome for the iust Pr. 21.18 Ec. 2.26 and to the sinner God giueth paine to gather and to heape to giue to him that is good before God The wicked man may bee rich Pr. 15.6 Pr. 10.27 Pr. 10.25 Pr. 12.7 Pr. 2.22 Ec. 8.13 but how The reuenues of the wicked is trouble Life The yeeres of the wicked shall be diminished As the whirl-wind passeth so is the wicked no more for God ouerthroweth the wicked and they are not Whatsoeuer therefore their hope be the wicked shall be cut off from the earth and the transgressors shall be rotted out It shall not be well to the wicked neither shall he prolong his daies hee shall be like to a shadow because he feared not God Pr. 14.11 Pr. 10.7 yea the very house of the wicked shall be destroyed Fame Whereas the memoriall of the iust shall be blessed the name of the wicked shall rot yea looke vpon his best endeuours Pr. 15.29 Pr. 28.9 his Prayers The Lord is farre off from the wicked but heareth the prayer of the righteous farre off from accepting For Hee that turneth away his eare from hearing the Law Pr. 15.8 euen his prayer shall be abominable His sacrifice though well intended as all the rest of his waies is no better than abomination to the Lord how much more when he brings it with a wicked minde Pr. 15.9 Pr. 21.27 Pr. 12.26 Pr. 10.18 Pr. 13.9 Pr. 11.18 Pr. 26.10 Pr. 13.21 Pr. 5.22 Pr. 10.6 Pr. 29.6 Pr. 11.5 Pr. 13.6 Pr. 33.3 Pr. 11.31 Pr. 10.24 Pr. 5.23 And as no good so much euill whether of losse The way of the wicked will deceiue them their hope shall perish especially when they die their candle shall be put out their workes shall proue deceitfull Or of paine for the Excellent that formed all things rewardeth the foole and the transgressor and he hath appointed that Affliction should follow sinners Follow yea ouertake them His owne iniquity shall take the wicked himselfe and couer his mouth and hee shall be holden with the cords of his owne sinne euen in the transgression of the euill man is his snare so the wicked shall fall in his owne wickednesse for of it owne selfe iniquity ouerthroweth the sinner But besides that the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked though hand ioyne in hand he shall not be vnpunished behold the righteous shall be paid vpon earth how much more the wicked and the sinner That then which the wicked man feareth shall come vpon him both Death Hee shall die for default of instruction Pr. 11.19 Pr. 1◠32 Pr. 15.11 Pr. 12.2 Pr. 10.29 Pr. 19.29 and that by his owne hands for by following euill he seekes his owne death and after that damnation The wicked shall bee cast away for his malice Hell and destruction are before the Lord and a man of wicked imaginations will hee condemned so both in life in death after it nothing but Terrour shall be for the workers of iniquity where contrarily The feare of the Lord leadeth to life and hee that is filled therewith shall contiue and shall not be visited with euill SALOMONS ETHICKS THE SECOND BOOKE PRVDENCE §. 1. Of Vertue Wherein it consisteth Whereby it is ruled and directed VErtue consists in the meane vice in the extremes Pr. 4.26 Pr. 4.27 Let thy waies be ordered aright Turne not to the right hand nor to the left but remoue thy foot from euill The rule whereof it Gods Law Pr. 6.23 Pr. 30.5 Pr. 4.20 Pr. 4.21 Pr. 4.22 for the commandement is a Lanterne and instruction a light and euery word of God is pure My sonne hearken to my words incline thine eare to my sayings let them not depart from thine eyes but keepe them in the midst of thine heart For they are life vnto those that finde them and health vnto all their flesh Pr. 7.2 Pr. 7.3 Keepe my Commandements and thou shalt liue and mine instruction as the apple of thine eye Binde them vpon thy fingers and write them vpon the Table of thine heart All vertue is either Prudence Iustice Temperance Fortitude 1. Of Prudence which comprehends Wisdome Prouidence Discretion §. 2. Of wisdome the Description Effects It procures Knowledge Safety from sinne from iudgement Good direction for actions for words Wealth Honour Life THe prudent man is he whose eyes are in his head to see all things and to fore-see Ec. 2.14 Ec. 10.2 Pr. 8.12 Pr. 14.8 Pr. 9.12 Pr. 3.13 and whose heart is at his right hand to doe all dexterously and with iudgement Wisdome dwells with Prudence and findeth forth knowledge and counsels And to describe it The wisdome of the Prudent is to vnderstand his way his owne If thou be wise thou shalt be wise
thou art euen taken with the words of thine owne mouth Doe this now my sonne Pr. 27.13 Pr. 6.4 Pr. 6.5 seeing thou art come into the hand of thy neighbour not hauing taken a pledge for thy suretiship goe and humble thy selfe and sollicit thy friends Giue no sleepe to thine eies nor slumber to thine eie-lids Deliuer thy selfe as a Doe from the hand of the Hunter and as a bird from the hand of the Fowler and take it for a sure rule Pr. 11.15 He that hateth suretiship is sure SALOMONS OECONOMICKS OR GOVERNMENT OF THE FAMILIE 1. HVSBAND WIFE 2. PARENT CHILDE 3. MASTER SERVANT By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. SALOMONS OECONOMICKS OR FAMILY §. 1. The head of the Family in whom is required Wisdome Stayednesse Thrift THE man is the head and guide of the family In whom wisdome is good with an inheritance Ec. 7.13 Pr. 24.3 for Through wisedome an house is builded and established which directs him to doe all things in due orders first to prepare his worke without Pr. 24.27 and then after to build his house and therewith stayednesse For Pr. as a bird that wandreth from her nest so is a man that wandreth from his owne place and which is the chiefe slay of his estate thriftinesse for Hee that troubleth his owne house by excesse shall inherit the wind Pr. 11.19 and the foole shall bee seruant to the wise in heart for which purpose he shall finde that The house of the righteous shall haue much treasure while the reuenues of the wicked is but trouble Pr. 15.6 or if not much yet Better is a little with the feare of the Lord than great treasure Pr. 15.16 and trouble therewith Howsoeuer therefore let him be content with his estate Let the Lambes bee sufficient for his cloathing and let the Goats be the price of his field Pr. 27.16 Pr. 27.27 Let the milke of his Goats be sufficient for his food for the food of his family and the sustenance of his maides and if he haue much reuenue let him looke for much expence For Ec. 5.10 When goods increase they are increased that eat them and what good commeth to the owners thereof but the beholding thereof with their eyes THE HVSBAND §. 2. Who must beare himselfe Wisely Chastly Quietly and cheerefully HE that findeth a wife findeth a good thing and receiueth fauour of the Lord Pr. 18.22 Who must therefore behaue himselfe 1. wisely as the guide of her youth Pr. 2.17 Pr. 12.4 Pr. 5.15 as the Head to which she is a Crowne 2. Chastly Drinke the water of thine owne Cisterne and the riuers out of the middest of thine owne Well The matrimoniall loue must be pure and cleere not muddy and troubled Let thy fountaines flow forth Pr. 5.16 and the riuers of waters in the streets the sweet and comfortable fruits of blessed mariage in plentifull issue But let them be thine alone and not the strangers with thee Pr. 5.17 This loue abides no partners for this were to giue thine honour vnto others Pr. 5.9 Pr. 5.10 and thy strength to the cruell so should the stranger be filled with thy strength and as the substance will be with the affections thy labours should bee in the house of a stranger Pr. 5.11 and thou shalt mourne which is the best successe hereof at thine end when thou hast consumed besides thy goods thy flesh and thy body Pr. 5.12 Pr. 5.14 and say How haue I hated instruction and mine heart despâ—sed correction I was almost plunged into all euill of sinne and torments and that which is most shamefull in the middest of the assembly in the face of the world Let therefore that thine owne Fountaine be blessed Pr. 5.18 Pr. 5.19 and reioyce with the wife of thy youth Let her be as the louing Hinde and pleasant Roe let her brests satisfie thee at all times and erre thou in her loue continually For why shouldest thou delight my sonne in a strange woman Pr. 5.20 Pr. 5.21 or whether in affection or act embrace the bosome of a stranger For the waies of man are before the eies of the Lord and he pondereth all his paths and if thy godlesnesse regard not that Pr. 6.25 Pr. 6.26 Pr. 6.26 Pr. 6.27 Pr. 6.28 Pr. 6.29 yet for thine owne sake Desire not her beauty in thy heart neither let her take thee with her eye-lids for because of the whorish woman a man is brought to a morsell of broad yea to the very huskes and more then that a Woman will hunt for the precious life of a man Thou sayest thou canst escape this actuall defilement Can a man take fire in his bosome and his clothes not be burnt Or can a man goe vpon coles and his feet not be burnt So hee that goeth in to his neighbours wife shall not be innocent whosoeuer toucheth her This sinne is farre more odious than theft For men doe not despise a Theefe when he stealeth to satisfie his soule Pr. 6.30 Pr. 6.31 Pr. 6.32 Pr. 6.33 because hee is hungry But if he be found he shall restore seuen-fold or he shall giue all the substance of his house and it is accepted But he that commits adultery with a woman is mad hee that would destroy his owne soule let him doe it For he shall finde a wound and dishonour and his reproach shall neuer be put away Neither is the danger lesse than the shame Pr. 6.34 For iealousie is the rage of a man therefore the wronged husband will not spare in the day of vengeance Pr. 6.35 Pr. 9.17 Hee cannot beare the sight of any ransome neither will hee consent to remit it though thou multiply thy gifts And though stolne waters be sweet and hid bread be pleasant to our corrupt taste yet the adulterer knowes not that the dead are there Pr. 9.18 Pr. 2.18 19. Pr. 5.3 Pr. 5.4 Pr. 5.5 Pr. 23 27. Pr. 22.14 Pr. 15.17 Pr. 17.1 Pr. 19.11 and that her ghests are in the deepes of hell that her house tendeth to death And howsoeuer her lips drop as an hony-combe and her mouth is more soft than oile yet the end of her is bitter as wormewood and sharpe as a two-edged sword her feet goe downe to death and her steps take hold of hell yea the mouth of the strange woman is a deepe pit and he with whom the Lord is angry shall fall into it 3. Quietly and louingly for Better is a dinner of greene herbes where loue is than a stalled Oxe and hatred therewith Yea Better is a dry morsell if peace be with it than an house full of sacrifices with strife And if hee finde sometime cause of blame The discretion of a man deferreth his anger and his glory is to passe by an offence and onely Hee that couereth a
to the Mountaines of Incense Vntill the day of my gracious appearance shall shine forth and vntill all these shadowes of ignorance infidelitie afflictions bee vtterly and suddenly dispersed O my Spouse I will retire my selfe in regard of my bodily presence into my delightfull and glorious rest of heauen 7. Thou art all faire my Loue and there is no spot in thee Thou art exceeding beautifull O my Church in all the parts of thee for all thy sinnes are done away and thine iniquitie is couered and loe I present thee to my Father without spot or wrinkle or any such deformitie 8. Come with me from Lebanon my Spouse euen with me from Lebanon and looke from the top of Amanah from the top of Shenir and Hermon from the dens of the Lions and from the mountaines of the Leopards And now O thou which I professe to haue maried to my selfe in truth and righteousnesse thou shalt be gathered to me from all parts of the world not onely from the confines of Iudea where I planted and found thee but from the remotest and most sauage places of the Nations out of the companie of Infidels of cruell and bloudy persecutors who like Lions and Leopards haue tyrannized ouer thee and mercilesly torne thee in peeces 9. My sister my Spouse thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eies and with a chaine of thy necke Thou hast vtterly rauisht me from my selfe O my sister and Spouse for so thou art both ioâ—ned to me in that spirituall vnion and coheire with me of the same inheritance and glory thou hast quite rauisht my heart with thy loue euen one cast of one of thine eies of faith and one of the ornaments of thy sanctification wherewith thou art decked by my Spirit haue thus stricken mee with loue how much more when I shall haue a full sight of thee and all thy graces shall I be affected towards thee 10. My sister my Spouse how faire is thy loue how much better is thy loue than wine and the sauour of thine ointments than all spices O how excellent how precious how delectable are those loues of thine O my sister my Spouse how farre surpassing all earthly delicates and the sauour of those diuine vertues wherewith thou art endued more pleasing to my sent than all the perfumes in the world 11. Thy lips my Spouse drop as Hony combes Hony and milke are vnder thy tongue and the sauour of thy garments is as the sauour of Lebanon The gracious speeches that proceed from thee are as so many drops of the Hony-combe that fall from thy lips and whether thou exhort or confesse or pray or comfort thy words are both sweet and nourishing and the sauour of thy good works and outward conuersation is to me as the smell of the wood of Lebanon to the sense of man 12. My sister my Spouse is as a Garden inclosed as a Spring shut vp and a Fountaine sealed vp My sister my Spouse is as a Garden or Orchard full of all varietie of the heauenly Trees and flowers of grace not lying carelesly open either to the loue of strangers or to the rage of enemies which like the wilde Bore out of the wood might root vp and destroy her choice plants but safely hedged and walled about by my protection and reserued for my delight alone she is a Spring Well of wholsome waters from whom flow forth the pure streames of my Word but both inclosed and sealed vp partly that shee may the better by this closenesse preserue her owne naturall taste and vigour from the corruptions of the world and partly that shee may not be defiled and mudded by the prophane feet of the wicked 13. Thy plants are as an Orchard of Pomegranats with sweet fruits as Cypers Spikenard euen Spikenard and Saffron Calamus and Cinamon withall the trees of Incense Myrrh and Aloes with all the chiefe spices Thou art an Orchard yea a Paradise whose plants which are thy faithfull children that grow vp in thee are as Pomegranate Trees the Apples whereof are esteemed for the largenesse colour and taste aboue all other or if I would feed my other senses the plentifull fruits of thy holy obedience which thou yeeldest vnto mee are for their smell as some composition of Cypresse Spikenard Saffron sweet Cane Cinamon Incense Myrrh Aloes and whatsoeuer else may be deuised vnto the most perfect sent 14. O fountaine of the gardens O well of liuing waters and the springs of Lebanon Thou art so a Spring in my Garden that the streames which are deriued from thee water all the gardens of my particular congregations all the world ouer thou art that Fountaine from whose pure head issue all those liuing waters which who so drinketh shall neuer thirst againe euen such cleare currents as flow from the hill of Libanus which like vnto another Iordan water all the Israel of God The Church 15. Arise O North and come O South and blow on my garden that the spices thereof may flow out let my Well-beloued come to his garden and eat his pleasant fruit IF I bee a garden as thou saiest O my Sauiour then arise O all yee soueraigne winds of the Spirit of God and breathe vpon this garden of my soule that the sweet odours of these my plants may both bee increased and may also bee dispersed afarre and carried into the nostrils of my Well-beloued and so let him come into his owne garden which his owne hand hath digged planted watred and accept of the fruit of that seruice and praise which hee shall inable mee to bring forth to his Name CHAP. V. CHRIST 1. I am come into my garden my sister my Spouse I gathered my Myrrh with my spice I ate my Hony with my Hony-combe I dranke my wine with my milke eat O my friends drinke and make you merry O Wel-beloued BEhold according to thy desire I am come into my garden O my sister my Spouse I haue receiued those fruits of thine obedience which thou offeredst vnto mee with much ioy and pleasure I haue accepted not onely of thy good works but thy endeuours and purposes of holinesse both which are as pleasant to me as the Hony and the Hony-combe I haue allowed of the cheerefulnesse of thy seruice and the wholesomenesse of thy doctrine And yee O my friends whether blessed Angels or faithfull men partake with me in this ioy arising from the faithfulnes of my Church cheere vp and fill your selues O my beloued with the same Spirituall dainties wherewith I am refreshed The Church 2. I sleepe but my heart waketh it is the voyce of my Well-beloued that knocketh saying Open vnto me my sister my Loue my Doue my vndefiled for mine head is full of dew and my locks with the drops of the night VVHen the world had cast me into a secure sleepe or slumber rather for my heart was not vtterly bereaued of a true faith in my Sauiour euen in this darknesse of my minde it
grace returne that both my selfe and all the companie of Angels may see and reioice in thee and what shall yee see O all yee hoasts of heauen what shall yee see in my Church Euen such an awfull grace and maiestie as is in a well-marshalled army ready to meet with the enemie CHAP. VII 1. How beautifull are thy goings with shooes O Princes daughter the compasse of thy hips like iewels the worke of the hand of a cunning workeman HOw beautifull are thy feet O daughter of the Highest being shod with the preparation of the Gospell of peace and readily addressed to run the way of the commandements of thy God! thou art compassed about thy loines with the girdle of veritie which is both precious for the matter of it and cunningly framed by the skill of the spirit of truth 2. Thy nauell is as a round cup that wanteth not liquor thy bellie is as an heape of wheat compassed about with Lillies The nauell whereby all thy spirituall conceptions receiue their nourishment is full of all fruitfull supply and neuer wants meanes of sustenance to feed them in thy wombe which also is so plenteous in thy blessed increase that it is as an heape of wheat consisting of infinite pure graines which consort together with much sweetnesse and pleasure 3. Thy two brests are as two young Kids that are twinnes Thy two Testaments which are thy two full and comely brests by whose wholsome milke thou nourishest all thy faithfull children once borne into the light are for their excellent and perfect agreement and their amiable proportion like two twinnes of Kids 4. Thy necke is like a Tower of Iuorie thine eies are like artificiall pooles in a frequented gate thy nose is as the Tower of Lebanon that looketh toward Damascus Those who by their holy authoritie support thy gouernment which are as some straight and strong necke to beare vp thy head are for their height and defence like a Tower for their order purenesse and dignitie like a Tower of Iuory thy Teachers and Ministers which are thine eies are like vnto some cleare and artificiall ponds of water in a place of greatest resort wherein all commers may see the faces of their consciences and whence they may plentifully draw the Waters of life Thy nose by which all spirituall sents are conuayed to thee is perfectly composed and featured like some curious Turret of that goodly house in Lebanon so as thy iudgement and power of discerning the spirits is admirable for the order and excellencie thereof 5. Thine head vpon thee is as scarlet and the bush of thine head like purple the King is tied in thy beames The whole tyre of thine head which are the ceremonies vsed by thee are very gracefull and of high estimation and price to all the beholders and as for me I am so enamoured of thee that I am euen tied by my owne desire to a perpetuall presence in thine holy assemblies 6. How faire art thou and how pleasant art thou O my loue in pleasures Oh how beautifull and louely art thou therefore O my Church in all thy parts and ornaments how sweet and pleasant art thou O my Loue in whatsoeuer might giue me true contentment 7. This thy stature is like a Palme-tree and thy brests like clusters Thy whole frame is for goodlinesse and straight growth like vnto some tall Palme-tree which the more it is depressed by the violence of persecutions riseth the more and the two brests of thy Testaments are like two full iuicie clusters which yeeld comfortable and abundant refreshing 8. I said I will goe vp into the Palme-tree I will take hold of her boughs thy brests shall now be like the clusters of the Vines and the sauour of thy nose like Apples Seeing then thou art my Palme-tree I haue resolued in my selfe to adioine my selfe to thee to enioy thee to gather those sweet fruits of thy graces which thou yeeldest and by my presence also will cause thee to be more plentifull in all good workes and doctrine so as thou shalt afford abundance of heauenly liquor vnto all the thirstie soules of thy children and an acceptable verdure of holinesse and obedience vnto me 9. And the roofe of thy mouth like good wine which goeth straight vp to my Wel-beloued and causeth the lips of him that is asleepe to speake And the deliuerie of my Word by the mouthes of my Ministers shall be as some excellent wine which sparkleth right vpward being well accepted of that God in whose name it is taught and looketh most pleasantly in the glasse being no lesse highly esteemed of the receiuers which is of such wonderfull power that it is able to put words both of repentance and praise into the lips of him that lies asleepe in his sinnes The Church 10. I am my Wel-beloueds and his desire is toward me BEhold such as I am I am not my owne much lesse am I any others I am wholly my Sauiours and now I see and feele whatsoeuer I had deserued that hee is mine also in all intire affection who hath both chosen mee and giuen himselfe for mee 11. Come my Wel-beloued let vs goe into the fields let vs lodge in the villages Come therefore O my deare Sauiour let vs ioine together in our naturall care let thy Spirit and my seruice be intent vpon thy Congregations here below on earth and let vs stay in the place where our spirituall Husbandrie lieth 12. Let vs goe vp early in the morning to the Vines and see if the Vine flourish whether it hath disclosed the first Grapes or whether the Pomegranats blossome there will I giue thee my loue Let vs with all haste and cheerfulnesse visit the fruitfull vines of our beleeuing children and to our mutuall comfort be witnesses and partakers of all the signes and fruits of grace of all those good workes and thanksgiuings of those holy endeuours and worthy practices which they yeeld forth vnto vs let vs iudge of their forwardnesse and commend it whereupon it will easily appeare that the consummation of our happy mariage draweth neere in which there shall be a perfect vnion betwixt vs. 13. The Mandrakes haue giuen a smell and in our gates are all sweet things new and old my Well-beloued I haue kept them for thee Behold thy godly seruants which not onely beare fruit themselues but are powerfull in the prouocation of others present their best seruices vnto thee and euen at our doores not farre to seeke not hard to procure is offer made vnto thee of all variety of fruit whether from thy young Conuerts or thy more setled Professors and all these I spend not lauishly but in my louing care duely reserue them for thee and for the solemne day of our full mariage CHAP. VIII The Iewish Church 1. Oh that thou werest as my brother that sucked the brest of my mother I would finde thee without I would kisse thee then they should not despise me OH that
thou be diligent in declaring my will and giuing holy counsels to all thy fellow-members speake forth my praise in the great congregations which all attend willingly vpon thee and let me heare the voyce of thy constant and faithfull confession of me before the world The Church 14. Oh my Well-beloued flee away and be like vnto the Roe or to the yong Hart vpon the Mountaine of spices I Will most gladly doe what thou commandest O my Sauiour but that I may performe it accordingly be thou which art according to thy bodily presence in the highest heauens euer present with me by thy Spirit and hasten thy glorious comming to my full Redemption FINIS EPISTLES IN SIX DECADS BY IOS HALL LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE HENRY PRINCE OF GREAT BRITAINE Sonne and Heire Apparant to our Soueraigne Lord IAMES King of GREAT BRITAINE c. All glory in eyther world MOst Gratious Prince IT is not from any conceit of such worth in my labours that they durst looke so high A lower patronage would haue serued an higher work Jt were well if ought of mine could be worthy of popular eyes Or if I could wring ought from my selfe not vnworthy of a iudicious Reader J know your Highnesse wants neyther presents nor counsells presents from strangers counsells from your Teachers neyther of them matchable by my weaknesse onely duty herein excuseth me from presumption For J thought it iniustice to deuote the fruit of my labours to any other hand beside my Masters which also J knew to be as gracious as mine is faithfull Yet since euen good affections cannot warrant too much vilenesse in gifts to Princes lest while my modesty disparages my worke J should hazard the acceptation here shall your Grace finde variety not without profit J hate a Diuine that would but please and withall thinke it impossible for a man to profit that pleaseth not And if while my style fixeth it selfe vpon others any spirituall profit shall reflect vpon your Highnesse how happy am J who shall euer thinke I haue liued to purpose if by the best of my studies J shall haue done any good office to your soule Further which these times account not the least praise your Grace shal herein perceiue a new fashion of discourse by Epistles new to our language vsuall to others and as Nouelty is neuer without plea of vse more free more familiar Thus wee doe but talke with our friends by our pen and expresse our selues no whit lesse easily somewhat more digestedly Whatsoeuer it is as it cannot bee good enough to deserue that countenance so the countenance of such Patronage shall make it worthy of respect from others The God of Princes protect your person perfect your graces and giue you as much fauour in Heauen as you haue honour on earth Your Graces humbly-deuoted seruant IOS HALL EPISTLES THE FIRST VOLVME IN TVVO DECADS BY IOS HALL LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. THE TABLE DECAD I. EP. 1. TO IACOB WADSVVORTH lately reuolted in Spaine Expostulating for his departure and perswading his returne EP. 2. To the Lord DENNY my Lord and Patrone Of the contempt of the world EP. 3. To my Lord HAY. Of true honour EP. 4. To Master NEVVTON Of gratulation for the hopes of our Prince with an aduising apprecation EP. 5. To Sir THO CHALLONER A report of some Obseruations in my trauell EP. 6. To Sir DAVID MORAY Of the miracles of our time EP. 7. To Master W. BEDELL at Venice Lamenting the losse of some late eminent Diuines EP. 8. To the Earle of ESSEX Aduices for his Trauels EP. 9. To Sir ROBERT DRVRY and his LADY Concerning my Remouall EP. 10. To Master I. B. Against the feare of death DECAD II. EP. 1. To Sir RO DARCIE The estate of a true but weake Christian EP. 2. To Sir EDM BACON The benefit of Retirednesse EP. 3. To M. IOHN WHITING An Apology for Ministers mariage EP. 4. To Mrs BRINSLEY my sister Of the sorrow not to be repented of EP. 5. To M. HVGH CHOLMLIE Concerning the Metaphrase of the Psalmes EP. 6. To M. SAM SOTHEBIE A Preface to his Relation of Russia EP. 7. To M. STAN BVCHINSKI The comfort of Imprisonment EP. 8. To M. GEORGE WENNYFF Exciting to Christian cheerfulnesse EP. 9. To M. THO BVRLZ Against immoderat griefe for losse of friends EP. 10. To Master I. A. Against sorrow for worldly losses TO IACOB VVADSVVORTH lately reuolted in Spaine EPIST. I. Expostulating for his departure and perswading his returne HOw vnhappily is my style changed Alas that to a friend to a brother I must write as to an Apostate to an aduersary Doth this seeme harsh You haue turned it by being turned your selfe Once the same walls held vs in one louing Society the same Diocesse in one honourable function Now not one Land and which I lament not one Church You are gone we stand and wonder For a sheepe to stray through simplicity is both ordinary and lamentable but for a Shepheard is more rare more scandalous I dare not presume ouer-much vpon an appeale to a blinded conscience Those that are newly come from a bright candle into a darke roome are so much more blinde as their light was greater and the purest yuory turneth with fire into the deepest blacke Tell vs yet by your old ingenuity and by those sparkes of good which yet I hope lie couered vnder your cold ashes tell vs what diuided you Your motiues shall once be scanned before an higher barre Shame not to haue the weake eyes of the world see that which once your vndeceiueable Iudge shall see and censure What saw you what heard you anew that might offer violence to a resolued minde and make it either to alter or suspend If your reasons be inuincible informe vs that we may follow you but if as they are slight and feeble returne you to vs returne and thinke it no shame to haue erred iust shame to continue erring What such goodly beauty saw you in that painted but ill-fauoured Strumpet that should thus bewitch you so to forget your selfe and contemne the chaste loue of the Spouse of your Sauiour I saw her at the same time in her gayest dresse Let my soule neuer prosper if I could see any thing worthy to command affection I saw and scorned you saw and adored Would God your adoration were as farre from superstition as my scorne from impietie That God iudge betwixt vs whether herein erred yea let men iudge that are not drunke with those Babylonish dregs How long might an indifferent eye looke vpon the comicall and mimicke actions in those your mysteries that should be sacred your magical exorcismes your clericall shauings your vncleanly vnctions your crossings creepings censings sprinklings your coozning miracles garish processions burning of noone-day christning of bels marting of pardons tossing of beads your superstitious hallowing of candles waxe ashes
true Messias Let now all the Doctors of those obstinate Synagogues answer this doubt of their owne obiecting But how past all contradiction is the ancient witnesse of all the holy Prophets answered and confirmed by their euents whose foresayings verified in all particular issues are more then demonstratiue No Art can describe a thing past vvith more exactnesse then they did this Christ to come What circumstance is there that hath not his perâ—â—ction Haue they not fore-vvritteâ— who shoâ—â—â— be his mother A Virgin Of what Tribe of Iuda Of vvhat house of Dauid What place Bethleem vvhat time vvhen the scepter should be taken from Iuda Or after sixtie nine vveekes What name Iesus Immanuel What habitation Nazareth What harbinger Iohn the second Elias What his businesse to preach saue deliuer What entertainment reiection What death the Crosse What manner piercing the body not breaking the bones What company amidst two vvicked ones Where at Ierusalem Whereabouts vvithout the Gates With vvhat vvords of imploration What draught of Vineger and Gall vvho vvas his Traitor and vvith vvhat successe If all the Synagogues of the Circumcision all the gates of Hell can obscure these euidences let me be a proselyte My labour herein is so much lesse as there is lesse danger of Iudaisme Our Church is vvell rid of that accursed Nation vvhom yet Rome harbors and in a fashion graces vvhiles in stead of spitting at or that their Neapolitan correction vvhereof Gratian speaks the Pope solemnly receiues at their hands that Bible vvhich they at once approue and ouerthrow But vvould God there vvere no more Iewes then appeare Euen in this sense also hee is a Iew that is one vvithin plainely vvhose heart doth not sincerely confesse his Redeemer Tho a Christian Iew is no other then an Atheist and therfore must be scourged else-where The Iew thus answered The Turke stands out for his Mahomet that cozening Arabian vvhose Religion if it deserue that name stands vpon nothing but rude ignorance and palpable Imposture Yet loe here a subtill Diuell in a grosse religion For when he saw that he could not by single twists of Heresie pull downe the well built walls of the Church hee vvindes them all vp in one Cable to see if his cord of so many folds might happily preuaile raising vp vvicked Mahomet to deny vvith Sabellius the distinction of persons with Arrius Christs diuinity with Macedonius the Deity of the Holy Ghost with Sergius two wils in Christ with Marcion Christs suffering And these policies seconded vvith violence how haue they vvasted Christendome O damnable mixture miserably successefull vvhich yet could not haue beene but that it meets with sottish Clients and sooths vp nature and debars both all knowledge and contraction What is their Alcoran but a fardle of foolish impossibilities Whosoeuer shall heare me relate the stories of Angell Adriels death Seraphuels trumpet Gabriels bridge Horroth and Marroths hanging the Moones descending into Mahomets sleeue the Litter wherin he saw God caried by eight Angels their ridiculous and swinish Paradise and thousands of the same bran would say that Mahomet hoped to meet either vvith beasts or mad-men Besides these barbarous fictions behold their lawes full of licence full of impietie in which reuenge is incouraged multitude of vviues allowed theft tolerated and the frame of their opinions such as vvell bewrayes their whole religion to be but the mungrell issue of an Arrian Iew Nestorian and Arabian A monster of many seeds and all accursed In both vvhich regards Nature her selfe in vvhose breast God hath written his royall Law tho in part by her defaced hath light enough to condemne a Turke as the worst Pagan Let no man looke for further disproofe These follies a wise Christian will scorne to confute and fearce vouchsafe to laugh at The Greekish Church so the Russes tearme themselues put in the next claime but with no better successe whose infinite Clergy affords not a man that can giue either reason or account of their owne doctrine These are the basest dregs of all Christians so we fauourably terme them tho they perhaps in more simplicitie then wilfulnesse would admit none of all the other Christian world to their font but those who in a solemne renunciation spit at and abiure their former God Religion Baptisme yet peraduenture wee might more iustly terme them Nicolaitans for that obscure Saint if a Saint if honest by an vnequall diuision findes more homage from them then his master These are as ignorant as Turkes as idolatrous as Heathens as obstinate as Iewes and more superstitious then Papists To speake ingenuously from that I haue heard and read if the worst of the Romish religion and the best of the Moscouitish bee compared the choice will be hard whether should be lesse ill I labour the lesse in all these whose remotenesse and absurditie secure vs from infection and whose onely name is their confutation I descend to that maine riuall of Truth which creepes into her bosome and is not lesse neere then subtle the religion if not rather the faction of Papisme whose plea is importunate and so much more dangerous as it caries fairer probability Since then of all religions the Christian obtaineth let vs see of those that are called Christian which should command assent and profession Euery religion beares in her lineaments the image of her parent the true Religion therefore is spirituall and lookes like God in her puritie all false religions are carnall and carie the face of Nature their mother and of him whose illusion begot them Satan In summe Nature neuer conceiued any which did not fauour her nor the spirit any which did not oppugne her Let this then be the Lydian stone of this tryall we need no more Whether Religion soeuer doth more plausibly content Nature is false whether giues more sincere glory to God is his Truth Lay aside preiudice Whither I beseech you tendeth all Popery but to make Nature either vainly proud or carelessely wanton What can more aduance her pride then to tell her that she hath in her own hands freedome enough of will with a little preuention to prepare her selfe to her iustification that she hath whereof to reioyce some what which shee hath not receiued that if God please but to vnfetter her she can walke alone She is insolent enough of her selfe this flatterie is enough to make her mad of conceit After this That if God will but beare halfe the charges by his cooperation she may vndertake to merit her owne glory and braue God in the proofe of his most accurate iudgement to fulfill the whole royall law and that from the superfluitie of her owne satisfactions shee may bee abundantly beneficiall to her neighbours that naturally without faith a man may doe some good workes that we may repose confidence in our merits Neither is our good onely by this flatterie extolled but our ill also diminished our euils are our sinnes some of them they say are in their
Gods ancient law would haue made a quicke dispatch and haue determined the case by the death of the offender and the liberty of the innocent and not it alone How many Heathen Law-giuers haue subscribed to Moses Arabians Grecians Romans yea very Gothes the dregs of Barbarisme haue thought this wrong not expiable but by blood With vs the easinesse of reuenge as it yeelds frequence of offences so multitude of doubts Whether the wronged husband should conceale or complaine complaining whether he should retaine or dismisse dismissing whether he may marry or must continue single not continuing single whether he may receiue his own or chuse another but your inquiries shall be my bounds The fact you say is too euident Let me aske you To your selfe or to the world This point alone must vary our proceedings Publike notice requires publike discharge Priuate wrongs are in our owne power publike in the hands of authority The thoughts of our owne brests while they smother themselues within vs are at our command whether for suppressing or expressing but if they once haue vented themselues by words vnto others eares now as common strayes they must stand to the hazard of censure such are our actions Neither the sword nor the keyes meddle within doores what but they vvithout If fame haue laid hold on the wrong prosecute it cleere your name cleere your house yea Gods Else you shall be reputed a Pandar to your owne bed and the second shame shall surpasse the first so much as your owne fault can more blemish you then anothers If there were no more he is cruelly mercifull that neglects his owne fame But what if the sinne were shrouded in secrecy The loathsomnesse of vice consists not in common knowledge It is no lesse hainous if lesse talked of Report giues but shame God and the good soule detest close euils Yet then I ask not of the offence but of the offender not of her crime but her repentance She hath sinned against heauen and you But hath she washed your polluted bed with her teares Hath her true sorrow beene no lesse apparant then her sinne Hath she peeced her old vow with new protestations of fidelity Do you find her at once humbled and changed Why should that eare be deafe to her prayers that was open to her accusation why is there not yet place for mercy Why doe we Christians liue as vnder Martiall law wherein we sinne but once Plead not authority Ciuilians haue beene too rigorous the mercifull sentence of Diuinity shal sweetly temper humane seuereness How many haue we known the better for their sinne That Magdalene her predecessor in filthinesse had neuer loued so much if she had not so much sinned How oft hath Gods Spouse deserued a diuorce which yet still her confessions her teares haue reuersed How oft hath that scroll beene written and signed and yet againe cancelled and torne vpon submission His actions not his words onely are our precepts Why is man cruell where God relents The wrong is ours onely for his sake without whose law were no sinne If the Creditor please to remit the debt doe standers-by complaine But if she be at once filthy and obstinate flie from her bed as contagious Now your beneuolence is adultery you impart your body to her she her sinne to you A dangerous exchange An honest body for an harlots sinne Herein you are in cause that she hath more then one adulterer I applaud the rigour of those ancient Canons which haue still roughly censured euen this cloake of vice As there is necessity of charity in the former so of iustice in this If you can so loue your wife that you detest not her sin you are a better husband then a Christian a better bawd then an husband I dare say no more vpon so generall a relation good Physitians in dangerous diseases dare not prescribe on bare sight of vrine or vncertaine report but will feele the pulse and see the symptomes ere they resolue on the receit You see how no niggard I am of my counsels would God I could as easily asswage your griefe as satisfie your doubts To M. ROBERT HAY. EPIST. VIII A Discourse of the continuall exercise of a Christian how he may keepe his heart from hardnesse and his wayes from error TO keepe the heart in vre with God is the highest taske of a Christian Good motions are not frequent but the constancy of good disposition is rare and hard This worke must be continuall or else speedeth not like as the body from a setled and habituall distemper must be recouered by long diets and so much the rather for that we cannot intermit here without relapses If this field be not tilled euery day it will runne out into thistles The euening is fittest for this worke when retyred into our selues we must cheerefully and constantly both looke vp to God and into our hearts as we haue to doe with both to God in thanksgiuing first then in request It shall be therefore expedient for the soule duly to recount to it selfe all the specialties of Gods fauours a confused thankes fauours of carelesnesse and neither doth affect vs nor win acceptance aboue Bethinke your selfe then of all these externall inferiour earthly graces that your being breathing life motion reason is from him that hee hath giuen you a more noble nature then the rest of the creatures excellent faculties of the mind perfection of senses soundnesse of body competency of estate seemlinesse of condition fitnesse of calling preseruation from dangers rescue out of miseries kindnesse of friends carefulnesse of education honesty of reputation liberty of recreations quietnesse of life opportunity of well-doing protection of Angels Then rise higher to his spirituall fauours tho here on earth and striue to raise your affections with your thoughts Blesse God that you were borne in the light of the Gospell for your profession of the truth for the honor of your vocation for your incorporating into the Church for the priuiledge of the Sacraments the free vse of the Scriptures the communion of Saints the benefit of their prayers the ayde of their counsels the pleasure of their conuersation for the beginnings of regeneration any foot-steps of faith hope loue zeale patience peace ioy conscionablenesse for any desire of more Then let your soule mount highest of all into her heauen and acknowledge those celestiall graces of her election to glory redemption from-shame and death of the intercession of her Sauiour of the preparation of her place and there let her stay a while vpon the meditation of her future ioyes This done the way is made for your request Sue now to your God as for grace to answer these mercies so to see wherein you haue not answered them From him therefore cast your eyes downe vpon your selfe and as some carefull Iusticer doth a suspected fellon so doe you strictly examine your heart of what you haue done that day of what you should haue done enquire whether
your thoughts haue beene sequestred to God strangers from the world fixed on heauen whether iust charitable lowly pure Christian whether your senses haue beene holily guided neither to let in temptations nor to let out sinnes whether your speeches haue not beene offensiue vaine rash indiscreet vnsauoury vnedifying whether your actions haue beene warrantable expedient comely profitable Thence see if you haue beene negligent in watching your heart expence of your time exercises of deuotion performance of good workes resistance of temptations good vse of good examples and compare your present estate with the former looke iealously whether your soule hath gained or lost lost ought of the heat of her loue tendernesse of conscience feare to offend strength of vertue gained more increase of grace more assurance of glory And when you find alas who can but find either holinesse decayed or euill done or good omitted cast downe your eyes strike your brest humble your soule and sigh to him whom you haue offended sue for pardon as for life heartily yearningly inioyne your selfe carefull amendment redouble your holy resolutions strike hands with God in a new couenant my soule for your safety Much of this good counsell I confesse to haue learned from the Table of an vnknown Author at Antwerp It contented me and therefore I haue thus made it by many alterations my owne for forme and yours for the vse Our practice shall both commend it and make vs happy To Mr. J.F. one of the company of the Turkish Merchants EP. IX Discoursing of the lawfulnesse of conuersation and trade with Infidels and Hereticks and shewing how farre and wherein it is allowable IN matter of sinne I dare not discommend much feare Loosenesse is both a more ordinary fault and more dangerous then excesse of care yet herein the minde may be vniustly tortured and suffer without gaine It is good to know our bounds and keep them that so we may neither be carelesly offensiue nor needlesly afflicted How farre we may trauell to and conuerse with Infidels with Hereticks is a long demand and cannot be answered at once I see extreams on both hands and a path of truth betwixt both of no small latitude First I commend not this course to you it is well if I allow it The earth is large and truth hath ample Dominions and those not incommodious not vnpleasant To neglect the maine blessings with competency of the inferiour for abundance of the inferiour without the maine were a choice vnwise and vnequall While we are free who would take ought but the best Whither goe you Haue we not as temperate a Sunne as faire an Heauen as fertile an Earth as rich a Sea as sweet Companions What stand I on equality a firmer peace a freer Gospell an happier gouernment then the world can shew you yet you must goe I giue you allowance but limited and full of cautions like an inquisitiue Officer you must let me aske who how when whither why how long and accordingly determine To communicate with them in their false seruices who will not spit at as impious We speake of conuersing with men not with idolatries ciuilly not in Religion not in workes of darknesse but businesse of commerce and common indifferencies Fie on those Rimmonites that plead an vpright soule in a prostrate body Hypocrites that pretend a Nathanael in the skin of a Nicodemus God hates their secret halting and will reuenge it Let goe their vices and speake of their persons Those may bee conuersed with not with familiarity not with intirenesse as men qualified not as friends Traffique is here allowed not amity not friendship but peace Paul will allow you to feast at their table not to frequent it yet not this to all Christianity hath all statures in it all strengths children and men weaklings Gyants For a feeble vngrounded Christian this verie company is dangerous safe for the strong and instructed Turne a child loose into an Apothecaries shop or an Idiot that gally-pot which lookes fairest shall haue his first hand tho full of poysonous drugs where the iudicious would choose the wholesomest led not by sense but skill Setlednesse in the truth will cause vs to hate and scorne ridiculous impiety and that hate will settle vs the more where the vnstayed may grow to lesse dislike and indanger his owne infection He had need bee a resolute Caleb that should goe to see the land of Canaan yet not such a one vpon euery occasion meete pleasure or curiosity I dare not allow in this aduenture The command of authority or necessity of traffique I cannot reiect Or if after sufficient preuention desire to informe our selues thorowly in a forraine Religion or state especially for publike vse cary vs abroad I censure not In all matter of danger a calling is a good warrant and it cannot want perill to goe vnsent Neither is there small weight in the quality of the place and continuance of the time It is one case where the profession of our religion is free another where restrained perhaps not without constraint to idolatry where wee haue meanes for our soules and allowed Ministery the cause must needs differ from a place of necessary blindness of peeuish superstition To passe thorow an infected place is one thing to dwell in it another Each of these giue a new state to the cause and look for a diuerse answer But as in all these outward actions so here most force I confesse lies in the intention which is able to giue not toleration onely to our trauell but praise To conuerse with them without but in a purpose of their conuersion and with endeuour to fetch them in can be no other then an holy course wherein that the Iesuits haue beene by their owne saying more seruiceable in their Indies and China let them thank after their number and leisure their shelter of Spaine the opportunity of whose patronage hath preferred them to vs not their more forward desires In short companying with Infidels may not be simply condemned who can hold so that sees Lot in Sodō Israel with the Aegyptians Abraham Isaac with their Abimelechs Roses among thornes and pearles among much mud and for all Christ among Publicans Sinners so we neither be infected by them nor they further infected by our confirmation nor the weake Christian by vs infected with offence nor the Gospel infected with reproch what danger can there be If neither we nor they nor the weake nor which is highest the name of God be wronged who can complaine You haue mine opinion dispose now of your selfe as you dare The earth is the Lords and you are his wheresoeuer he shall find you be sure you shall find him euery-where To the Gentlemen of his Highnesse Court EP. X. A description of a good and faithfull Courtier WHiles I aduentured other Characters into the light I reserued one for you whom I account no small part of my ioy The Character of What you are of What
enuious vnderminings secret idolatry hypocriticall fashionablenesse haue spred themselues all ouer the world The Sunne of peace looking vpon our vncleane heaps hath bred these monsters and hath giuen light to this brood of darknesse Looke about you and see if three great Idols Honour Pleasure Gaine haue not shared the earth amongst them and left him least whose all is Your deniall driues mee to particulars I vrge no further If any aduersary insult in my confession tell him that I account them the greatest part of this euill neither could thus complaine if they were not VVho knowes not that as the earth is the dregs of the world so Italy is the dregs of the earth Rome of Italy It is no wonder to finde Satan in his Hell but to find him in Paradise is vncouth and grieuous Let them alone that will dye and hate to be cured For vs O that remedies were as easie as complaints That we could be as soone cleared as conuinced That the taking of the medicine were but so difficult as the prescription And yet nothing hinders vs from health but our wil neither Gospell nor Grace nor Glory are shut vp onely our hearts are not open Let me turne my stile from you to the secure to the peruerse tho why doe I hope they will heare mee that are deafe to God they will regard words that care not for iudgements Let me tell them yet if in vaine they must breake if they bow not That if mercy may be refused yet vengeance cannot be resisted that God can serue himselfe of them perforce neither to their thanke nor ease that the present plagues doe but threaten worse Lastly that if they relent not hell was not made for nothing What should be done then Except we would faine smart each man amend one and we all liue How commonly doe men complaine and yet adde to this heape Redresse stands not in words Let euery man pull but one brand out of this fire and the flame will goe out alone What is a multitude but an heape of vnities The more we deduce the fewer we leaue O how happy were it then if euery man would begin at home and take his owne heart to task and at once be his owne Accuser and Iudge to condemne his priuate errors yea to mulct them with death Till then alas what auailes it to talke While euery man censures and no man amends what is it but busie trifling But tho our care must begin at our selues it may not end there Who but a Cain is not his brothers keeper Publike persons are not so much their owne as others are theirs Who sits at the common sterne cannot distinguish betwixt the care of his owne safety and his vessels both drowne at once or at once salute the hauen Ye Magistrates for in you stand al our lower hopes whom God hath on purpose in a wise surrogation set vpon earth to correct her disorders take to your selues firme fore-heads courageous hearts hands busie and not partiall to discountenance shamelesse wickednesse to resist the violent sway of euils to execute wholesome lawes with strictnes with resolutiō The sword of the Spirit meets with such iron hearts that it both enters not and is rebated Loe it appeales to your arme to your ayd An earthen edge can best pierce this hardned earth If iniquity die not by your hands we perish And ye sonnes of Leui gather to your Moses in the gate of the Campe consecrate your hands to God in this holy slaughter of vice Let your voice be both a trumpet to incite and a two-edged sword to wound and kill Cry downe sinne in earnest and thunder out of that sacred chaire of Moses and let your liues speake yet louder Neither may the common Christian sit still and looke on in silence I am deceiued if in this cause God allow any man for priuate Here must bee all actors no witnesses His discreet admonitions seasonable reproofes and prayers neuer vnseasonable besides the power of honest example are expected as his due tribute to the common health What if we cannot turne the streame Yet we must swim against it euen without conquest it is glorious to haue resisted in this alone they are enemies that doe nothing Thus as one that delights more in amendment then excuse I haue both censured and directed The fauour of your sentence proceeds I know from your owne innocent vprightnesse So iudge of my seuere taxation It shall be happy for vs if wee can at once excuse and diminish accuse and redresse iniquity Let but the indeuour be ours the successe to GOD. EPISTLES THE THIRD AND LAST VOLVME CONTAINING TWO DECADS BY IOS HALL LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE MOST HIGH AND EXCELLENT PRINCE HENRY PRINCE of WALES All happinesse MOst Gratious Prince LEt me not whiles I desire to be dutifull seeme importunate in my dedications J now bring to your Highnesse these my last and perhaps most materiall Letters wherein if J mistake not as how easily are wee deceiued in our owne the pleasure of the variety shall striue with the importance of matter There is no worldly thing I confesse whereof I am more ambitious then of your Highnesses contentment which that you place in goodnesse is not more your glory then our ioy Doe so still and heauen and earth shall agree to blesse you and vs in you For me after this my officious boldnesse I shall betake my selfe in silence to some greater worke wherein J may approue my seruice to the Church and to your Highnesse as her second ioy and care My heart shall be alwayes and vpon all opportunities my tongue and pen shall no lesse gladly be deuoted to my gratious Master as one Who reioyce to be your Highnesses though vnworthy yet faithfull and obsequious Seruant IOS HALL THE SVMME OF THE SEVERALL EPISTLES DECAC V. EP. 1. To my B. Lord of Bathe and Wels. Discoursing of the causes and meanes of the increase of Popery EP. 2. To my Lord Bishop of Worcester Shewing the differences of the present Church from the Apostolicall and needlesnesse of our conformity thereto in all things EP. 3. To my Lady MARY DENNY Containing the description of a Christian and his differences from the worldling EP. 4. To my Lady HONORIA HAY. Discoursing of the necessity of Baptisme and the estate of those which necessarily want it EP. 5. To Sir RICHARD LEA. Discoursing of the comfortable remedies of all afflictions EP. 6. To Mr PETER MOLIN Preacher of the Church at Paris Discoursing of the late French occurrents and what vse God expects to bee made of them EP. 7. To Mr THOMAS SVTTON Exciting him and in him all others to early and cheerfull beneficence shewing the necessitie and benefit of good workes EP. 8. To E. B. Dedicated to Sir GEORGE GORING Remedies against dulnes and heartlesnes in our callings and encouragements to cheerfulnesse in labour EP. 9. To Sir IOHN HARRINGTON
God begin with those which he meant not to continue but to shew vs we may not alwayes look for one face of things The nurse feeds and tends her child at first afterward hee is vndertaken by the discipline of a Tutor must he be alwayes vnder the spoone and ferule because he began so If he haue good breeding it matters not by whose hands Who can denie that we haue the substance of all those royall lawes which Christ and his Apostles left to his Church What doe we now thus importunately catching at shadowes If there had been a necessitie of hauing what we want or vvanting what we haue let vs not so farre vvrong the wisdom and perfection of the Law-giuer as to thinke he would not haue inioyned that and forbidden this His silence in both argues his indifferencie and calls for ours which vvhile it is not peaceably entertained there is clamour without profit malice without cause and strife without end To my Lady MARY DENNY EP. III. Containing the description of a Christian and his differences from the worldling MADAM IT is true that worldly eyes can see no difference betwixt a Christian another man the out-side of both is made of one clay and cast in one mould both are inspired with one common breath Outward euents distinguish them not those God neuer made for euidences of loue or hatred So the senses can perceiue no difference betwixt the reasonable soule and that which informes the beast yet the soule knowes there is much more then betwixt their bodies The fame holds in this Faith sees more inward difference then the eye sees outward resemblance This point is not more high then materiall which that it may appeare let me shew what it is to be a Christian You that haue felt it can second mee with your experience and supply the defects of my discourse He is the liuing temple of the liuing God where the Deity is both resident and worshipped The highest thing in a man is his own spirit but in a Christian the spirit of God which is the God of spirits No grace is wanting in him and those which there are want not stirring vp Both his heart and his hands are cleane All his outward purity flowes from within neither doth he frame his soule to counterfet good actions but out of his holy disposition commands and produces them in the light of God Let vs begin with his beginning and fetch the Christian out of his nature as another Abraham from his Chaldea whiles the worldling liues and dies in nature out of God The true conuert therefore after his wylde and â—ecure courses puts himselfe through the motions of Gods Spirit to schoole vnto the Law there hee learnes what he should haue done what he could not do what he hath done what he hath deserued These lessons cost him many a stripe many a teare and not more griefe then terror for this sharpe master makes him feele what sinne is and what hell is and in regard of both what himselfe is When he hath vvell smarted vnder the whip of this seuere vsher and is made vile enough in himself then is he led vp into the higher schoole of Christ and there taught the comfortable lessons of grace there hee learnes vvhat belongs to a Sauiour what one he is what he hath done and for whom how he became ours vve his and now finding himselfe in a true state of danger of humilitie of need of desire of fitnesse for Christ he brings home to himselfe all that he learnes and what he knowes he applyes His former Tutor he feared this he loueth that shewed him his wounds yea made them this binds and heales them that killed him this shewes him life and leades him to it Now at once he hates himselfe defies Satan trusts to Christ makes account both of pardon glory This is his most precious Faith whereby he appropriates yea ingrosses Christ Iesus to himselfe whence he is iustified from his sinnes purified from his corruptions established in his resolutions comforted in his doubts defended against temptations ouercomes all his enemies Which vertue as it is most imployed and most opposed so caries the most care from the Christian heart that it be sound liuely growing sound not rotten not hollow not presumptuous sound in the act not a superficiall conceit but a true deepe and sensible apprehension an apprehension not of the braine but of the heart and of the heart not approuing or assenting but trusting and reposing Sound in the obiect none but Christ he knowes that no friendship in heauen can doe him good without this The Angels cannot God will not Ye beleeue in the Father beleeue also in me Liuely for it cannot giue life vnlesse it haue life the faith that is not fruitfull is dead the fruits of faith are good workes whether inward within the roofe of the heart as loue awe sorrow pietie zeale ioy and the rest or outward towards God or our brethren obedience and seruice to the one to the other reliefe and beneficence These he beares in his time sometimes all but alwayes some Growing true faith cannot stand still but as it is fruitfull in workes so it increaseth in degrees from a little seed it proues a large plant reaching from earth to heauen and from one heauen to another euery shower and euery Sun addes something to it Neither is this grace euer solitarie but alwayes attended royally for that he beleeues what a Sauiour he hath cannot but loue him and he that loues him cannot but hate whatsoeuer may displease him cannot but reioyce in him and hope to enioy him and desire to enioy his hope and contemne all those vanities which he once desired and enioyed His minde now scorneth to grouell vpon earth but soareth vp to the things aboue where Christ sits at the right hand of God and after it hath seene what is done in heauen lookes strangely vpon all worldly things He dare trust his faith aboue his reason and sense and hath learned to weane his appetite from crauing much Hee stands in awe of his own conscience and dare no more offend it then not displease himselfe He feares not his enemies yet neglects them not equally auoiding security and timorousnesse He sees him that is inuisible and walks with him awfully familiarly He knowes what he is borne to and therefore digests the miseries of his wardship with patience he findes more comfort in his afflictions then any worldling in pleasures And as hee hath these graces to comfort him within so hath hee the Angels to attend him without spirits better then his owne more powerfull more glorious These beare him in their armes wake by his bed keepe his soule while he hath it and receiue it when it leaues him These are some present differences the greatest are future which could not be so great if themselues were not witnesses no lesse then betwixt heauen and hell torment and glory an incorruptible crowne and
is maruellous in our eyes You haue now parallel'd vs Out of both our feares God hath fetched securitie Oh that out of our securitie wee could as easily fetch feare not so much of euill as of the Author of good and yet trust him in our feare and in both magnifie him Yea you haue by this act gained some conuerts against the hope of the agents neither can I without many ioyfull congratulations thinke of the estate of your Church which euery day honours with the accesse of new clients whose teares and sad confessions make the Angels to reioyce in heauen and the Saints on earth We should giue you example if our peace were as plentifull of goodnesse as of pleasure But how seldome hath the Church gained by ease or lost by restraint Blesse you God for our prosperitie and we shall praise him for your progresse To M. THOMAS SVTTON EP. VII Exciting him and in him all others to early and cheerfull beneficence shewing the necessitie and benefit of good workes SIR I trouble you not with reasons of my writing or with excuses if I doe ill no plea can warrant me if well I cannot be discouraged with any censures I craue not your pardon but your acceptation It is no presumption to giue good counsell and presents of loue feare not to be ill taken of strangers My pen and your substance are both giuen vs for one end to doe good These are our talents how happy are we if we can improue them well suffer me to doe you good with the one that with the other you may doe good to many and most to your selfe You cannot but know that your ful hand and worthy purposes haue possessed the world with much expectation what speake I of the world whose honest and reasonable claimes yet cannot bee contemned with honour nor disappointed with dishonour The God of heauen which hath lent you this abundance and giuen you these gracious thoughts of charity of piety lookes long for the issue of both and will easily complaine either of too little or too late Your wealth and your will are both good but the first is onely made good by the second For if your hand were full and your heart empty we who now applaud you should iustly pity you you might haue riches not goods not blessings your burthen should be greater then your estate and you should be richer in sorrowes then in meals For if we looke to no other world what gaine is it to be the keeper of the best earth That which is the common cofer of all the rich mynes we do but tread vpon and account it vile because it doth but hold and hide those treasures Whereas the skilfull metallist that findeth and refineth those precious veines for publike vse is rewarded is honoured The very basest Element yeelds gold the sauage Indian gets it the seruile prentise workes it the very Midianitish Camell may weare it the miserable worldling admires it the couetous Iew swallowes it the vnthrifty Ruffian spends it what are all these the better for it Onely good vse giues praise to earthly possessions Herein therefore you owe more to God that he hath giuen you an heart to doe good a will to be as rich in good workes as great in riches To be a friend to this Mammon is to be an enemy to God but to make friends with it is royall and Christian His enemies may be wealthy none but his friends can either be good or do good Da accipe saith the Wise-man The Christian which must imitate the high patterne of his Creator knowes his best riches to be bounty God that hath all giues all reserues nothing And for himselfe he well considers that God hath not made him an owner but a seruant and of seruants a seruant not of his goods but of the Giuer not a Treasurer but a Steward whose praise is more To lay out well then to haue receiued much The greatest gaine therefore that he affects is an eauen reckoning a cleare discharge which since it is obtained by disposing not by keeping he counts reseruation losse iust expence his trade and ioy he knowes that Wel done faithfull seruant is a thousand times more sweet a note then Soule take thine ease for that is the voice of the matter recompencing this of the carnall heart presuming and what followes to the one but his masters ioy what to the other but the losse of his soule Blessed be that God which hath giuen you an heart to fore-thinke this and in this dry and dead Age a will to honour him with his owne and to credit his Gospell with your beneficence Lo we are vpbraided with barrennesse your name hath beene publikely opposed to these challenges as in whom it shall be seene that the truth hath friends that can giue I neither distrust nor perswade you whose resolutions are happily fixed on purposes of good onely giue me leaue to hasten your pase a little and to excite your Christian forwardnesse to begin speedily what you haue long and constantly vowed You would not but doe good why not now I speake boldly The more speed the more comfort Neither the times are in our disposing nor our selues if God had set vs a day and made our wealth inseparable there were no danger in delaying now our vncertainty either must quicken vs or may deceiue vs. How many haue meant well and done nothing and lost their crowne with lingring whose destinies haue preuented their desires and haue made their good motions the wards of their executors not without miserable successe to whom that they would haue done good is not so great a praise as it is dishonour that they might haue done it their wracks are our warnings we are equally mortall equally fickle Why haue you this respite of liuing but to preuent the imperious necessity of death it is a wofull and remedilesse complaint that the end of our dayes hath ouer-run the beginning of our good works Early beneficence hath no danger many ioyes for the conscience of good done the prayers and blessings of the releeued the gratulations of the Saints are as so many perpetuall comforters which can make our life pleasant and our death happy our euill dayes good and our good better All these are lost with delay few and cold are the prayers for him that may giue and in lieu our good purposes fore-slowed are become our tormentors vpon our death-bed Little difference is betwixt good deferred and euill done Good was meant who hindred it will our conscience say there was time enough meanes enough need enough what hindred Did feare of enuy distrust of want Alas what bugs are these to fright men from heauen As if the enuy of keeping were lesse then of bestowing As if God were not as good a debtor as a giuer he that giues to the poore lends to God saith wise Salomon If he freely giue vs what we may lend grace to giue wil he not much more
after While my body is dressing not with an effeminate curiosity nor yet with rude neglect my mind addresses it selfe to her ensuing taske bethinking what is to bee done and in what order and marshalling as it may my houres with my worke That done after some whiles meditation I walke vp to my masters and companions my bookes and sitting downe amongst them with the best contentment I dare not reach forth my hand to salute any of them till I haue first looked vp to heauen and craued fauour of him to whom all my studies are duly referred without whom I can neither profit nor labour After this out of no ouer-great variety I call forth those which may best fit my occasions wherein I am not too scrupulous of age Sometimes I put my selfe to schoole to one of those Ancients whom the Church hath honoured with the name of Fathers whose Volumes I confesse not to open without a secret reuerence of their holinesse and grauity Sometimes to those later Doctors which want nothing but age to make them classicall alwayes to Gods Booke That day is lost whereof some houres are not improued in those Diuine Monuments others I turne ouer out of choice these out of duty Ere I can haue sate vnto wearinesse my family hauing now ouercome all houshold-distractions inuites me to our common deuotions not without some short preparation These heartily performed send me vp with a more strong and cheerfull appetite to my former worke which I find made easie to me by intermission and varietie Now therefore can I deceiue the houres with change of pleasures that is of labours One while mine eyes are busied another while my hand and sometimes my mind takes the burthen from them both Wherein I would imitate the skilfullest Cookes which make the best dishes with manifold mixtures one houre is spent in Textuall Diuinity another in Controuersie Histories relieue them both Now when the mind is weary of others labours it begins to vndertake her owne sometimes it meditates and winds vp for future vse sometimes it layes forth her conceits into present discourse sometimes for it selfe ofter for others Neither know I whether it workes or playes in these thoughts I am sure no sport hath more pleasure no worke more vse Onely the decay of a weake body makes me thinke these delights insensibly laborious Thus could I all day as Ringers vse make my selfe Musicke with changes and complaine sooner of the day for shortness then of the businesse for toyle were it not that this faint monitor interrupts me still in the midst of my busie pleasures and inforces me both to respite and repast I must yeeld to both while my body and mind are ioyned together in these vnequall couples the better must follow the weaker Before my meales therefore and after I let my selfe loose from all thoughts and now would forget that I euer studied A full mind takes away the bodies appetite no lesse then a full body makes a dull and vnweildy mind Company discourse recreations are now seasonable and welcome These prepare me for a diet not gluttonous but medicinall The palate may not bee pleased but the stomacke nor that for it owne sake Neither would I thinke any of these comforts worth respect in themselues but in their vse in their end so farre as they may inable me to better things If I see any dish to tempt my palate I feare a Serpent in that Apple and would please my selfe in a wilfull deniall I rise capable of more not desirous not now immediately from my trencher to my booke but after some intermission Moderate speed is a sure helpe to all proceedings where those things which are prosecuted with violence of indeuour or desire either succeed not or continue not After my later meale my thoughts are sleight onely my memory may be charged with her taske of recalling what was committed to her custody in the day and my heart is busie in examining my hands and mouth and all other senses of that dayes behauiour And now the euening is come no Trades-man doth more carefully take-in his wares cleare his shop-board and shut his Windowes then I would shut vp my thoughts and cleare my minde That Student shall liue miserably which like a Camell lies downe vnder his burden All this done calling together my family we end the day with God Thus doe we rather driue away the time before vs then follow it I grant neither is my practice worthy to be exemplary neither are our callings proportionable The liues of a Nobleman of a Courtier of a Scholler of a Citizen of a Countriman differ no lesse then their dispositions yet must all conspire in honest labour Sweat is the destiny of all trades whether of the browes or of the mind God neuer allowed any man to doe nothing How miserable is the condition of those men which spend the time as if it were giuen them and not lent as if houres were waste creatures and such as should neuer be accounted for as if God would take this for a good bill of reckoning Item spent vpon my pleasures forty yeares These men shall once finde that no blood can priuiledge idlenesse and that nothing is more precious to God then that which they desire to cast away Time Such are my common dayes but Gods day cals for another respect The same Sunne arises on this day and enlightens it yet because that Sunne of righteousnesse arose vpon it and gaue a new life vnto the world in it and drew the strength of Gods morall precept vnto it therefore iustly doe we sing with the Psalmist This is the day which the Lord hath made Now I forget the world in a sort my selfe and deale with my wonted thoughts as great men vse who at some times of their priuacie forbid the accesse of all suters Prayer meditation reading hearing preaching singing good conference are the businesses of this day which I dare not bestow on any worke or pleasure but heauenly I hate superstition on the one side and loosenesse on the other but I finde it hard to offend in too much deuotion easie in prophanenesse The whole weeke is sanctified by this day and according to my care of this is my blessing on the rest I show your Lordship what I would doe and what I ought I commit my desires to the imitation of the weake my actions to the censures of the Wise and Holy my weaknesses to the pardon and redresse of my mercifull God To Mr T. S. Dedicated to Sir Fulke Greuill EP. II. Discoursing how we may vse the world without danger HOw to liue out of the danger of the World is both a great and good care and that which troubles too few Some that the world may not hurt them run from it and banish themselues to the tops of solitarie mountaines changing the Cities for Deserts houses for Caues and the societie of men for beasts and lest their enemie might insinuate himselfe into their
therefore hee meant that Peters successor should catch the great fish of Constantines donation But I fauour your eares That one I may not omit how S. Hierome whom they fondly terme their Cardinall compares some Popish fashions of his time with the Pharisaicall who when he had spoken of their purple fringes in the foure corners of their Tallin and the thornes which these Rabbins tie in their skirts for penance and admonition of their duty Hoc apud nos saith he superstitiosae muliercula in parvulis Euangelijs in crucis ligno istinsmodi rebus factitant That is Thus superstitious old wiues doe amongst vs with little Gospels of Iohn with the wood of the Crosse and the like Thus that Father directly taxeth this Romish vse who if he were now aliue and should heare their Church groaning vnder the number of Ceremonies more than the Iewish would besides holy Austin complaint redouble that censure of our Sauiours Matth. 23.4 Woe to you Scribes Pharises hypocrites for yee binde heauy burthens and grieuous to bee borne and lay them on mens shoulders I forbeare to speake of the erroneous opinions of these Iewish Masters concerning that Pythagorian transanimation or passage of the soule from one body to another a point which the Iewes had learned from them Vide Drusium de tribus sectis Iud. Alia Doctrina Matth. 16.14 concerning the not-rising vp of the wicked Astronomicall destinie free-will merit of workes perfection of obedience in euery of which it were easie to lose my selfe and my speech I haste to their maine vnrighteousnesse which was not so much the planting of these stocks which God neuer set Pharisaeâ—ruÌ„ quae est nisi legis secundum carnem obseruatio Hier. in Gal. 1. as the graffing of all holinesse and Gods seruice vpon them a fashionable obseruation of the outward letter with neglect of the true substance of the Law a vaine-glorious ostentation of piety and perfection and more care to be thought than to be good a greater desire to be great than good cruelty and oppression coloured with deuotion My speech now towards the closure shall draw it selfe vp within these two lists of their Hypocrisie their Worldlinesse Hypocrisie in Fashionablenesse and Ostentation Worldlinesse in Couetousnesse Ambition Only stir vp your selues a while and suffer not your Christian attention to faile in this last act Some of their Rabbins say well that God requires two things concerning his Law Custodie and Worke. Custodie in the heart worke in the execution These vnsound and ouerly Pharises did neither It was enough if they kept the Law in their hands so they had a formall shew of godlinesse it was enough 2 Tim. 3.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if the outside of the platter were cleane they cared for no more God had charged them to binde the Law to their hand and before their eyes Deut. 6. wherein as Ierome and Theophylact well interpret it he meant the meditation and practise of his Law they like vnto the foolish Patient which when the Physitian bids him take that prescript eats vp the paper if they could get but a lift of parchment vpon their left arme next their heart and another scroll to tie vpon their forehead and foure corners of fringe Si haec prohibeantur filum rubrum ponent in manu Praec Mos cum expos or if these be denied a red threed in their hand thought they might say with SAVL Blessed be thou of the Lord I haue done the commandement of the Lord. That Opus operatum of the Papists for I still parallel them is not more false Latine than false Diuinitie it is not the outside of thy obedience that God cares for if neuer so holy neuer so glorious it is enough that men are cousened with these flourishes the heart and the reines are those that God lookes after What cares a good market-man how good the fleece be when the liuer is rotten God doth not regard fashion so much as stuffe Thou deceiuest thy selfe if thou thinke those shewes that bleared the eyes of the world can deceiue him God shall smite thee thou whited wall God shall smite thee Dost thou thinke he sees not how smoothly thou hast dawbed on thine whorish complexion He sees thee a far off and hates thee while thy parasites applaud thy beauty I speake not of this carrion flesh which thou wantonly infectest with the false colours of thy pride which God shall once wash off with riuers of brimstone I speake of thy painted soule and thy counterfet obedience Giue me leaue yea let me take it to complaine that we are fallen into a cold and hollow age wherein the religion of many is but fashion and their pietie gilded superstition Men care onely to seeme Christians if they can get Gods liuerie on their backs and his name in their mouthes they out-face all reproofes How many are there which if they can keepe their Church giue an almes bow their knee say their prayers pay their tithes and once a yeere receiue the Sacrament it matters not how corrupt hearts how filthy tongues how false hands they beare can say in their hearts with Esau I haue enough my brother As if God cared for this thy vaine formalitie as if he hated thee not so much more than a Pagan by how much thou wouldst seeme more good Be not deceiued If long deuotions sad lookes hard penances bountifull almes would haue carried it without the solid substance of godlinesse these Scribes and Pharises had neuer beene shut out of heauen Consider this therefore deare brethren none but your owne eyes can looke into your hearts we see your faces the world sees your liues if your liues be not holy your hearts sound though your faces were like Angels you shall haue your portion with Deuils Tell not me thou hearest prayest talkest beleeuest How liuest thou What dost thou Shew me thy faith by thy workes saith Iames. It was an excellent answer that good Moses gaue to Lucius in the Church-storie The faith that is seene Socrat. eccl hist is better than the faith that is heard and that of Luther not inferiour that faith doth pinguescere operibus grow fat and well-liking with good workes It is a leane starued carcasse of faith thou pretendest without these If profession be all the Scribes and Pharises are before thee Ransacke thy heart and finde sound affection to God firme resolutions to goodnesse true hatred of sinne ransacke thy life and finde the truth of workes the life of obedience then alone thy righteousnesse exceeds the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharises and thou shalt enter into Heauen Their ostentation followes wherein it is strange to consider how those that cared not to be good should desire yet to seeme good so did these Pharises They would not fast without a smeared face nor giue an almes without a trumpet nor pray without witnesses Scribes Pharises hypocrites They did act a religious part they did but play
Redeemer If thou die not if not willingly thou goest contrary to him and shalt neuer meet him Si per singules diâ—s pro â—o moreremur qui nos dlexit non sic debitum exolueremus Chrys Though thou shouldest euery day die a death for him thou couldest neuer requite his one death and doest thou sticke at one Euery word hath his force both to him and thee he died which is Lord of life and commander of death thou art but a tenant of life a subiect of death and yet it was not a dying but a giuing vp not of a vanishing and airy breath but of a spirituall soule which after separation hath an entire life in it selfe Hee gaue vp the Ghost hee died that hath both ouercome and sanctified and sweetned death What fearest thou Hee hath pull'd out the sting and malignity of death If thou bee a Christian carry it in thy bosome it hurts thee not Darest thou not trust thy Redeemer If hee had not died Death had beene a Tyrant now hee is a slaue O Death where is thy sting O Graue where is thy victory Yet the Spirit of God saith not hee died but gaue vp the ghost The very Heathen Poet saith Hee durst not say that a good man dies It is worth the noting me thinkes that when Saint Luke would describe to vs the death of Annanias and Sapphirâ— hee saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee expired but when Saint Iohn would describe Christs death hee saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He gaue vp the ghost How How gaue he it vp and whither So as after a sort he retained it his soule parted from his body his Godhead was neuer distracted either from soule or body this vnion is not in nature but in person If the natures of Christ could be diuided each would haue his subsistence so there should be more persons God forbid one of the natures thereof may haue a separation in it selfe the soule from the body one nature cannot bee separate from other or either nature from the person If you cannot conceiue wonder the Sonne of God hath wedded vnto himselfe our humanity without all possibility of diuorce the body hangs on the Crosse the soule is yeelded the Godhead is 〈◊〉 vnited to them both acknowledges sustaines them both The soule in his agony foules not the presence of the Godhead the body vpon the Crosse â—â—â—les not the presence of the soule Yet as the Fathers of Chalcedon say truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indiuisibly inseparably is the Godhead with both of these still and euer one and the same person The Passion of Christ as Augustine was the sleepe of his Diuinity so I may say The death of Christ was the sleepe of his humanitie If hee sleepe hee shall doe well said that Disciple of Lazarus Death was too weake to dissolue the eternall bonds of this heauenly coniunction Let not vs Christians goe too much by sense wee may bee firmely knit to God and not feele it thou canst not hope to be so neere thy God as Christ was vnited personally thou canst not feare that God should seeme more absent from thee Quantumcunque te dâ—ieceris haâ—iâ—ior non eris Christo Hieron than he did from his own Son yet was he still one with both body and soule when they were diuided from themselues when he was absent to sense he was present to faith when absent in vision yet in vnion one and the same so will he be to thy soule when hee is at worst Hee is thine and thou are his if thy hold seeme loosened his is not When temptations will not let thee see him he sees thee and possesses thee onely beleeue thou against sense aboue hope and though he kill thee yet trust in him Whither gaue he it vp Himselfe expresses Father into thy hands And This day shalt thou be with mee in Paradise It is iustice to restore whence wee receiue Into thy hands Hee knew where it should be both safe and happy True he might bee bold thou sayest as the Sonne with the Father The seruants haue done so Dauid before him Stephen after him And lest we should not thinke it our common right Father saith hee I will that those thou hast giuen mee may bee with mee euen where I am he wils it therefore it must bee It is not presumption but faith to charge God with thy spirit neither can there euer be any beleeuing soule so meane that he should refuse it all the feare is in thy selfe how canst thou trust thy iewell with a stranger What sudden familiarity is this God hath beene with thee and gone by thee thou hast not saluted him and now in all the haste thou bequeathest thy soule to him On what acquaintance How desperate is this carelesnesse If thou haue but a little money whether thou keepe it thou layest it vp in thy Temple of trust or whether thou let it thou art sure of good assurance sound bonds If but a little land how carefully doest thou make firme conueiances to thy desired heires If goods thy Will hath taken secure order who shall enioy them Wee need not teach you Citizens to make sure worke for your estates If children thou disposest of them in trades with portions onely of thy soule which is thy selfe thou knowest not what shall become The world must haue it no more thy selfe wouldest keepe it but thou knowest thou canst not Sathan would haue it thou knowest not whether he shall thou wouldest haue God haue it and thou knowest not whether he will yea thy heart is now ready with Pharaoh to say Who is the Lord O the fearefull and miserable estate of that man that must part with his soule he knowes not whither which if thou wouldest auoid as this very warning shall iudge thee if thou doe not be acquainted with God in thy life that thou mayest make him the Guardian of thy soule in thy death Giuen vp it must needs be but to him that hath gouerned it if thou haue giuen it to Sathan in thy life how canst thou hope God will in thy death entertaine it Did you not hate me and expell mee out of my fathers house how then come yee to mee now in this time of your tribulation said Iephta to the men of Gilead No no either giue vp thy soule to God while he cals for it in his word in the prouocations of his loue in his afflictions in the holy motion of his spirit to thine or else when thou wouldest giue it he will none of it but as a Iudge to deliuer it to the Tormentor What should God doe with an vncleane drunken prophane proud couetous soule Without holinesse it is no seeing of God Depart from me ye wicked I know ye not Goe to the gods you haue serued See how God is euen with men they had in the time of the Gospell said to the holy name of Israel Depart from vs now in the time of iudgement he
it is euen too little for God what doe we thinke of taking an Inmate into this cottage It is a fauour and happinesse that the God of glorie will vouchsafe to dwell in it alone Euen so O God take thou vp these roomes for thy selfe and inlarge them for the entertainment of thy Spirit Haue thou vs wholly and let vs haue thee Let the world serue it selfe O let vs serue thee with all our hearts God hath set the heart on worke to feare the hands on worke to serue him now that nothing may bee wanting he sets the head on worke to consider and that not so much the iudgements of God yet those are of singular vse and may not be forgotten as his mercies What great things hee hath done for you not against you Hee that looked vpon his owne works and saw they were good and delighted in them delights that we should looke vpon them too and applaud his wisdome power and mercie that shines in them Euen the least of Gods works are worthie of the obseruation of the greatest Angell in heauen but the magnalia Dei the great things he hath done are more worthie of our wonder of our astonishment Great things indeed that hee did for Israel he meant to make that Nation a precedent of mercie that all the world might see what he could doe for a people Heauen and earth conspired to blesse them What should I speake of the wonders of Aegypt Surely I know not whether their preseruation in it or deliuerance out of it were more miraculous Did they want a guide Himselfe goes before them in fire Did they want a shelter His cloud is spred ouer them for a couering Did they want way The sea it selfe shall make it and bee at once a street and a wall to them Did they want bread Heauen it selfe shall powre downe food of Angels Did they want meat to their bread The wind shall bring them whole drifts of Quailes into their Tents Doe they want drinke to both The verie Rocke shall yeeld it them Doe they want suits of apparell Their verie clothes shall not wax old on their backs Doe they want aduice God himselfe shall giue his vocall Oracle betweene the Cherubins Doe they want a Law God shall come downe vpon Sinai and deliuer it in fire thundring smoke earth-quakes and write it with his owne finger in tables of stone Doe they want habitations God shall prouide them a land that flowes with milke and honie Are they persecuted God stands in fire betweene them and their harmes Are they stung to death The brazen Serpent shall cure them Are they resisted The walls of Iericho shall fall downe alone hailestones braine their enemies The Sunne shall stand still in heauen to see Ioshuahs reuenge and victorie Oh great and mightie things that God did for Israel And if any Nation vnder heauen could either parallel or second Israel in the fauours of God this poore little ILAND of ours is it The cloud of his protection hath couered vs. The bloud-red sea of persecution hath giuen way to vs and we are passed it dry-shod The true Manna from heauen is rained downe abundantly about our tents The water of life gusheth forth plenteously to vs The better law of the Gospell is giuen vs from heauen by the hands of his Sonne the walls of the spirituall Iericho are fallen downe before vs at the blast of the trumpets of God and cursed be he that goes about to build them vp againe Now therefore that we may come more close to the taske of this day Let me say to you as SAMVEL to his Israelites Consider with mee what great things the Lord hath done for vs and as one wisht that the enuious had eyes in euerie place so could I seriously wish that all which haue ill will at our Sion had their eares with me but one houre that if they belong not to God they might burst with Iudas which repine with Iudas at this seasonable cost of the precious oyntment of our praises If I should looke backe to the ancient mercies of God and shew you that this Kingdome though diuided from the world was one of the first that receiued the Gospell That it yeelded the first Christian Emperor that gaue peace and honour to the Church The first and greatest lights that shone forth in the darkest of Poperie to all the world and that it was the first kingdome that shooke Antichrist fully out of the saddle I might finde iust matter of praise and exultation but I will turne ouer no other Chronicles but your memorie This day alone hath matter enough of an eternall gratulation For this is the communis terminus wherein Gods fauours meet vpon our heads which therefore represents to vs both what we had and what we haue The one to our sense the other to our remembrance This day was both Queene ELIzABETHS Initium gloriae and King IAMES his Initium regni To her Natalitium salutis as the passion-dayes of the Martyrs were called of old and Natalis Imperij to him These two names shew vs happinesse enough to take vp our hearts for euer And first why should it not bee our perpetuall glorie and reioycing that wee were her subiects Oh blessed Queene the mother of this Nation the nurse of this Church the glorie of womanhood the enuie and example of forraine Nations the wonder of times how sweet and sacred shall thy memorie bee to all posterities How is thy name not Parables of the dust Iob 13.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Iewes speake not written in the earth as Ieremie speaks but in the liuing earth of all loyall hearts neuer to bee razed And though the foule mouthes of our Aduersaries sticke not to call her miseram foeminam as Pope Clement did nor to say of her as Euagrius sayes vncharitably of Iustinian the great Law-giuer ad supplicia iusto Dei iudicio apud inferos luenda profecta est Euagr. l. 5. c. 1. and those that durst bring her on the stage liuing bring her now dead as I haue heard by those that haue seene it into their processions like a tormented ghost attended with fiends and firebrands to the terrour of their ignorant beholders Yet as wee saw shee neuer prospered so well as when shee was most cursed by their Pius 5 so now wee hope she is rather so much more glorious in heauen by how much they are more malicious on earth These arrogant wretches that can at their pleasure fetch Salomon from heauen to hell and Traian and Falconella from hell to heauen Campian and Garnet from earth to heauen Queene Elizabeth from earth to hell shall finde one day that they haue mistaken the keyes and shall know what it is to iudge by being iudged In the meane time in spight of the gates of Rome Memoria iustae in benedictionibus To omit those vertues which were proper to her sex by which she deserued to bee the Queene of women
it at any price At no price sell it It is the fauour of God that it may be bought for any rate It is the Iustice of God that vpon any rate it should not bee sold As buying and selling are opposites in relation So that for which wee must not sell Truth is opposite to that for which we may buy it We must buy it with labour therefore we may not sell it for ease If need be we must buy it with losse therefore we may not sell it for gaine we must buy it with disgrace we may not sell it for honour we must buy it with exile or imprisonment we may not sell it for libertie we must buy it with paine we may not sell it for pleasure We must buy it with death wee may not sell it for life Not for any not for all of these may we sell Truth this were damnosa mercatio as Chrysostome In euery bargaine and sale there must be a proportion now ease gaine honour liberty pleasure life yea worlds of all these are no way counteruailable to Truth For what shall it profit a man to win the whole world and leese his owne soule And hee cannot sell Truth but his soule is lost And if any thing in the world may seeme a due price of Truth it is Peace Oh sweet and deare name of Peace the good newes of Angels the ioy of good men who can but affect thee who can but magnifie thee The God of heauen before whom I stand from whom I speake knowes how oft how deeply I haue mourned for the diuisions of his Church how earnestly I haue set my hand on worke vpon such poore thoughts of reunion as my meannesse could reach but when all is done I still found we may not offer to sell Truth for Peace It is true that there be some Scholasticall and immateriall Truths the infinite subdiuision whereof haue rather troubled than informed Christendome which for the purchase of peace might bee kept in and returned into such safe generalities as minds not vnreasonable might rest in but sold out they may not be If some Truths may be contracted into a narrower roome none may be contracted for Qui diuinis innutriti sunt eloquijs as that Father said Those that are trained vp in diuine truths may not change a syllable for a world Tene quod habes Hold that thou hast is a good rule in all things which if in temporalities it were well obserued we should not haue so many gallants squander away their inheritances to liue Cameleon-like vpon the ayre of fauour But how euer this be too wel obserued in these earthly things by frugall hands which take as if they were quicke hold as if they were dead yet in spiritual graces it can neuer be obserued enough we get Truth we buy it as Iacob did his birth-right to keepe to enioy not to sell againe If therefore the world if Satan shal offer to grease vs in the fist for truth let vs answer him as Simon Peter did Simon the Sorcerer Thy mony perish with thee because thou hast thought the Truth of God may be purchased with mony What shall we say then to those pedling petty-chapmen which wee meet withall in euery market that will be bartring away the truth of God for trifles Surely the forme of our spirituall market is contrary to the ciuill In our ciuill markets there are more buyers than sellers there would be but poore takings if many did not buy of one but in the spirituall there are more Sellers of Truth than Buyers Many a one sels that he neuer had that he should haue had the Truth of God Here one chops away the Truth for Feare or ambition There another lets it goe for the old shooes of a Gebeonitish pretence of Antiquitie Here one parts with it for a painted gilded hobby-horse of an outwardly pompous magnificence of the Church there another for the bables of childish superstition One for the fancies of hope another for the breath of a colloguing Impostor Amongst them all Diminutae sunt veritates à filijs hominum Psal 12. Truth is failed from the children of men Yea as Esay complained in his time Corruit in platea veritas Esa 59.14 Truth is fallen in the streets What a shame it is to see that in this cleere and glorious Sun-shine of the Gospell vnder the pious gouernment of the true Defender of the Faith there should not want some soules that should trucke for the truth of God as if it were some Cheapside or some Smithfield-Commoditie Commutauerunt veritatem Dei They haue changed the Truth of God into a lie Rom. 1.25 And all their care is that they may be deceiued good cheape Whose heart cannot bleed to see so many well-rigg'd and hopefull Barkes of our yong Gentry laden with the most precious merchandises of Nature and Grace hall'd in euery day to these deceitfull Ports of Error the owners partly cheated partly robbed of Truth despoiled of their rich fraight and at last turn'd ouer-boord into a sea of Desperation Oh foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that yee should not obey that ye should not hold fast the Truth Where shall I lay the fault of this miscariage Me thinkes I could aske the Disciples question Nunquid ego Domine Is it we Lord Are there of vs that preach our selues and not Christ Are there that preach Christ and liue him not Woe to the world because of offences It must needs bee that offences should come but woe to the man by whom the offence commeth God forbid that we should be so bad that the seuen hils should not iustifie vs But what euer we be the Truth is still euer it selfe neither the better for our innocence nor worse for our guilt If men be faultie what hath Truth offended Except the sacred word of the Euer-liuing God can mis-guide you we haue set you right We are but Dust and Ashes yet O God giue vs thine humble vassals leaue in an awfull confidence so far to contest with thee the Lord of heauen and earth as to say If we be deceiued thou hast deceiued vs. It is thou that hast spoken by vs to thy people Let God be True and euery man a Lier Whither should we goe from thee Thou hast the words of eternall life Deare Christians our fore-fathers transmitted to vs the intire inheritance of the glorious Gospell of Iesus Christ repurchased by the bloud of their martyrdome Oh let not our ill husbandry impaire it Let not posterity once say they might haue beene happy but for the vnthriftinesse of vs their progenitors Let it not be said that the coldnesse of vs the Teachers and professors of Truth hath dealt with Religion as Rehoboham did with his shields which he found of Gold but lest of Brasse If Truth had no friends we should plead for it but now that we haue before our eyes so powerfull an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christian faith that
death but the poore soules that when they are crushed yeeld the iuyce of teares exhibit bils of complaint throw open the new thornes maintaine the old mounds would these men be content to be quietly racked and spoiled there would be peace In the City not the impure Sodomitish brothels that sell themselues to worke wickednesse not the abominable Pandars not the iugling Cheater not the Counterfeit Vagrant but the Marshall that drawes these to correction Not the deceitfull Merchant that sophisticates his commodities inhanceth prices sels euery inch of what he cannot warrant Time Not the vnconscionable and fraudulent Artisan but the Promoter and the Bench. In the Common-wealth not the cruell robber by sea or land that lies in the way like a spider in a window for a booty for bloud Not the bold night-walker that keepes sauage houres fit for the guilty intentions of his burglaries but the watch that takes him Not the ranke adulterer that neighs after his neighbours wife and thirsts after onely stolne waters but the sworne men that present him Not the traiterous Coyner that in euery stampe reades his own conuiction whiles he still renewes that face against which he offends but the Sheriffe that attaches him Not the vnreformable drunkard that makes a God of his liquor a beast of himselfe and raues and swaggers in his cups but the Constable that punishes him would these Officers conniue at all these villanies there would be peace In the Church not the chaffering Patron or periured Chaplaine not the seducing heretike or seditious schismatike not the scandalous Leuite not the carelesse Questman not the corrupt Officiall but the clamorous Preacher or the rigorous High-Commission In the world lastly Not the ambitious incrochers vpon others dominions not violaters of leagues not vsurpers of mis-gotten titles and dignities not suborners or abettors of conspiracies and traitors but the vnkinde patients that will not recipere ferrum I wis the great Potentates of the world might see a ready way to peace Thus in family countrey city common-wealth Church world the greatest part seeke a licencious peace in a disordered lawlesnesse condemning true iustice of cruelty stripping her of the honour of peace branding her with the censure of troublesome Foolish men speake foolish things Oh noble and incomparable blessing of peace how iniuriously art thou ascribed to vniust neglect Oh diuine vertue of iustice how deseruedly haue the Ancients giuen thee wings and sent thee vp to heauen in a detestation of these earthly indignities whence thou comst not downe at all vnlesse it please that essentiall and infinite Iustice to communicate thee to some choise fauourites It is but a iust word that this Iland hath beene long approued the darling of heauen We haue enioyed peace to the admiration to the enuy of neighbourhood Would we continue it would we traduce it to ours Iustice must doe it for vs. Both Iustice and Peace are from the throne Peace is the Kings Peace and iustly descends from Soueraignty by coÌ„mission let me haue leaue to say with the princely Prophet a word that was too good for the frequent text of a Pope Diligite iustitiam qui iudicatis terram Still ô God giue thy Iudgment to the King and thy Iustice to the Kings son And if any shal offer wrong to the Lords anointed in his person in his seed the worke of that iniustice shall be war yea Bellum Domini the Lords war 2 Sam. 25.28 Then let him who is both the Lord of Hosts and the God of Peace rise vp mightily for his anointed the true King of peace that he who hath graciously said all this while Da pacem Domine Giue peace in our time O Lord may superscribe at the last his iust Trophees with Blessed be the Lord which teacheth my hands to warre and my fingers to fight Ye haue heard of the spirituall Iustice and Peace Ye haue heard of the Ciuill may it please you to mix both of them together My text alone doth it if you doe but with our most accurate Translation reade Righteousnesse for Iustice So shall you see the spirituall disposition of Righteousnes produce the ciuill effect of Peace What is righteousnesse but the sincere vprightnesse of the heart to God in all our wayes He is perfect with God that would be so What need I tell you that this is the way to true inward peace Nil conscire Not to be guilty of ill A cleare heart will be a quiet one There is no feast to a good conscience this is meat musicke welcome It seemes harder that time spirituall honesty should procure euen outward peace Heare wise Salomon By the blessing of the vpright the city is exalted Prou. 11.11 When a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh euen his enemies to be at peace with him Pro. 16.7 Righteousnes exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people Pro. 14.24 It followes then as a iust corâ—llary That the honestest and conscionablest man is the best subiect He may perhaps be plaine perhaps poore perhaps weake but the state is more beholden to his integrity than to the ablest purse than to the strongest arme Whereas the graceles vicious person let him be neuer so plausible a talker neuer so careful an officer neuer so valiant a Leader neuer so officious a Courtier neuer so deepe in subsidies neuer so forward in actions is no other than an enemy to the state which he professes to adore Let no Philosopher tell me of maius vir boâ— usicâ—uis I say from better authority An il man a good subiect that a lewd man can no more be a good subiect than an ill subiect can be a good man Heare this then wheresoeuer ye are ye secret oppressors ye profane scoffers ye foule mouth'd swearers ye close adulterers ye kinde drunkards and who euer come within this blacke list of wickednesse how can ye be loiall whiles you lodge traitors in your bosomes Protest what ye will your sinnes breake the peace and conspire against the sacred Crowne and dignity of your Soueraigne What care we that you draw your sword and vow your bloud and drinke your healths to your Gouenours when in the meane while you prouoke God to anger and set quarrels betwixt your Country and Heauen That I may winde vp this clew It were folly to commend to you the worth of peace we know that the excellency of Princes is expressed by serenity what good hath the earth which God doth not couch vnder the name of Peace Blessed be God and his Annointed we haue long and comfortably tasted the sweetnesse of this blessing the Lillies and Lions of our Salomon haue beene iustly worded with Beati pacifici Would we haue this happinesse perpetuated to vs to posterity Oh let Prince and people meet in the ambition to be Gens iusta a righteous nation righteous euery way First let God haue his owne His owne dayes his owne seruices his feare his loue his all Let
thee to pardon Let Bernard now to conclude shut vp this Stage Not to sinne saith hee is Gods iustice but the iustice of man is the pardon of God To be imputed therefore and to be inherent differ no lesse than God and man Trent and Heauen Wherefore let our Romanists confesse that which both Scriptures and Fathers and all their modester Doctors haue both thought and reported to bee the common voyce of the former Church in all times and we are agreed Otherwise What fellowship hath God with Belial light with darknesse SECTION VIII Concerning Free-will BOrdering vpon this is the point of Free-will To let passe all lighter quarrels of the nature of our will let vs enquire of the power of it and that not in naturall humane or morall things Heere is all peace and silence saue that the words iangle with themselues and when the matter is agreed vpon who would not contemne words as Augustine saith well but in spirituall and diuine matters we do will indeed Aug. de ordine 2. wee will freely neither can wee otherwise will any thing who denies it Aliud est velle aliud velle bonum Bern. Heere is no Physicall determination no violence but to will that which is good or to will well we cannot Wee doe freely beleeue for faith is an act of the will yea and wee doe co-operate with grace neither are wee heerein like to sencelesse stone as Austen truely speakes But whence is all this Is it of our selues or of God Is it of grace or which the Councell of Arausica condemned by the power of nature This must bee our question Both sides like well that speech of Saint Augustine To will freely is the worke of nature to will well of grace to will ill of corruption but when wee come to the poynt the Doctors of Trent are not more subtile than the Iesuits inconstant It is yet good and safe which Bellarmine cites from his Ruardus A good worke as it is a worke Bell. l. 6. de Grat. c. 15. p. 10. is from Free-will as it is good from grace as both a worke and good both from Free-will and grace But that is exceeding ingenuous and truely Euangelicall which the same Bellarmine affirmes against some Semipelagian Catholickes Lib. 6. de gratia c. 4. in titulo In those things which pertain to piety and saluation that mans will can do nothing without the help of Gods grace It is the voyce of Iacob if the Cardinall would hold him there cursed be he that should oppose him I goe on to hope and read and see what stuffe I meete with Lib. 6. c. 15. resp ad Secund. soon after in the same Booke That our conuersation is in the power of Free-will because it may bee alwayes conuerted when it will and yet further That before all grace we haue Free-will euen in the workes of pietie and supernaturall things Before all grace L. sexto de Grat. c. vlt. sent prima better recognitions Now then God doth not preuent vs Aug. de cor Grat. nolentem praeuenit vt velit volentem subsequitur ne frustra velit as Austin saith of old that wee might will but wee preuent God because wee will But left this should seeme too grosse this liberty is tyed vp and is altogether in the same state as the facultie of seeing when a sensible species is absent wee can freely see while the obiect is absent wee can freely will in the absence of grace Let Bellarmine now tell me are we any whit more free to euill than hee faines vs to good Did euer Pelagius dote thus much Wee can will euill but yet vnlesse it be determined vnder some false semblance by the verdict of our practiall iudgement wee will it not But if wee should yeeld him thus much What helpe is this that God giues vs To preuent inspire excite and helpe is of God to incline the will is of our selues How are we not now more beholden to our selues than to God What is this but that Pelagian conceit so oft condemned by Augustine so to separate Free-will from grace as if without it we could doe Aug. Epist 46. 47. Petr. Chrysoâ— ser 114 Christus quicquid suâ—rum virtutum est resert ad gloriam patris homo cuâ—us suum nihil est sibi vendicare quod per Christum resurrexit elaborat Leuiores quasque titillationes superare Bellarm. Scot. 2. d. 28. Dur. ibid. qu. 4. Sessio 6. c. 5. Can. 4. Citat Bell. ibid. Xiphilin Tiber. De grat lib. ar c. 16. Hier. ad Ctesiphoni Ephes 2. Coloss 3. Psal 51. or thinke any thing answerable to the will of God That wee are able by the power of our will to auoid sins that we can ouercome the slighter motions of temptation as Bellarm. speaks that wee can keepe Gods Commandements as Scotus and Durandus that wee can reiect or receiue the inspiration of the Spirit as the Tridentine Fathers that wee can dispose our selues to the receiuing of grace as Thomas and Suarez that wee doe naturally co-operate with grace and make our conuersion effectuall as Tapperus what is it else but to steale glory from God that wee may pranke vp this carion nature of ours Yet it was modestly done of Tyberius who of those many buildings which hee repayred and perfected challenged not one to himselfe but gaue them still the names of those men by whom they were begun to be built But these men challenge the whole house when as they haue not laid so much as one Tyle vpon the roofe Farre bee this shamefull sacriledge from vs when that truely iealous God challenges to himselfe to worke in vs both the will and the deed yea that wee can will to beleeue is his worke as Austen rightly speakes See then hee doth not excite but worke in vs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee works in vs both that which is first to will and that which is last to worke Hierome sayes worthily To will and to runne is mine but without Gods continuall helpe it will not bee mine Without me you can doe nothing saith Christ no not thinke any thing saith Paul Alas what can wee doe who are not lame but dead in sinnes By the influence of Gods Spirit therefore a new life must be created in vs that was not and not the former life excited which was according to that of the Psalmist Create in me a cleane heart and not stirre vp that cleane one I haue Neither indeed is there as yet any place for this Ezek 11.36 The first heart must bee taken out another must bee put in I will take away their stony heart and giue them a heart of flesh saith God by the mouth of Ezechiel Hee will giue it but thou sayest perhaps into their brests which haue predisposed and prepared themselues for the gift Yea contrarily to those that doe not a little resist him The wisedome of the flesh is
and Angels than his owne person And certainly that which was his part hee hath performed hee hath redeemed vs from the curse of the Law and part of the Legall punishment is this temporall reuenge For vs therefore to giue hands to them in this it were no better than perfidious and shamefully traiterous And if it be more than manifest that this cannot be done either by our owne torments inflicted or good workes performed how penall soeuer how much lesse shall it bee effected by others There is none of the Saints which will not iustly take vp that answere of the wiser Virgins There will not be enough for you and for vs. Matth. 25.9 Hâ—aer aduer Cesiphonâ— Non necesse habet conuinci quod sua statim profession blasphemum est But as Hierome said well There is no need of any great conuiction where the opinion carries blasphemy in the face SECTION XI Concerning Purgatory VPon this conceit of Satisfactions depend those other fables of Purgatory and Indulgences pleasant ones both and not vnworthy of a Satyre whereof so oft as I thinke I cannot but remember the scornefull frumpe of Luther alluding to that of the Prophet Domine non possum vesci stercore humano yet if they had onely doubtfully and problematically commended their Purgatory to the Church we might easily haue fauoured them with a conniuence although you cannot say whether it would haue beene more worthy to set the spleene on worke for laughter or the bowels for commiseration But now when Bellarmine teaches vs that it pertaines to the Catholike faith and our Fisher of Rochester will haue it altogether necessary to bee knowne and beleeued we cannot entertaine this presumptuous folly without indignation How miserably the Scriptures are wrested to this purpose if any Schoole-boy could not easily see Hier. Paulin. Plato in Phaedone Itaque quicunque in vita quodammodo medium tenuisseiter coâ—â—periuntur ad Acherontem profecti vehiculit quae vnicuique adsunt in paludem perâ—eniunt Acherusiam ibique habitant purganturque poenas dantes iniuriarum cum purificati c. Euseb de praepar Euang. l. 1. c. vlt. Aug. de Ciuit. Dei l. 21. c. 13. qui Virgil. ibid. citat 2 Cor. 5.1 Apoc. 14.13 Wisd 3.1 he were worthy of whipping As Hierome said of the Heretikes of his time They frame some vnfitting testimonies to their owne sense as if it were a worthy and not rather an abhominable kinde of teaching to depraue sentences and to dragge the Scriptures perforce to their owne bent Neither are the ancient Fathers better vsed in their citation of which Origen Ambrose Hilary Lactantius Nissen Ierome gaue intimation of a quite other Purgatory from the Romish Augustine speakes of it at peraduenture waueringly vncertainly The rest neuer dreamed of any at all But yet I mistake it Now I remember S. Plato is cited by Austen and Eusebius for the Patron of this opinion and who knowes not that S. Homer and S. Virgil are flat for it yet this fire neuer began to burne out but in Gregories time and since that the authority of the Altoran hath not a little mended it this is it that their Rochester ingenuously confessed of old that this Purgatory flame came but lately to the knowledge of the Church but for vs that of S. Paul shall neuer be wrung from our hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If or when this earthly house shall be dissolued we haue a building not made with hands eternall in the heauens And when is this Saint Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saint Iohn shall interpret it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that dye Amodo from henceforth and when is this Amodo To day thou shalt be with me saith Christ euen instantly vpon the egresse of the soule Let them commend their soules to God saith S. Peter But what of that That which doth vtterly quench out this fabulous fire the counterfeit Salomon though true to the Papists addes The soules of the righteous are in the hand of God and no torment shall touch them Behold then either the soules without a Purgatory or a Purgatory without paine But what sticke we at this Let the Popish Doctors together agree among themselues of the fire of their Purgatory of the torments of the Subiect of the duration of the executioners of the condition of the soules there detained and then afterwards let them looke for our assent In the meane time why is it not as free for vs as for Suarez Tam. 4. in Th. d. 46. not to beleeue the walking Ghosts of the dead but metaphorically or why may not we as well deny the ordinary common Purgatory as Bellarmine may deuise a new one more noble and ease-full than the first SECTION XII Concerning Indulgences or Pardons PVRGATORY is guilty of Indulgences as their ROCHESTER confesses Both of them were bred by superstition and nursed by couetousnesse I touch these with a light hand onely It is long since all ingenious Clients of Rome were ashamed of this holy fraud I cannot but commend Cassander which writes thus modestly and truly The abatement or relaxation of Canonicall punishments Cap. de Indulg was of old called Indulgence which at this day is drawne to all priuate satisfactions and the full right of bestowing them withdrawne from all other Bishops to the Bishop of Rome alone About the vse and practise whereof all good men haue desired a correction and moderation as of things which being hitherto ill handled haue giuen the chiefe occasion of this breach in the Church Here therefore it were to be wished that the Popes would yeeld something to the Publike peace Thus farre Cassander De Indulg l. 4. c. 4. With whom agrees Polydore Virgil both of them more worthy of a blacke cole than their honest Rochester whom Gregory of Valence hath so foulely branded Neither hath there wanted some of their own as Bellarmine witnesseth which haue called both the treasure of the Church and Pardons into question neither haue there wanted those which haue boldly and flatly denied them either to bee of vse or to bee at all And indeed who that is not too much intoxicate with the potions of that Harlot can endure that whilst the imputation of Christs merits to the iustifying of a sinner applyed by God to vs is euery where a common scoffing-stocke to these men yet that the merits and sufferings of holy men out of a certaine common treasure should by a man bee imputed to men for the deliuerance of their soules from torment Horae B. virg stations of Rome Rithinic Horae B. Mar. virg ad vsum sacium Who can abide that any mortall man should ouer-satisfie God for his sinnes Who can abide the prodigall grants and shamefull Marts of their Pardons Who can endure to heare that to the carelesse mumbling ouer of some short prayers for if we beleeue their Casuists there is no great need of any intention of minde of any speciall deuotion
present their best seruices to God and yet alas they say they know not what they heare they know not what they doe they know not what returning empty of all hearty edification and onely full of confused intentions and are taught to thinke this sacrifice of fooles meritorious Look their Chemarims vpon the sacred actors in this religious Scene what shall you see but idle Apishnesse in their solemnest worke and either mockery or slumbering Looke into their religious houses what shall you see but a trade of carelesse and lazy holines houres obserued because they must not because they would What doe they but lull piety asleepe with their heartlesse and sleepy Vespers Looke into the priuate closets of their deuout Ignorants what difference shall you see betwixt the Image and the Suppliant If they can heare their beads knacke vpon each other they are not bid to care for hearing their praiers reflect vpon heauen Shortly in all that belongs to God the worke done sufficeth yea meriteth and what need the heart be wrought vpon for a taske of the hand Looke into the melancholike Cels of some austere Recluses there you may finde perhaps an haire-cloth or a whip or an heardle but shew mee true mortification the power of spirituall renouation of the soule How should that bee found there when as that sauing faith which is the onely purger of the heart is barred out as presumptuous and no guest of that kinde allowed but the same which is common to Deuils what Papist in all Christendome hath euer beene heard to pray daily with his family or to sing but a Psalme at home Looke into the vniuersall course of the Catholike life there shall you finde the Decalogue professedly broken besides the ordinary practise of Idolatry and frequence of oathes Who euer saw â—â—dâ— day duly kept in any city village houshold vnder the iurisdiction of Rome Euâ—â— obscure holy-day takes the wall of it and thrusts it into the channell Who sees not obedience to authority so slighted that it stands only to the mercy of humane dispensation and in the rest of Gods Lawes who sees not how foule sinnes passe for veniall and how easily veniall sinnes passe their satisfaction for which a crosse or a drop of holy-water is sufficient amends Who sees not how no place can be left for truth where there is full roome giuen to equiuocation All this though it be harsh to the conscionable man yet is no lesse pleasing to the carnall The way of outward fashionablenesse in religion and inward liberty of heart cannot but seeme faire to nature and especially when it hath so powerfull angariation It is a wonder if but one halfe of Christendome be thus wonne to walke in it Those which are either vngrounded in the principles of Religion or the vnconscionable in the practise are fit to trauell into these miserable errors But though Israel play the harlot yet let not Iudah sinne Come ye not to Gilgal neither goe ye vp to Bethanen SECT XXI FRom the danger of corruption in iudgement let vs turne our eyes to the deprauation of manners which not seldome goes before Apples therefore fall from the tree because they be worme-eaten they are not worm-eaten because they fall and as vsually followes Satan like the Rauen first seizes vpon the eye of vnderstanding and then preyes freely vpon the other carkase We may be bad enough at home certainly we are the worse for our neighbours Old Rome vvas not more iealous of the Grecian and African manners then we haue reason to be of the Roman It were well if wee knew our owne fashions better if we could keepe them What mischiefe haue we amongst vs that we haue not borrowed To begin at our skin vvho knowes not whence we had the varietie of our vaine disguises As if vvee had not wit enough to be foolish vnlesse we were taught it These dresses being constant in their mutabilitie shew vs our masters What is it that we haue not learned of our neighbours saue onely to be proud good cheape vvhom would it not vex to see how that other sexe hath learned to make Antiks and monsters of themselues Whence came their hips to the shoulders and their brests to the nauill but the one from some ill-shap't Dames of France and the other from the worse minded Curtizans of Italy Whence else learned they to dawbe these mud-wals vvith Apothecaries morter and those high washes which are so cunningly lickt on that the vvet napkin of Phryne should be deceiued Whence the frisled and poudred bushes of their borrowed excrement as if they were ashamed of the head of Gods making and proud of the Tire-womans Where learned we that deuillish Art and practice of Duell vvherein men seek honour in blood and are taught the ambition of being glorious butchers of men Where had vve that luxurious delicacie in our feasts in vvhich the nose is no lesse pleased then the palate and the eye no lesse then either wherein the piles of dishes make barricadoes against the appetite and with a pleasing encombrance trouble an hungry ghest Where those formes of ceremonious quaffing in which men haue learned to make Gods of others and beasts of themselues and lose their reason whiles they pretend to do reason where the lawlesnesse mis-called freedome of a wilde tongue that runnes with reines in the necke thorow the bed-chamber of Princes their Closets their Counsell-Tables and spares not the very Cabinet of their brests much lesse can be barr'd out of the most retired secrecie of inferiour greatnesse Where the change of noble attendance and hospitalitie into foure wheeles and some few butterflies Where the Art of dishonestie in practicall Machiauelisme in false equiuocations Where the slight account of that filthinesse which is but condemned as veniall and tolerated as not vnnecessarie Where the skill of ciuill and honourable hypocrisie in those formall complements which doe neither expect beleefe from others nor carie any from our selues Where that vnnaturall villany vvhich though it vvere burnt with fire and brimston from heauen and the ashes of it drowned in the dead sea yet hath made shift to reuiue and cals for new vengeance vpon the actors Where that close Aâ—heisme vvhich secretly laughs God in the face and thinkes it weakenesse to beleeue wisdom to professe any religion Where the bloody and tragicall science of King killing the new diuinity of disobedience and rebellion with too many other euils vvherewith foraine conuersation hath indangered the infection of our peace Lo here deare Countrymen the fruit of your idle gaddings Better perhaps might be had but he was neuer acquainted at home that knowes not our nature to be like vnto fire vvhich if there be any infection in the roome drawes it straight to it selfe Or like vnto iet which omitting all precious obiects gathers vp strawes and dust Ilanders haue beene euer in an ill name Wherefore saue onely for the confluence of forainers vvhich neuer come without the fraight
man could not set forth his foot but into the iawes of death when piles of carcasses were caried to their pits as dung to the fields when it was cruelty in the sicke to admit visitation and loue was little better then murderous And by how much more sad and horrible the face of those euill times looked so much greater proclaime you the mercy of God in this happy freedome which you now enioy that you now throng together into Gods House without feare and breathe in one anothers face without danger The second is the wonderfull plenty of all prouisions both spirituall and bodily You are the Sea all the Riuers of the land runne into you Of the land Yea of the whole world Sea and land conspire to inrich you The third is the priuiledge of carefull gouernment Your Charters as they are large and strong wherein the fauour of Princes hath made exceptions from the generall rules of their municipall lawes so your forme of administration is excellent and the execution of Iustice exemplary and such as might become the mother Citie of the whole earth For all these you haue reason to aske Quid retribuam with Dauid What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits and to excite one another vnto thankfulnesse with that sweet Singer of Israel O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse And as beneficence is a binder these fauours of God call for your confidence What should you doe but euer trust that God whom you haue found so gracious Let him bee your God be ye his people for euer and let him make this free and open challenge to you all If there be any power in heauen or in earth that can doe more for you then hee hath done let him haue your hearts and your selues That they doe good and be rich in good workes And thus from that dutie we owe to God in our confidence and his beneficence to vs we descend to that beneficence which we owe to men expressed in the variety of foure Epithets Doing good being rich in good workes ready to distribute willing to communicate all to one sense all is but beneficence The Scriptures of God lest any Atheist should quarrell at this waste haue not one word superfluous Here is a redoubling of the same words without fault of Tautologie a redoubling of the same sense in diuers words without idlenesse There is feruor in these repetitions not loosenesse as it was wont for this cause to be obserued both in Councels and acclamations to Princes how oft the same word was reiterated that by the frequence they might iudge of the vehemence of affection It were easie to instance in many of this kind as especially Exodus 25.35 Psalme 89.30 Iohn 1.20 and so many more as that their mention could not be voide of that superfluity which we disclaime This heape of words therefore shewes the vehement intention of his desire of good workes and the important necessity of their performance and the manner of this expression inforces no lesse Charge the rich that the doe good and be rich in doing good Harken then yee rich men of the world it is not left arbitrary to you that you may doe good if you will but it is laid vpon you as your charge and duty You must doe good works and woe be to you if you doe not This is not a counsell but a precept Although I might say of God as we vse to say of Princes his will is his command The same necessity that there is of Trusting in God the same is in Doing good to men Let me sling this stone into the brazen foreheads of our aduersaries which in their shamelesse challenges of our Religion dare tell the world we are all for faith nothing for works and that we hold workes to saluation as a Parenthesis to a clause that it may be perfit without them Heauen and earth shall witnesse the iniustice of this calumniation and your consciences shall bee our compurgators this day which shall testifie to you both now and on your death-beds that we haue taught you there is no lesse necessitie of good works then if you should be saued by them and that though you cannot be saued by them as the meritorious causes of your glory yet that you cannot be saued without them as the necessarie effects of that grace which brings glory It is an hard sentence of some Casuists concerning their fellowes that but a few rich mens Confessors shall bee saued I imagine for that they dawbe vp their consciences with vntempered morter and sooth them vp in their sins Let this be the care of them whom it concerneth For vs wee desire to bee faithfull to God and you and tell you roundly what you must trust to Doe good therefore yee rich if euer yee looke to receiue good if euer yee looke to bee rich in heauen bee rich in good works vpon earth It is a shame to heare of a rich man that dyes and makes his will of thousands and bequeaths nothing to pious and charitable vses God and the poore are no part of his heyre We doe not houer ouer your expiring soules on your death-beds as Rauens ouer a carkasse wee doe not begge for a Couent nor fright you with Purgatory nor chaffer with you for that inuisible treasure of the Church whereof there is but one Key-keeper at Rome but wee tell you that the making of friends with this Mammon of vnrighteousnesse is the way to eternall habitations They say of Cyrus that he was wont to say he laid vp treasures for himself whiles he made his friends rich but we say to you that you lay vp treasures for your selues in heauen whiles you make the poore your friends vpon earth We tell you there must be a Date ere there can be a Dabitur that he which giues to the poore lends vpon vse to the Lord which payes large increase for all he borrows and how shal he giue you the Interest of glory where he hath not receiued the Principall of beneficence How can that man euer looke to be Gods heyre in the Kingdome of heauen that giues all away to his earthly heyres and lends nothing to the God of heauen As that witty Grecian said of extreame tall men that they were Cypresse-trees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. faire and tall but fruitlesse so may I say of a strait-handed rich man And these Cypresses are not for the Garden of Paradise none shall euer be planted there but the fruitfull And if the first Paradise had any trees in it onely for pleasure I am sure the second which is in the midst of the new Ierusalem shall haue no tree that beares not twelue fruits Reu. 22.2 yea whose very leaues are not beneficiall Doe good therefore O ye rich and shew your wealth to bee not in hauing but in doing good And if God haue put this holy resolution into any of your hearts take this
with you also from him Doe not talke and purpose and proiect but execute Doe not so doe good that wee may thanke your death-bed for it and not you Late beneficence is better then none but so much as early beneficence is better then late Hee that giues not till hee dyes shewes that hee would not giue if hee could keepe it And God loues a cheerfull giuer That which you giue thus you giue it by your Testament I can scarce say you giue it by your will The good mans praise is Dispersit dedit he disperses his goods not he left them behind him and his distribution is seconded with the retribution of God His righteousnesse endureth for euer Psalme 112.9 Our Sauiour tells vs that our good works are our light Let your light so shine that men may see your good workes which of you lets his light go behinde him and hath it not rather caried before him that he may see which way it goes and which way himselfe goes by it Doe good therefore in your life that you may haue comfort in your death and a Crowne of life after death Now all this haue I spoken not for that I haue ought as S. Paul sayes whereof to accuse my Nation Blessed be God as good workes haue abounded in this age so this place hath superabounded in good workes Bee it spoken to the glory of that God whose all our good works are to the honour of the Gospell to the conuiction of that lewd slander of Solifidianisme London shall vye good workes with any City vpon earth This day and your eares are abundant witnesses As those therefore that by an handfull ghesse at the whole sacke it may please you by this yeeres Briefe to iudge of the rest Wherein I doe not feare lest Enuie it selfe shall accuse vs of a vaine-glorious ostentation Those obstreperous benefactors that like to Hens which cannot lay an egge but they must cackle straight giue no almes but with trumpets lose their thankes with God Almes should be like oyle which though it swimme aloft when it is falne yet makes no noise in the falling not like water that still sounds where it lights But howsoeuer priuate beneficence should not be acquainted with both the hands of the giuer but silently expect the reward of him that seeth in secret yet God should bee a great loser if the publike fruits of charity should bee smothered in a modest secrecy To the praise therefore of that good God which giues vs to giue and rewards vs for giuing to the example of posterity to the honor of our Profession to the incouragement of the wel-deseruing and to the shame of our malicious aduersaries heare what this yeare hath brought forth Here followeth a briefe memoriall of the charitable acts of the City this yeere last past c. And if the season had not hindered your eyes should haue seconded your eares in the comfortable testimonie of this beneficence Euge c. Well done good and faithfull seruants Thus should your Profession bee graced thus should the incense of your almes ascend in pillers of holy smoke into the nostrils of God thus should your talents bee turned into Cities This colour is no other then celestiall and so shall your reward be Thus should the foundation be laid of that building whose wals reach vp vnto heauen whose roofe is finished and laid on in the heauen of heauens in that immortalitie of glory which the God of all glory peace and comfort hath prouided for all that loue him Vnto the participation whereof the same God of ours mercifully bring vs through the Sonne of his loue Iesus Christ the righteous to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite and incomprehensible God be giuen all praise honour and glory now and for euer Amen FINIS THE HONOVR OF THE MARIED CLERGIE MAINTAINED AGAINST THE MALICIOVS CHALLENGES of C.E. Masse-Priest OR THE APOLOGIE WRITTEN SOME yeares since for the Mariage of persons Ecclesiasticall made good against the Cauils of C. E. Pseudo-Catholike Priest Jn three Bookes BY IOS HALL LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD AND MY MOST HONORED Lord GEORGE Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitane one of his Maiesties most Honorable Priuy Councell MOST REVEREND FATHER and no lesse honored Lord IT was my desire and hope to spend the residue of my Time and thoughts in sweet and sacred Contemplation Satan enuying me this happinesse interrupts me by the malice of an importunate Aduersarie Twelue yeares agoe I wrote a little Apologeticall Letter for the Mariage of persons Ecclesiasticall and now thus late when I had almost forgot that I had written it a moody Masse-priest drops out a tedious and virulent Refutation thorow my sides striking at the most Honorable and flourishing Clergie of the whole Christian world labouring not so much for my disgrace what would that auaile him as the dishonour and scorne of our holy Profession in the eyes of our people I could contemne it in silence if the Quarrell were onely mine Now my wrong cannot be distinguished from thousands God and his Church are ingaged in this cause which in my foile could not but sustaine losse neither may I be now silent with safetie without misconstruction Let this hand and Tongue bee no longer mine then they may serue my Master in Heauen and his Spouse on Earth That which I wrote in some three houres he hath answered in three quaternions of yeares and what I vvrote in three leaues hee hath answered in no fewer Pages then 380. Should I follow him in this proportion hee might after some Centuries of yeares expect an answer in Tostatus-hydes whose first word should be Quis legit haec Or if my patience would delay my Reply to the iust paces of his Answer this Volume of his vvould perhaps bee vanished into Grocers shops for waste Paper in thuris piperisue cucullos and vvould no more need answer then now it deserueth one But hearing of the insultation of some Popishly affected who gloried and triumphed in this ACHILLES pro Catholicis I addressed my selfe to the Worke vvith no little indignation and no lesse speed That my selfe-conceited Aduersarie and his seduced abettors may see how little a well-ordered Mariage is guilty of deadding our spirits or slacking our hands At the beginning of this Summers Progresse when it pleased his sacred Maiestie to take notice of this sorie Libell and to question vvith me concerning it I had not so much as read it ouer so newly vvas it come to my hands ere his happy returne be it spoken to the onely glory of him that inabled me I had not only finished this Answer but twice written it ouer with my owne hand and yet made this but the recreation of the weightier businesse of my Calling which now did more then ordinarily vrgeme It was my purpose to haue answered as beseemeth the person
pressed They may containe till they marry and therefore they may euer containe and not marry How easie is it for mee to take vp this loade and lay it vpon my Sauiour which said All men cannot receiue it and vpon his great Apostle of the Gentiles 1 Cor. 7.7 who hath taught vs an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a proper gift which God hath bestowed on some not on others and supposes a necessitie that may be of giuing a Virgin in Mariage Refut p. 65. Sixtly The Husband and Wife are separated vpon discord or disease What shall they doe To liue continent with this man is impossible I answer If onely their will sunders them that must yeeld to necessitie Dissention may not abridge them of the necessarie remedy of sinne If necessitie that finds reliefe in their prayers If they call on him who calls them to continencie by this Hand of his hee will heare them and inable them to persist And why not then in the necessitie of our Vowes This is a necessitie of our owne making that is of his Hee hath bound himselfe to keepe his owne promises not ours SECT XIV Refut p. 66. WHiles his Fellow or Master Maldonate talkes of confuting Austin in this very point by Austin himselfe this man will confute vs by him whom he no otherwise cites for himself then his Ancestor Pelagius cites Lactantius Hilary Ambrose Hierome and Austin in this case The thing saith he is in our power and though it require the assistance of Gods grace which still preuenteth our will yet that hinders not but that we may if we list liue chaste all the dayes of our life as wee may vpon the same termes beleeue in God and loue him What impudency is this to make him the Patrone of the power of our Free-will to God whom all the World knowes to haue beene Malleus Pelagianorum and who in so many Volumes damnes this conceit to the Pit of Hell euermore so establishing the naturall facultie and vse of the will against Stoicall necessitie as that he abandons any power of the act or exercise of it vnto good without grace against humane presumption When hee speakes of this here is not a cold and feeble preuention but an effectuall in operation yea a powerfull creation Since my Refuter then will needs bee paralleling our abilitie of containing and of beleeuing let him heare that holy Father say i i Aug. de Nat. Grat. 25. Non solum Deus posse nostrum c. God doth not onely giue and helpe our power to good but workes in vs both our will and working of good And elsewhere k k Cont. duâ—s Epist Pelag. Hee is drawne to Christ to whom it is giuen to beleeue in Christ Power is therefore giuen vnto them to bee made the sonnes of God which beleeue in him when this is giuen them to beleeue in him And so farre is he from saying with my Detector and his Bellarmine that who lists may beleeue when he lists that he reasons thus Quid mihi ostendis c l l Aug. l. 4. cont Iul c 6. Qui igitur faciouâ—s homâ—nes ipse ad obedientiam pietatis humanas liberat voluntates sed quare istos homines oâ—es facit istos non facit apud quèm non est acceptio personarum Respondet Apost O homo what dost thou tell me of thy Free-will which can neuer be free to do good except thou be a Sheepe of God He therefore that makes men to be his sheepe frees the wills of men to the obedience of Piety But why doth he make these men sheepe and those not since with him is no respect of persons The Apostle answers O homo c. Thus he Either therefore let him neuer cite S. Austin against vs in this point or else wee must bee forced to countercite him once more then vvee meant m m Ibid. Refut p. 69. Planè possumus dicere frontem haereticorum non esse frontem And if there could be any more on that holy Fathers score Father Maldonate hath paid it for vs. To conclude therefore for him Arbitrium humanae voluntatis nequaquam destruimus Wee know no man doth well against his will God was not to make Virgins by force and the same goodnesse that giues Chastitie to the maried continues Virginity to the single What of all this Therefore saith he it is as well in the power of all single persons to bee alwayes continent as of the maried to keepe coniugall Chastitie An illation and conclusion worthy of my Refuters Logike and Diuinity As if he argued thus for himselfe The same God that disposes of Orders disposes of the Popedome therefore I may as well looke to weare three Crownes as one shauen Or the same God giues both Life and Grace and Glory Therefore all those that liue the naturall life may also liue the spirituall and glorious Who sees not the reason of these vnlike Coniugall honesty is absolutely commanded of God to all maried persons perpetuation of Virginitie hee grants was neuer commanded the breach of coniugall honestie is of it selfe a sinne to all Mariage is not so Against the one therefore we may absolutely pray in n n Christi erit si fides aderit quae impetrat à iuuente quod iusserit Aug. de adult con l. 2. c. 19. Refut p. 71. 72 73. faith against the other but with condition God hath promised to deliuer vs from our sins not from our Mariage As for Saint Ambrose we easily grant him large in the praise of Virginitie But no one word of al his cited authorities toucheth our Assertion The helps of the Church the seruice of Angels the merit of the Prayers of our Sauiour wee yeeld to bee good meanes of continence where it is intended but that it is meant to all commers wee deny Let the successe speake Neither doe we taxe the Vow for any improbitie in it selfe but for the incapacitie of the persons The Vow were good if the men were not either euill or vnfit And here o o Refut p. 71. by the way whereas C. E. like a masterly Monitor wishes Master Hall to reade the diuine workes of Ambrose concerning this subiect Master Hall is bold in requirall to tell C. E. that he knowes not Ambrose and to teach him since he hath not learn'd it of other Masters that the Booke which he so oft and so solemnely cites for Ambroses p p Cited foure times by C. E. vpon weighty occasions Refut p. 34. 43. 48. 50. Ad Virginem lapsam is a noted Counterfeit a true Nouation which his graue ignorance might haue heard from his Bellarmine and Posseuine And how much better is that other Tract which hee q q P. 41. Refut Vide Censur Rob. Coci p. 129. cites from Ambrose Epist 82. wherein mention is made of * Venice which was not extant till Ambrose was not And the Commentarie of Ambrose vpon 1. Tim. 3.
day light the first If man had been he might haue seene all lightsome but whence it had comne he could not haue seene as in some great Pond we see the bankes full we see not the Springs from vvhence that water ariseth Thou madest the Sunne madest the Light vvithout the Sunne before the Sunne that so Light might depend vpon thee and not vpon thy Creature Thy power will not be limited to meanes It was easie to thee to make an Heauen without Sunne Light vvithout an Heauen Day without a Sunne Time without a day It is good reason thou shouldest be the Lord of thine owne workes All meanes serue thee vvhy doe we weake vvretches distrust thee in the want of those meanes vvhich thou canst either command or forbeare How plainly wouldest thou teach vs that we Creatures need not one another so long as we haue thee One day we shall haue light againe vvithout the Sun Thou shalt be our Sunne thy presence shall be our light Light is sowne for the righteous The Sun and Light is but for the World below it selfe thine onely for aboue Thou giuest this light to the Sunne vvhich the Sunne giues to the World That light which thou shalt once giue vs shall make vs shine like the Sunne in glory Now this light which for three daies was thus dispersed through the whole heauens it pleased thee at last to gather and vnite into one body of the Sun The whole Heauen was our Sun before the Sun was created but now one Starre must be the Treasury of Light to the Heauen and E rth How thou louest the vnion and reduction of all things of one kind to their own head and centre so the Waters must by thy command be gathered into one place the sea so the vpper Wâ—ters must be seuered by these Aerie limits from the lower so heauy substances hasten downeward and light mount vp so the generall light of the first dayes must be called into the compasse of one Sunne so thou wilt once gather thine Elect from all coasts of Heauen to the participation of one glory Why doe we abide our thoughts and affections scattered from thee from thy Saints from thine anointed Oh let this light which thou hast now spread abroad in the hearts of all thine once meet in thee We are as thy Heauens in this their first imperfection be thou our Sunne vnto which our light may be gathered Yet this light was by thee inter-changed with darknes which thou mightst as easily haue commanded to be perpetuall The continuance euen of the best things cloyeth wearieth there is nothing but thy selfe wherin there is not satiety So pleasing is the vicissitude of things that the inter-course euen of those occurrents which in their own nature are lesse worthy giues more contentment then the vn-altered estate of better The day dyes into night and rises into the morning againe that we might not expect any stability here below but in perpetuall successions It is alwayes day with thee aboue the night fauoureth only of mortality Why are we not here spiritually as we shall be hereafter Since thou hast made vs Children of the light and of the day teach vs to walke euer in the light of thy presence not in the darknesse of error and vnbeliefe Now in this thine inlightned frame how fitly how wisely are all the parts disposed that the Method of the Creation might answer the Matter and the Forme both Iâ— hold all purity aboue below the dregs and lees of all The higher I goe the more perfection each Element superior to other not more in place then dignity that by these staires of ascending perfection our thoughts might climbe vnto the top of all glory and might know thine imperiall Heauen no lesse glorious aboue the visible then those aboue the earth Oh how miserable is the place of our pilgrimage in respect of our home Let my soule tread awhile in the steps of thine owne proceedings and so thinke as thou wroughtest When we vvould describe a man vve begin not at the feet but the head The head of thy Creation is the heauen how high how spacious how glorious It is a wonder that we can looke vp to so admirable a height and that the very eye is not tyred in the way If this ascending line could be drawn right forwards some that haue calculated curiously haue found it fiue hundred yeares iourney vnto the starrie Heauen I doe not examine their Art O Lord I vvonder rather at thine which hast drawne so large a line about this little point of earth For in the plainest rules of Art and experience the Compasse must needs be six times as much as halfe the height We thinke one Iland great but the Earth vnmeasurably If wee were in that Heauen with these eyes the whole earth were it equally inlightned would seeme as little to vs as now the least Starre in the firmament seemes to vs vpon earth And indeed how few Starres are so little as it And yet how many void and ample spaces are there beside all the Starres The hugenesse of this thy worke O God is little inferiour for admiration to the maiesty of it But oh what a glorious heauen is this which thou hast spred ouer our heads With how precious a Vault hast thou walled in this our inferiour world What vvorlds of light hast thou set aboue vs Those things which we see are wondrous but those which wee beleeue and see not are yet more Thou dost but set out these vnto view to shew vs what there is within How proportionable are thy workes to thy selfe Kings erect not cottages but set forth their magnificence in sumptuous buildings so hast thou done O King of glory If the lowest pauement of that Heauen of thine be so glorious what shall wee thinke of the better parts yet vnseene And if this Sun of thine be of such brightnesse and maiestie oh what is the glory of the Maker of it And yet if some other of thy Starres were let downe as low as it those other Starres would be Sunnes to vs which now thou hadst rather to haue admired in their distance And if such a skie be prepared for the vse and benefit euen of thine Enemies also vpon Earth how happy shall those eternall Tabernacles be which thou hast sequestred for thine owne Behold then in this high and stately building of thine I see three stages This lowest Heauen for Fowles for Vapours for Meteors The second for the Starres The third for thine Angels and Saints The first is thine outward Court open for all The second is the body of thy couered Temple wherein are those Candles of Heauen perpetually burning The third is thine Holy of Holâ—â—â— In the first is Tumult and Vanity In the second Immutability and Rest In the third Glory and Blessednesse The first we feele the second wee see the third we beleeue In these two lower is no felicitie for neither the Fowles nor Starres are
fleshly forehead of authority dant vs how shall we stand before the dreadfull Tribunall of Heauen Moses maruels to see Israel run away from their Guide as from their Enemie and lookes backe to see if hee could discerne any new cause of feare and not conceiuing how his myld face could affray them cals them to stay and retyre Oh my people whom doe ye flee It is for your sakes that I ascended stayd came downe Behold here are no armed Leuites to strike you no Amalekites no Aegyptians to pursue you no fires and thunders to dismay you I haue not that rod of God in my hand which you haue seene to command the Elements or if I had so farre am I from purposing any rigor against you that I now lately haue appeased God towards you and lo here the pledges of his reconciliation God sends me to you for good and do you run from your best friend Whither will ye go from me or without me Stay and heare the charge of that God from whom yee cannot flee They perceiue his voyce the same though his face were changed and are perswaded to stay and returne and heare him whom they dare not see and now after many doubtfull paces approching neerer dare tell him he was growne too glorious Good Moses finding that they durst not looke vpon the Sunne of his face clouds it with a vayle Choosing rather to hide the worke of God in him then to want opportunity of reuealing Gods will to his people I doe not heare him stand vpon termes of reputation if there be glory in my face God put it there he would not haue placed it so conspicuously if he had meant it should be hid Hide ye your faces rather which are blemished with your sinne and looke not that I should wrong God and my selfe to seeme lesse happy in fauor of your weaknesse But without all selfe respects he modestly hides his glorified face cares not their eyes should pierce so far as to his skin on condition that his words may pierce into their eares It is good for a man sometimes to hide his graces Some Talents are best improued by being layd vp Moses had more glory by his Vaile then by his face Christian modesty teaches a wise man not to expose himselfe to the fayrest shew and to liue at the vtmost pitch of his strength There is many a rich Stone laid vp in the bowels of the Earth many a fayre Pearle laid vp in the bosome of the Sea that neuer was seene nor neuer shall bee There is many a goodly Starre which because of height comes not within our account How did our true Moses with the Vayle of his flesh hide the glory of his Dietie and put on vilenesse besides the laying aside of Maiesty and shut vp his great and Diuine Miracles with See you tell no man How farre are those spirits from this which care only to be seene and wish onely to dazle others eyes with admiration not caring for vnknowne Riches But those yet more which desire to seeme aboue themselues whether in parts or graces whose Vayle is fairer then their skinne Modest faces shall shine through their Vailes when the vain-glorious shall bewray their shame through their couering That God which gaue his Law in smoke deliuered it againe through the Vayle of Moses Israel could not looke to the end of that which should be abolished for the same cause had God a Vayle vpon his face which hid his presence in the Holy of Holies Now as the Vayle of God did rend when he said It is finished so the Vayle of Moses then pulled off We cleerely see Christ the end of the Law Our Ioshua that succeeded Moses speakes to vs bare-faced what a shame is it there should bee a Vayle vpon our hearts when there is none on his face When Moses went to speake with God he pulled off his Vayle It was good reason he should present to God that face which he had made There had beene more need of his Vayle to hide the glorious face of God from him then to hide his from God but his faith and thankfulnesse serue for both these vses Hypocrites are contrary to Moses he shewed his worst to men his best to God they shew their best to men their worst to God but God sees both their Vayle and their face and I know not whether he hates their vayle of dissimulation or their face of wickednesse Of NADAB and ABIHV THat God which shewed himselfe to men in fire when hee deliuered his Law would haue men present their Sacrifices to him in fire and this fire hee would haue his owne that there might bee a iust circulation in this creature as the water sends vp those vapours which it receiues downe againe in raine Hereupon it was that fire came downe from God vnto the Altar That as the charge of the Sacrifice was deliuered in fire and smoake so God might signifie the acceptation of it in the like fashion wherein it was commanded The Baalites might lay ready their Bullocke vpon the wood and water in their Trench but they might sooner fetch the blood out of their bodies and destroy themselues then one flash out of Heauen to consume the Sacrifice That Deuill which can fetch downe fire from Heauen either maliciously or to no purpose although he abound with fire and did as feruenly desire this fire in emulation to God as euer he desired mitigation of his owne yet now hee could no more kindle a fire for the Idolatrous Sacrifice then quench the flames of his own torment Herein God approues himselfe only worthy to be sacrificed vnto that he creates the fire of his owne seruice whereas the impotent Idols of the Heathen must fetch fire from their neighbors Kitchen and themselues are fit matter for their borrowed fire The Israelites that were led too much with sense if they had seene the Bullocke consumed with a fire fetcht from a common hearth could neuer haue acknowledged what relation the Sacrifice had to God had neuer perceiued that God tooke notice of the Sacrifice but now they see the fire comming out from the presence of God they are conuinced both of the power and acceptation of the Almightie They are at once amazed and satisfied to see the same God answer by fire which before had spoken by fire God doth not lesse approue our Euangelicall Sacrifices then theirs vnder the Law but as our Sacrifices are spirituall so are the signes of his acceptation Faith is our guide as Sense was theirs Yea euen still doth God testifie his approbation by sensible euidences when by a liuely faith and feruent zeale our hearts are consecraten to God then doth this heauenly fire come down vpon our Sacrifices then are they holy liuing acceptable This flame that God kindled was not as some momentany bonefire for a sudden and short triumph nor as a domesticall fire to goe out with the day but is giuen for a perpetuity and
ambitious If they had not thought it an high preferment they had neuer so much enuied the office of Aaron What shall wee thinke of this change Is the Euangelicall ministration of lesse worth then the Leuiticall Whiles the Testament is better is the seruice worse How is it that the great thinke themselues too good for this imployment How is it that vnder the Gospell men are disparaged with that which honoured them vnder the Law that their ambition and scorne meet in one subiect These twelue rods are not laid vp in seuerall cabinets of their owners but are brought forth and laid before the Lord. It is fit God should make choice of his owne attendants Euen wee men hold it iniurious to haue seruants obtruded vpon vs by others neuer shall that man haue comfort in his Ministerie whom God hath not chosen The great Commander of the world hath set euery man in his station To one he hath said Stand thou in this Tower and watch To another Make thou good these Trenches To a third Digge thou in this Mine Hee that giues and knowes our abilities can best set vs on worke This rod was the pastorall staffe of Aaron the great Shepheard of Israel God testifies his approbation of his charge by the fruit That a rod cut off from the tree should blossome it was strange but that in one night it should beare buds blossomes fruit and that both ripe and hard it was highly miraculous The same power that reuiues the dead plants of winter in the Spring doth it here without earth without time without sunne that Israel might see and grant It was no reason his choice should be limited whose power is vnlimited Fruitfulnesse is the best argument of the calling of God Not only all the plants of his setting but the very boughs cut off from the body of them will flourish And that there may not want a succession of increase here are fruit blossomes buds both proofe and hope inseparably mixed It could not but bee a great comfort vnto Aaron to see his rod thus miraculously flourishing to see this wonderfull Testimonie of Gods fauour and Election Sure he could not but thinke Who am I O God that thou shouldest thus choose me out of all the Tribes of Israel My weaknesse hath beene more worthy of thy rod of correction then my rod hath been worthy of these blossomes How hast thou magnified me in the sight of all thy people How able art thou to vphold my imbecilitie with the rod of thy support how able to defend me with the rod of thy power who hast thus brought fruit out of the saplesse rod of my profession That seruant of God is vvorthy to faint that holds it not a sufficient encouragement to see the euident proofes of his Masters fauour Commonly those fruits which are soone ripe soone wither but these Almonds of Aarons rod are not more early then lasting the same hand which brought them out before their time preserued them beyond their time and for perpetuall memorie both rod and fruit must bee kept in the Arke of God The Tables of Moses the rod of Aaron the Manna of God are monuments fit for so holy a shrine The Doctrine Sacraments and gouernment of Gods people are precious to him and must be so to men All times shall see and wonder how his ancient Church was fed taught ruled Moses his rod did great miracles yet I finde it not in the Arke The rod of Aaron hath this priuiledge because it caried the miracle still in it selfe whereas the wonders of that other rod were passed Those monuments would God haue continued in his Church which carie in them the most manifest euidences of that which they import The same God which by many transient demonstrations had approued the calling of Aaron to Israel will now haue a permanent memoriall of their coniunction that whensoeuer they should see this relike they should be ashamed of their presumption and infidelitie The name of Aaron was more plainely written in that rod then the sin of Israel was in the fruit of it and how much Israel finds their rebellion beaten with this rod appeares in their present relenting and complaint Behold we are dead we perish God knowes how to pull downe the biggest stomack and can extort glory to his owne Name from the most obstinate gainsayers Of the Brazen Serpent SEuen times already hath Israel mutined against Moses and seuen times hath either been threatned or punished yet now they fall to it afresh As a teastie man finds occasion to chafe at euery trifle so this discontented people either finde or make all things troublesome One while they haue no water then bitter One while no God then one too many One while no bread then bread enough but too light One while they will not abide their Gouernours then they cannot abide their losse Aaron and Miriam were neuer so grudged aliue as they are bewailed dead Before they wanted Onions Garlicke Flesh-pots now they want Figs Vines Pomegranats Corne. And as crabid children that cry for euery thing they can thinke of are whipped by their wise mother So God iustly serues these fond Israelites It was first their way that makes them repine They were faine to goe round about Idumea the iourney was long and troublesome They had sent intreaties to Edom for licence of passage the next way reasonably submissely It was churlishly denied them Esau liues still in his posteritie Iacob in Israel The combate which they began in Rebeccaes belly is not yet ended Amalec which was one limme of Esau followes them at the heeles The Edomite which was another meets them in the face So long as there is a world there will bee opposition to the chosen of God They may come at their perill the way had beene neerer but bloody they dare not goe it and yet complaine of length If they were afraid to purchase their resting place with warre how much lesse would they their passage What should God doe with impatient men They will not goe the neerest way and yet complaine to goe about Hee that will passe to the promised Land must neither stand vpon length of way nor difficulty Euery way hath his inconueniencies the neerest hath more danger the farthest hath more paine Either or both must be ouercome if euer we will enter the rest of God Aaron and Miriam were now past the danger of their mutinies for want of another match they ioyne God with Moses in their murmurings Though they had not mentioned him they could not seuer him in their insurrection For in the causes of his owne seruants he challenges euen when he is not challenged What will become of thee O Israel when thou makest thy Maker thine enemy Impatience is the cousin to Frensie this causes men not to care vpon whom they run so they may breathe out some reuenge How oft haue we heard men that haue beene displeased by others teare the name of their Maker
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
he indure it to be crossed so much as indirectly It is lesse danger to steale any thing from God then his glory As a Prince which if we steale or clip his coyne may pardon it but if we goe about to rob him of his Crowne will not be appeased There is nothing that we can giue to God of whom wee receiue all things that which he is content to part with he giues vs but he will not abide we should take ought from him which he would reserue for himselfe It is all one with him to saue with many as with few but he rather chooses to saue by few that all the victory may redound to himself O God what art thou the better for our praises to whom because thou art infinite nothing can be added It is for our good that thou wouldst be magnified of vs Oh teach vs to receiue the beâ—â—fâ—t of they mercifull fauours and to returne thee the thanks Gideons Army must be lessened Who are so fit to be cashiered as the fearâ—◠〈◊〉 bids him therefore proclaime licence for all faint hearts to leaue the field An ill instrument may shame a good worke God will not glorifie himselfe by cowards As the timerous shall be without the gates of heauen so shall they be without the lists of Gods field Although it was not their courage that should saue Israel yet without their courage God would not serue himselfe of them Christianity requires men for if our spirituall difficulties meet not with high spirits in stead of whetting our fortitude 〈◊〉 quaile it Dauids royall Band of Worthies was the type of the forces of the Church all valiant men and able to incounter with thousands Neither must wee be strong onely but acquainted with our owne resolutions not out of any carnal presumption but out of a faithful reliance vpon the strength of God in whom when wee are weake then wee are strong Oh thou white liuer doth but a foule word or a frowne scarre thee from Christ Doth the losse of a little land oâ—â—â—uer disquiet thee Doth but the sight of the Midianites in the valley strike thee Home then home to the world thou art not then for the conquering Band of Christ If thou canst not resolue to follow him through infamy prisons racks iybbers flames depart to thine house and saue thy life to thy losse Me thinks now Israel should haue complained of indignity and haue said Why shouldst thou thinke O Gideon that there can be a cowardly Israelite And if the experience of the power and mercy of God be not enough to make vs fearelesse yet the sense of seruitude must needs haue made vs resolute for who had not rather to be buried dead then quicke Are we not fain to hide our heads in the caues of the earth and to make our graues our houses Not so much as the very light that we can freely inioy the tyrannie of death is but short and easie to this of Midian and yet what danger can there be of that sith thou hast so certainly assured vs of Gods promise of victory and his miraculous confirmation No Gideon those hearts that haue brought vs hither after thy colours can as well keepe vs from retiring But now who can but blesse himselfe to finde of two and thirty thousand Israelites two and twenty thousand cowards Yet al these in Gideons march made as faire affourish of courage as the boldest Who can trust the faces of men that sees in the Army of Israel aboue two for one timerous How many make a glorious shew in the warfaring Church which then they shall see danger of persecution shall shrinke from the Standard of God Hope of satifie examples of neighbours desire of praise feare of censures coaction of lawes fellowship of friends draw many into the field which so soone as euer they see the Aduersary repent of their conditions if they may cleanly escape wil be gone early from Mount Gilead Can any man be offended at the number of these shrinkers when he sees but ten thousand Israelites left of two and twenty thousand in one morning These men that would haue been ashamed to goe away by day now drop away by night And if Gideon should haue called any one of them backe and said Wilt thou flee would haue made an excuse The darknesse is a fit vaile for their palenesse or blushing fearefulnesse cannot abide the light None of these thousands of Israel but would haue been loth Gideon should haue seene his face whiles he said I am fearfull Very shame holds some in their station whose hearts are already fled And if we cannot endure that men should be witnesses of that feare which we might liue to correct how shall wee abide once to shew our fearefull heads before that terrible Iudge when he cals vs forth to the punishment of our feare Oh the vanity of foolish hypocrites that run vpon the terrors of God whiles they would auoid the shame of men How doe wee thinke the small remainder of Israel looked when in the next morning-muster they found themselues but ten thousand left How did they accuse their timerous Countreymen that had left but this handfull to encounter the millions of Midian and yet still God complaines of too many and vpon his triall dismisses nine thousand seuen hundred more His first triall was of the valour of their mindes his next is of the ability of their bodies Those which besides boldnesse are not strong patient of labour and thirst willing to stoope content with a little such were those that tooke vp water with their hand are not for the select band of God The Lord of Hosts wil serue himself of none but able Champions If he haue therfore singled vs into his combat this very choyce argues that he finds that strength in vs which we cannot confesse in our selues How can it but coÌ„fort vs in our great trials y if the Searcher of hearts did not finde vs fit he would neuer honour vs with so hard an imployment Now when there is not scarce left one Israelite to euery thousand of the Midianites it is seasonable with God to ioyne battell When God hath stripped vs of all our earthly confidence then doth he finde time to giue vs victory and not till then lest he should be a loser in our gaine like as at last he vnclothes vs for our body that he may cloath vs vpon with glory If Gideon feared when he had two and thirthy thousand Israelites at his heels is it any wonder if he feared when all these were shrunke into three hundred Though his confirmation were more yet his meanes were abated Why was not Gideon rather the Leader of those two and twenty thousand run-awayes then of these three hundred souldiers Oh infinite mercy and forbearance of God that takes not vantage of so strong an infirmity but in stead of casting encourages him That wise prouidence hath prepared a dreame in the head of one Midianite an
posterity of Beniamin dâ—generated that their Gibeah should be no lesse wicked then populous The first signe of a setled godlesnesse is that a Leuite is suffered to lye without doores If God had been in any of their houses his seruant had not been excluded Where no respect is giuen to Gods messengers there can be no Religion Gibeah was a second Sodome euen there also is another Lot which is therefore so much more hospitall to strangers because himselfe was a stranger The Oast as well as the Leuite is of Mount Ephraim Each man knowes best to commiserate that euill in others which himselfe hath passed thorow All that professe the Name of Christ are Countrymen and yet strangers here below How cheerefully should we entertaine each other when we meet in the Gibeah of this in hospitall world This good old man of Gibeah came home late from his worke in the fields The Sunne was set ere he gaue ouer And now seeing this man a stranger an Israelite a Leuite an Ephramite and that in his way to the house of God to take vp his lodging in the street hee proffers him the kindnesse of his house-roome Industrious spirits are the fittest receptacles of all good motions whereas those which giue themselues to idle and loose courses doe not care so much as for themselues I heare of but one man at his worke in all Gibeah the rest were quaffing and reuelling That one man ends his worke in a charitable entertainement the other end their play in a brutish beastlinesse and violence These villanies had learned both the actions and the language of the Sodomites One vncleane diuell was the prompter to both and this honest Ephramite had learnt of righteous Lot both to intreat and to proffer As a perplexed Mariner that in a storme must cast away something although precious so this good Oast rather will prostitute his daughter a virgin together with the concubine then this prodigious villany should be offered to a man much more to a man of God The detestation of a fouler sinne drew him to ouer-reach in the motion of a lesser which if it had been accepted how could he haue escaped the partnership of their vncleannesse and the guilt of his daughters rauishment No man can wash his hands of that sinne to which his will hath yeelded Bodily violence may be inoffensiue in the patient voluntary inclination to euill though out of feare can neuer be excusable yet behold this wickednesse is too little to satisfie these monsters Who would haue looked for so extreame abomination from the loynes of Iacob the wombe of Rachel the sonnes of Beniamin Could the very Iebusites their neighbors be euer accused of such vnnaturall outrage I am ashamed to say it Euen the worst Pagans were Saints to Israel What auailes it that they haue the Ark of God in Shilo while they haue Sodom in their streets that the law of God is in their fringes whiles the diuell is in their hearts Nothing but hell it selfe can yeeld a worse creature then a depraued Israelite the very meanes of his reformation are the fuel of his wickednesse Yet Lot sped so much better in Sodom then his Ephraimite did in Gibeah by how much more holy guests he entertained There the guests were Angels heere a sinfull man There the guests saued the oast here the oast could not saue the guest from burtish violence Those Sodomites were stricken with outward blindnes and defeated These Beniamites are onely blinded with lust and preuaile The Leuite comes forth perhaps his coat saued his person from this villany who now thinks himselfe wel that he may haue leaue to redeeme his own dishonour with his concubines If he had not loued her dearely he had neuer sought her so farre after so foule a sinne Yet now his hate of that vnnaturall wickednes ouercame his loue to her Shee is exposed to the furious lust of barbarous Ruffians and which he misdoubted not abuseth to death Oh the iust and euen course which the Almighty Iudge of the world holds in all his retribulations This woman had shamed the bed of a Leuit by her former wantonnesse she had thus far gone smoothly away with her sinne her father harboured her her husband forgaue her her owne heart found no cause to complaine because shee smarted not now when the world had forgotten her offence God cals her to reckoning and punishes her with her owne sinne She had voluntarily exposed her selfe to lust now is exposed forceably Adultery was her sin adultery was her death What smiles soeuer wickednesse casts vpon the heart whiles it sollicites it will owe vs a displeasure and proue it selfe a faithfull Debter The Leuite looked to finde her humbled with this violence not murdered and now indignation moues him to adde horrour to the fact Had not his heart been raysed vp with an excesse of desire to make the crime as odious as it was sinful his action could not be excuseÌ„ Those hands that might not touch a carkais now carue the corps of his own dead wife into morsels and send these tokens to all the Tribes of Israel that when they should see these gobbets of the body murdered the more they might detest the murderers Himselfe puts on cruelty to the dead that he might draw them to a iust reuenge of her death Actions nororiously villanous may iustly countenance an extraordinary meanes of prosecution Euery Israelite hath a part in a Leuites wrong No Tribe hath not his share in the carcasse and the reuenge The desolation of BENIMIN THese morsels could not chuse but cut the hearts of Israel with horror and compassion horror of the act and compassion of the sufferer and now their zeale drawes them together either for satisfaction or reuenge Who would not haue looked that the hands of Beniamin should haue been first vpon Gibeah and that they should haue readily sent the heads of the offenders for a second seruice after the gobbets of the concubine But now in stead of punishing the sinne they patronize the actors and will rather die in resisting iustice then liue and prosper in furthering it Surely Israel had one Tribe too many all Beniamin is turned into Gibeah the sons not of Beniamin but of Belial The abetting of euill is worse then the commission This may be vpon infirmity but that must be vpon resolution Easie punishment is too much fauour to sinne conniuence is much worse but the defence of it and that vnto bloud is intollerable Had not these men been both wicked and quarrellous they had not drawne their swords in so foule a cause Peaceable dispositions are hardly drawn to fight for innocence yet these Beniaminites as if they were in loue with villanie and out of charity with God will be the wilfull Champions of lewdnesse How can Gibeah repent them of that wickednesse which all Beiamin will make good in spight of their consciences Euen where sinne is suppressed it will rise but where it is
posteritie Happy is that childe whose progenitors are in heauen hee is left an inheritor of blessing together with estate whereas wicked ancestors lose the thanke of a rich patrimonie by the curse that attends it He that thinkes because punishment is deferd that God hath forgiuen or forgot his offence is vnacquainted with iustice and knowes not that time makes no difference in eternity The Amalekites were wicked Idolaters and therefore could not want many present sinnes which deserued their extirpation That God which had taken notice of all their offences picks out this one noted sinne of their forefathers for reuenge Amongst all their indignities this shall beare the name of their iudgement As in legall proceedings with malefactors one inditement found giues the stile of their condemnation In the liues of those which are notoriously wicked God cannot looke besides a sinne yet when he drawes to an execution he fastens his sentence vpon one euill as principall others as accessaries so as at the last one sinne which perhaps wee make no account of shall pay for all The paganish Idolatries of the Amalekites could not but bee greater sinnes to God then their hard measure to Israel yet God sets this vpon the file whiles the rest are not recorded Their superstitions might bee of ignorance this sinne was of malice Malicious wickednesses of all other as they are in greatest opposition to the goodnesse and mercy of God shall be sure of the paiment of greatest vengeance The detestation of God may be measured by his reuenge slay both man and woman both infant and suckling both Oxe and Sheepe Camell and Asse not themselues onely but euery thing that drew life either from them or for their vse must dye When the God of mercy speakes such bloody words the prouocation must needs be vehement sinnes of infirmitie doe but mutter spightfull sinnes cry loud for iudgement in the cares of God Prepensed malice in courts of humane iustice aggrauates the murther and sharpens the sentence of death What then was this sinne of Amalek that is called vnto this late reckoning What but their enuious and vnprouoked onsets vpon the backe of Israel this was it that God tooke so to heart as that hee not onely remembers it now by Samuel but hee bids Israel euer to remember it by Moses Remember how Amalek met thee by the way and smote the hindmost of you all that were feeble behinde thee when thou wast faint and weary Besides this did Amalek meet Israel in a pitcht battell openly in Rephidim for that God payed them in the present The hand of Moses lifted vp on the Hill slew them in the Valley He therefore repeats not that quarrell but the cowardly and cruell attempts vpon an impotent enemy sticke still in the stomacke of the Almighty Oppression and wrong vpon euen termes are not so hainous vnto God as those that are vpon manifest disaduantage In the one there is an hazard of returne In the other there is euer a tyrannous insultation God takes still the weaker part and will be sure therefore to plague them which seeke to put iniuries on the vnable to resist This sinne of Amalek slept all the time of the Iudges those gouernors were onely for rescue and defence now so soone as Israel hath a King and that King is setled in peace God giues charge to call them to account It was that which God had both threatned and sworne and now he chooses out a fit season for the execution As wee vse to say of winter the iudgements of God doe neuer rot in the skie but shall fall if late yet surely yet seasonably There is small comfort in the delay of vengeance whiles we are sure it shall lose nothing in the way by length of protraction The Kenites were the off-springs of Hobad or Iethro father in law to Moses the affinitie of him to whom Israel owed their deliuerance and being was worthy of respect but it was the mercy of that good and wise Midianite shewed vnto Israel in the wildernesse by his graue aduice cheerefull gratulation and aide which wonne this gratefull forbearance of his posterity He that is not lesse in mercy then in iustice as hee challenged Amaleks sinne of their succeeding generations so he deriues the recompence of Iethro's kindnesse vnto his far descended issue Those that were vnborne many ages after Iethro's death receiue life from his dust and fauour from his hospitalitie The name of their dead grandfather saues them from the common destruction of their neighbours The seruices of our loue to Gods children are neuer thanklesse when we are dead and rotten they shall liue and procure blessings to those which neuer knew perhaps not heard of their progenitors If we sow good workes succession shall reape them and we shall be happy in making them so The Kenites dwelt in the borders of Amalek but in tents as did their issue the Rechabites so as they might remoue with ease They are warned to shift their habitations lest they should perish with ill neighbours It is the manner of God first to separate before he iudge as a good husband weeds his come ere it bee ripe for the sickle and goes to the fanne ere he goe to the fire When the Kenites packe vp their fardels it is time to expect iudgement Why should not wee imitate God and separate our selues that we may not be iudged separate not one Kenite from another but euery Kenite from among the Amalekites else if we will needs liue with Amalek we cannot thinke much to dye with him The Kenites are no sooner remoued then Saul fals vpon the Amalekites Hee destroyes all the people but spares their King The charge of God was vniuersall for man and beast In the corruption of partialitie lightly the greatest escape Couetousnesse or mis-affection are commonly guiltie of the impunitie of those which are at once most eminent in dignitie and in offence It is a shamefull hypocrisie to make our commoditie the measure and rule of our execution of Gods command and vnder pretence of godlinesse to pretend gaine The vnprofitable vulgar must die Agag may yeelda rich ransome The leane and feeble cattle that would but spend stouer and die alone shall perish by the sword of Israel the best may stocke the grounds and furnish the markets O hypocrites did God send you for gaine or for reuenge Went you to be purueyors or executioners If you plead that all those wealthy herds had been but lost in a speedy death thinke yee that hee knew not this which commanded it Can that be lost which is deuoted to the will of the owner and Creator Or can ye thinke to gaine any thing by disobedience That man can neuer either do well or farewell which thinkes there can be more profit in any thing then in his obedience to his Maker Because Saul spared the best of the men the people spared the best of the cattle each is willing to fauour other in the
good to thee This argument seemed to carry such command with it as that Dauid not onely may but must embrew his hands in bloud vnlesse hee will bee found wanting to God and himselfe Those temptations are most powerfull which fetch their force from the pretence of a religious obedience Whereas those which are raised from arbitrary and priuate respects admit of an easie dispensation If there were such a prediction one clause of it was ambiguous and they take it at the worst Thou shalt doe to him as shall seeme good to thee that might not seeme good to him which seemed euill vnto God There is nothing more dangerous than to make construction of Gods purposes out of euentuall appearances If carnall probabilities might be the rule of our iudgement what could God seeme to intend other than Sauls death in offering him naked into the hands of those whom he vniustly persecuted how could Dauids souldiers thinke that God had sent Saul thither on any other errand than to fetch his bane and if Saul could haue seene his owne danger he had giuen himselfe for dead for his heart guilty to his owne bloudy desires could not but haue expected the same measure which it meant But wise and holy Dauid not transported either with mis-conceit of the euent or fury of passion or sollicitation of his followers dares make no other vse of this accident than the triall of his loyalty and the inducement of his peace It had beene as easie for him to cut the throat of Saul as his garment but now his coat onely shall be the worse not his person neither doth he in the maiming of a cloake seeke his owne reuenge but a monument of his innocence Before Saul rent Samuels garment now Dauid cutteth Sauls both were significant The rending of the one signified the Kingdome torne out of those vnworthy hands the cutting of the other that the life of Saul might haue beene as easily cut off Saul needes no other Monitor of his owne danger than what he weares The vpper garment of Saul was laid aside whiles he went to couer his feet so as the cut of the garment did not threaten any touch of the body yet euen the violence offered to a remote garment strikes the heart of Dauid which findes a present remorse for harmefully touching that which did once touch the person of his Master Tender consciences are moued to regret at those actions which strong hearts passe ouer with a careles ease It troubled not Saul to seeke after the bloud of a righteous seruant there is no lesse difference of consciences than stomacks some stomachs will digest the hardest meates and turne ouer substances not in their nature edible whiles others surfet of the lightest food and complaine euen of dainties Euery gracious heart is in some measure scrupulous and findes more safety in feare than in presumption And if it be so strait as to curbe it selfe in from the liberty which it might take in things which are not vnlawfull how much lesse will it dare to take scope vnto euill By how much that state is better where nothing is allowed than where all things by so much is the strict and â—nnorous conscience better than the lawlesse There is good likelihood of that man which is any way scrupulous of his wayes but he which makes no bones of his actions is apparently hopelesse Since Dauids followers pleaded Gods testimony to him as a motiue to bloud Dauid appeales the same God for his preseruation from bloud The Lord keepe me from doing that thing to my Master the Lords Annointed and now the good man hath worke enough to defend both himselfe and his persecuter himselfe from the importunate necessitie of doing violence and his Master from suffering it It was not more easie to rule his owne hands than difficult to rule a multitude Dauids troupe consisted of Male-contents all that were in distresse in debt in bitternesse of soule were gathered to him Many if neuer so well ordered are hard to command a few if disorderly more hard many and disorderly must needs bee so much the hardest of all that Dauid neuer atchieued any victory like vnto this wherein hee first ouercame himselfe then his Souldiers And what was the charme wherewith Dauid allayed those raging spirits of his followers No other but this Hee is the Annointed of the Lord. That holy Oyle was the Antidote for his bloud Saul did not lend Dauid so impearceable an Armour when hee should encounter Goliah as Dauid now lent him in this plea of his vnction Which of all the discontented Out-lawes that lurked in that Caue durst put forth his hand against Saul when they once heard Hee is the Lords Annointed Such an impression of awe hath the diuine Prouidence caused his Image to make in the hearts of men as that it makes Traytors cowards So as in steede of striking they tremble How much more lawlesse than the Out-lawes of Israel are those professed Ring-leaders of Christianitie which teach and practise and incourage and reward and canonize the violation of Maiestie It is not enough for those who are commanders of others to refraine their owne hands from doing euil but they must carefully preuent the iniquitie of their heeles else they shall bee iustly reputed to doe that by others which in their owne persons they auoyded the Lawes both of God and man presuppose vs in some sort answerable for our charge as taking it for granted that wee should not vndertake those raynes which wee cannot mannage There was no reason Dauid should lose the thankes of so noble a demonstration of his loyalty Whereto hee trusts so much that hee dares call backe the man by whom hee was pursued and make him iudge whether that fact had not deserued a life As his act so his word and gesture imported nothing but humble obedience neither was there more meeknesse than force in that seasonable perswasion Wherein hee lets Saul see the error of his credulity the vniust slanders of maliciousnesse the oportunity of his reuenge the proofe of his forbearance the vndeniable euidence of his innocence and after a lowly disparagement of himselfe appeales to God for iudgement for protection So liuely and feeling Oratory did Saul find in the lap of his garment and the lips of Dauid that it is not in the power of his enuie or ill nature to hold out any longer Is this thy voice my sonne Dauid and Saul lift vp his voice and wept and said Thou art more righteous than I. Hee whose harpe had wont to quiet the frenzy of Saul hath now by his words calmed his fury so that now he sheds teares in steed of bloud and confesses his owne wrong and Dauids integrity And as if hee were new againe entred into the bounds of Naioth in Ramath hee prayes and prophesies good to him whom hee maliced for good The Lord render thee good for that thou hast done to mee this day for now behold I know that
so they must shew it vpon all good occasions letting passe no opportunitie of making spare of bloud Ishbosheth was it seemes a man of no great spirits for being no lesse than fortie yeares old when his father went into his last field against the Philistims hee was content to stay at home Abner hath put ambition into him and hath easily raised him to the head of a faction against the annoynted Prince of Gods people If this vsurped Crowne of Sauls Sonne had any worth or glory in it hee cannot but acknowledge to owe it all vnto Abner yet how forward is vnthankfull Ishbosheth to receiue a false suggestion against his chiefe Abettor Wherefore hast thou gone in to my fathers Concubine Hee that made no conscience of an vniust claime to the Crowne and a maintenance of it with bloud yet seemes scrupulous of a lesse sinne that carried in it the colour of a disgrace The touch of her who had beene honoured by his fathers bed seemed an intolerable presumption and such as could not bee seuered from his owne dishonour Selfe-loue sometimes borrowes the face of honest zeale Those who out of true grounds dislike sinnes doe hate them all indifferently according to their hainousnesse Hypocrites are partiall in their detestation bewraying euer most bitternesse against those offences which may most preiudice their persons and reputations It is as dangerous as vniust for Princes to giue both their eares and their heart to mis-grounded rumors of their innocent followers This wrong hath stript Ishbosheth of the Kingdome Abner in the meane time cannot be excused from a treacherous inconstancy If Sauls sonne had no true Title to the Crowne why did hee maintaine it If hee had why did he forsake the cause and person Had Abner out of remorse for furthering a false claime taken off his hand I know not wherein he could be blamed except for not doing it sooner But now to withdraw his professed allegeance vpon a priuate reuenge was to take a lewd leaue of an ill action If Ishbosheth were his lawfull Prince no iniury could warrant a reuolt Euen betwixt priuate persons a returne of wrongs is both vncharitable and vniust how euer this goe currant for the common iustice of the World how much more should we learne from a supreme hand to take hard measures with thankes It had beene Abners duty to haue giuen his King a peaceable and humble satisfaction and not to flie out in a snuffe If the spirit of the Ruler rise vp against thee leaue not thy place for yeelding pacifieth great offences now his impatient falling although to the right side makes him no better than traiterously honest So soone as Abner hath entertained a resolution of his rebellion hee perswades the Elders of Israel to accompany him in the change and whence doth he fetch his maine motiue but from the Oracle of God The Lord hath spoken of Dauid saying By the hand of my seruant Dauid will I saue my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistims and out of the hand of all their enemies Abner knew this ful well before yet then was well content to smother a knowne truth for his owne turne and now the publication of it may serue for his aduantage hee wins the heart of Israel by shewing Gods Charter for him whom he had so long opposed Hypocrites make vse of God for their owne purposes and care onely to make diuine authority a colour for their owne designes No man euer heard Abner godly till now neither had he beene so at this time if he had not intended a reuengefull departure from Ishbosheth Nothing is more odious than to make Religion a stalking horse to Policy WHO can but glorifie God in his iustice when he sees the bitter end of this treacherous dissimulation Dauid may vpon considerations of State entertaine his new Guest with a Feast and well might hee seeme to deserue a welcome that vndertakes to bring all Israel to the league and homage of Dauid but God neuer meant to vse so vnworthy meanes for so good a worke Ioab returnes from pursuing a troupe and finding Abner dismissed in peace and expectation of a beneficiall returne followes him and whether out of enuy at a new riuall of honour or out of the reuenge of Asahel hee repaies him both dissimulation and death God doth most iustly by Ioab that which Ioab did for himselfe most vniustly I know not setting the quarrell aside whether wee can worthily blame Abner for the death of Asahel who would needs after faire warnings runne himselfe vpon Abners Speare yet this fact shall procure his paiment for worse Now is Ishbosheths wrong reuenged by an enemy wee may not alwayes measure the Iustice of Gods proceedings by present occasions Hee needs not make vs acquainted or aske vs leaue when hee will call for the arrerages of forgotten sinnes Contemplations THE FIFTEENTH BOOKE Contayning VzZAH and the Arke DAVID with MEPHIBOSHETH and ZIBA HANVN and DAVIDS Ambassadors DAVID with BATHSHEBA and VRIAH NATHAN and DAVID AMON and THAMAR ABSALOMS returne and conspiracie TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE MY VERY GOOD LORD William LORD BVRLEIGH ALL GRACE AND Happinesse RIGHT HONOVRABLE THere are but two Bookes wherin we can reade God The one is his Word his Workes the other This is the bigger Volume that the more exquisite The Characters of this are more large but dim of that smaller but clearer Philosophers haue turned ouer this and erred That Diuines and studious Christians not without full and certaine information Jn the Workes of God we see the shadow or footsteps of the Creator in his Word we see the face of God in a glasse Happinesse consists in the Vision of that infinite Maiesty and if wee be perfectly happy aboue in seeing him face to face our happinesse is well forward below in seeing the liuely representation of his face in the glasse of Scriptures Wee cannot spend our eyes too much vpon this Obiect For mee the more J see the more J am amazed the more I am rauished with this glorious beautie With the honest Lepers I cannot bee content to enioy this happy sight alone there is but one way to euery mans Felicity May it please your Lordship to take part with many your Peeres in these my weak but not vnprofitable Contemplations which shall hold themselues not a little graced with your Honourable Name Whereto together with your right Noble and most Worthy Lady I haue gladly deuoted my selfe to bee Your Lordships in all dutifull obseruance IOS HALL Contemplations VzZAH AND THE ARKE REMOVED THe house of Saul is quiet the Philistims beaten victory cannot end better than in deuotion Dauid is no sooner settled in his house at Ierusalem than he fetcheth God to bee his guest there the thousands of Israel goe now in an holy march to bring vp the Arke of God to the place of his rest The tumults of Warre affoorded no opportunity of this seruice onely peace is a friend to Religion neither
is peace euer our friend but when it is a seruant of Piety The vse of Warre is not more pernicious to the body than the abuse of peace is to the soule Alas the Riot bred of our long ease rather driues the Arke of God from vs so the still sedentary life is subiect to diseases and standing waters putrifie It may be iust with God to take away the blessing which we doe so much abuse and to scoure off our rust with bloudy Warre c. The Arke of God had now many yeeres rested in the obscure lodge of Abinadab without the honour of a Tabernacle Dauid will not endure himselfe glorious and the Arke of God contemptible his first care is to prouide a fit roome for God in the head of the Tribes in his owne City The chiefe care of good Princes must be the aduancement of Religion What should the Deputies of God rather doe than honour him whom they represent It was no good that Israel could learne of Philistims Those Pagans had sent the Arke backe in a new Cart the Israelites saw God blessed that conduct and now they practise it at home But that which God will take from Philistims hee will not brooke from Israel Aliens from God are no fit patterns for children Diuine institution had made this a cariage for the Leuites not for oxen Neither should those sonnes of Abinadab haue driuen the Cart but carried that sacred burden Gods businesses must be done after his owne formes which if we doe with the best intentions alter we presume It is long since Israel saw so faire a day as this wherein they went in this holy Triumph to fetch the Arke of God Now their Warlike Trumpets are turned into Harps and Timbrils and their hands in stead of weilding the Sword and Speare strike vpon those musicall strings whereby they might expresse the ioy of their hearts Heere was no noise but of mirth no motion but pleasant Oh happy Israel that had a God to reioyce in that had this occasion of reioycing in their God and an heart that embraced this occasion There is nothing but this wherein wee may not ioy immoderately vnseasonably this spirituall ioy can neuer bee either out of time or out of measure Let him that reioyceth reioyce in the Lord. But now when the Israelites were in the midst of this Angel-like iollitie their hearts lifted vp their hands playing their feet mouing their tongues singing and shouting God sees good to strike them into a sudden dumpe by the death of Vzzah They are scarce set into the tune when God marres their Musicke by a fearefull iudgement and changes their mirth into astonishment and confusion There could not bee a more excellent worke than this they were about there could not bee more chearefull hearts in the performing of it yet will the most holy God rather dash all this solemne seruice than indure an act of presumption or infidelity Abinadab had beene the faithfull Host of Gods Arke for the space of twenty yeeres euen in the midst of the terrors of Irael who were iustly affrighted with the vengeance inflicted vpon Beth-shemesh did hee giue harbour vnto it Yet euen the sonne of Abinadab is stricken dead in the first departing of that blessed guest The Sanctitie of the Parent cannot beare out the sinne of his Sonne The Holy one of Israel will bee sanctified in all that come neere him He will be serued like himselfe WHAT then was the sinne of Vzzah What was the capitall crime for which hee so fearefully perished That the Arke of God was committed to the Cart it was not his deuice onely but the common act of many That it was not carryed on the shoulders of Leuites was no lesse the fault of Ahio and the rest of their Brethren onely Vzzah is stricken The rest sinned in negligence hee in presumption the Arke of God shakes with the agitation of that carriage hee puts forth his hand to hold it steddie Humane iudgement would haue found herein nothing haynous God sees not with the eyes of men None but the Priests should haue dared to touch the Arke It was enough for the Leuites to touch the barres that carryed it An vnwarranted hand cannot so lightly touch the Arke but hee strikes the God that dwels in it No maruell if God strike that man with death that strikes him with Presumption There was wel-neere the same quarrell against the thousands of Bethshemesh and against Vzzah They died for looking into the Arke hee for touching it lest Israel should grow into a contemptuous familiarity with this Testimony of Gods presence hee will hold them in awe with iudgements The reuenging hand of the Almighty that vpon the returne of the Arke stayed at the House of Abinadab vpon the remooue of the Arke beginnes there againe Where are those that thinke God will take vp with a carelesse and slubbred seruice Hee whose infinite mercy vses to passe by our sinnes of infirmitie punisheth yet seuerely our bold faults If we cannot doe any thing in the degrees that hee requireth yet wee must learne to doe all things in the forme that he requireth Doubtlesse Vzzah meant no otherwise than well in putting forth his hand to stay the Arke Hee knew the sacred Vtensils that were in it the Pot of Manna the Tables of the Law the Rod of Aaron which might bee wronged by that ouer-rough motion to these hee offers his aide and is stricken dead The best intention cannot excuse much lesse warrant vs in vnlawfull actions where wee doe ought in faith it pleaseth our good God to winke at and pitty our weaknesses but if wee dare to present God with the wel-meant seruices of our owne making wee runne into the indignation of God There is nothing more dangerous than to be our owne caruers in matter of Deuotion I maruell not if the countenance of Dauid were suddenly changed to see the pale face of death in one of the chiefe Actors in this holy Procession Hee that had found God so fauourable to him in actions of lesse worth is troubled to see this successe of a businesse so heartily directed vnto his God and now hee beginnes to looke thorow Vzzah at himselfe and to say How shall the Arke of the Lord come to mee Then onely shall wee make a right vse of the iudgements of God vpon others when wee shall feare them in our selues and finding our sinnes at least equall shall tremble at the expectation of the same deserued punishments God intends not onely reuenge in his execution but reformation As good Princes regard not so much the smart of the euill past as the preuention of the future which is neuer attained but when wee make applications of Gods hand and draw common causes out of Gods particular proceedings I doe not heare Dauid say Surely this man is guilty of some secret sinne that the World knowes not God hath met with him thereis no danger to vs why should I be discouraged to
both of them wash the world from their sins Yea this latter did not only wash the soules of men but washeth that very water by which we are washed from hence is that made both cleane and holy and can both cleanse and hallow vs And if the very handkerchiefe which touched his Apostles had power of cure how much more that Water which the sacred body of Christ touched Christ comes farre to seeke his baptisme to teach vs for whose sake hee was baptized to wait vpon the ordinances of God and to sue for the fauour of spirituall blessings They are worthlesse commodities that are not worth seeking for it is rarely seene that God is found of any man vnsought for that desire which onely makes vs capable of good things cannot stand with neglect Iohn durst not baptize vnbidden his Master sent him to doe this seruice and behold the Master comes to his seruant to call for the participation of that priuiledge which he himselfe had instituted and enioyned how willingly should wee come to our spirituall Superiours for our part in those mysteries which God hath left in their keeping yea how gladly should we come to that Christ who giues vs these blessings who is giuen to vs in them This seemed too great an honor for the modesty of Iohn to receiue If his mother could say when her blessed cousin the Virgin Mary came to visit her Whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me how much more might he say so when the diuine Sonne of that mother came to call for a fauour from him I haue need to be baptized of thee and commest thou to me O holy Baptist if there were not a greater borne of women than thou yet thou couldest not bee borne of a woman and not need to be baptized of thy Sauiour Hee baptized with fire thou with water Little would thy water haue auailed thee without his fire If he had not baptized thee how wert thou sanctified from the wombe There can be no flesh without filthinesse neither thy supernaturall conception nor thy austere life could exempt thee from the need of baptisme Euen those that haue not liued to sinne after the similitude of Adam yet are they so tainted with Adam that vnlesse the second Adam clense them by his baptisme they are hopelesse There is no lesse vse of baptisme vnto all than there holy a man is the more sensible hee is of his vnholinesse No carnall man could haue said I haue neede to be baptized of thee neither can he finde what hee is the better for a little Font-water The sence of our wretchednesse and the valuation of our spirituall helps is the best tryall of our regeneration Our Sauiour doth not deny that either Iohn hath need to be baptized of him or that it is strange that he should come to be baptized of Iohn but he will needs thus farre both honor Iohn and disparage himselfe to be baptized of his Messenger hee that would take flesh of the Virgin cducation from his Parents sustenance from his creatures will take baptisme from Iohn It is the prayse of his mercy that he will stoope so low as to bee beholden to his creatures which from him receiue their being and power both to take and giue Yet not so much respect to Iohn as obedience to his Father drew him to this point of humiliation Thus it behoues vs to fulfill all righteousnes The Counsels Appointments of God are righteousnesse it selfe There needs no other motiue either to the seruant or the Son than the knowledge of those righteous purposes This was enough to leade a faithful man thorow all difficulties and inconueniences neither will it admit of any reply or any demurre Iohn yeeldeth to this honor which his Sauiour puts vpon him in giuing baptisme to the Author of it Hee baptized others to the remission of their sinnes now hee baptizes him by whom they are remitted both to the Baptizer and to others No sooner is Christ baptized than hee comes forth of the water The element is of force but during the vse It turnes common when that is past neither is the water sooner powred on his head than the Heauens are opened and the Holy Ghost descendeth vpon that Head which was baptized The Heauens are neuer shut whiles either of the Sacraments is duly administred and receiued neither doe the Heauens euer thus open without the descent of the Holy Ghost But now that the God of Heauen is baptized they open vnto him which are opened to all the faithfull by him and that Holy Ghost which proceeded from him together with the Father ioynes with the Father in a sensible testimony of him that now the world might see what interest he had in the Heauens in the Father in the holy Spirit and might expect nothing but diuine from the entrance of such a Mediator Christ tempted NO sooner is Christ comne out of the water of Baptisme than he enters into the fire of tentation No sooner is the holy Spirit descended vpon his head in the forme of a Doue than he is led by the Spirit to be tempted No sooner doth God say This is my Sonne than Satan sayes If thou be the Some of GOd It is not in the power either of the gift or seales of Grace to deliuer vs from the assaults of Satan they may haue the force to repell euill suggestions they haue none to preuent them yea the more we are ingaged vnto God by our publike vowes and his pledges of fauour so much more busie and violent is the rage of that euill one to encounter vs We are no sooner stept forth into the field of God than he labours to wrest our weapons out of our hands or to turne them against vs. The voyce from Heauen acknowledged Christ to be the Sonne of God this diuine Testimony did not allay the malice of Satan but exasperate it Now that venomous Serpent swels with inward poison and hastes to assaile him whom God hath hounoured from Heauen O God how should I looke to escape the suggestions of that wicked one when the Sonne of thy loue cannot be free when euen grace it selfe drawes on enmity That enemy that spared not to strike at the Head will he forbeare the weakest and remotest limme Arme thou me therefore with an expectation of that euill I cannot auoid Make thou me as strong as he is malicious Say to my soule also Thou art my Sonne and let Satan doe his worst All the time of our Sauiours obscurity I doe not finde him set vpon Now that he lookes forth to the publike execution of his diuine Office Satan bends his forces against him Our priuacy perhaps may sit downe in peace but neuer man did endeuour a common good without opposition It is a signe that both the worke is holy and the Agent faithfull when we meet with strong affronts We haue reason to be comforted with nothing so much as with
desires It likes thee well that the Kingdome of heauen should suffer violence Our slacknesse doth euer displease thee neuer our vehemencie The throng of Auditors forced Christ to leaue the shore and to make Peters ship his pulpet Neuer were there such nets cast out of that fisher-boate before whiles hee was vpon the land hee healed the sicke bodies by his touch now that he was vpon the Sea hee cured the sicke soules by his doctrine and is purposely seuered from the multitude that he may vnite them to him Hee that made both Sea and land causeth both of them to conspire to the opportunities of doing good Simon was busie washing his nets Euen those nets that caught nothing must bee washed no lesse than if they had sped well The nights toyle doth not excuse his dayes worke Little did Simon thinke of leauing those nets which hee so carefully washed and now Christ interrupts him with the fauour and blessing of his gracious presence Labour in our calling how homely soeuer makes vs capable of diuine benediction The honest fisher-man when he saw the people flocke after Christ and heard him speake with such power could not but conceiue a generall and confuse apprehension of some excellent worth in such a Teacher and therefore is glad to honor his ship with such a guest and is first Christs host by sea ere he is his Disciple by land An humble and seruiceable entertainment of a Prophet of God was a good foundation of his future honour Hee that would so easily lend Christ his hand and his ship was likely soone after to bestow himselfe vpon his Sauiour SIMON hath no sooner done this seruice to Christ than Christ is preparing for his reward when the Sermon is ended the ship-roome shall be paide for abundantly Neither shall the Host expect any other pay-master than himselfe Lanch forth into the deepe and let downe your Nets to make a draught That ship which lent Christ an opportunitie of catching men vpon the shore shall be requited with a plentifull draught of fish in the deepe It had beene as easie for our Sauiour to haue brought the fish to Peters ship close to the shore yet as chusing rather to haue the ship carried to the shole of fish hee bids Lanch fort into the deepe In his miracles he loues euer to meete nature in her bounds and when shee hath done her best to supply the rest by his ouer-ruling power The same power therefore that could haue caused the fishes to leape vpon drie land or to leaue themselues forsaken of the waters vpon the sands of the Lake will rather finde them in a place naturall to their abiding Lanch out into the deepe Rather in a desire to gratifie and obey his guest than to pleasure himselfe will Simon bestow one cast of his net Had Christ enioyned him an harder taske he had not refused yet not without an allegation of the vnlikelyhood of successe Master we haue trauailed all night and caught nothing yet at thy word I will let downe the Net The night was the fittest time for the hopes of their trade not vniustly might Simon misdoubt his speed by day when he had worne out the night in vnprofitable labor Sometimes God crosseth the fairest of our exspectations and giues a blessing to those times and meanes whereof we despaire That paines cannot bee cast away which wee resolue to lose for Christ Oh God how many doe I see casting out their Nets in the great Lake of the world which in the whole night of their life haue caught nothing They conceiue mischiefe and bring forth iniquitie They hatch Cockatrices egges and weaue the Spiders web he that eateth of their egges dieth and that which is troden vpoh breaketh out into a Serpent Their webs shall be no garment neither shall they couer themselues with their labours Oh yee sonnes of men how long will yee loue vanitie and follow after lyes Yet if we haue thus vainely mispent the time of our darkenesse Let vs at the command of Christ cast out our new-washen nets our humble and penitent obedience shall come home laden with blessings And when they had so done they inclosed a great multitude of fishes so that their Net brake What a difference there is betwixt our owne voluntarie acts and those that are done vpon command not more in the grounds of them than in the issue those are oft-times fruitlesse these euer successefull Neuer man threw out his Net at the word of his Sauiour and drew it backe emptie who would not obey thee O Christ since thou dost so bountifully requite our weakest seruices It was not meere retribution that was intended in this euent but instruction also This act was not without a mysterie He that should be made a fisher of men shall in this draught foresee his successe the kingdome of heauen is like a draw-net cast into the Sea which when it is full men draw to land The very first draught that Peter made after the complement of his Apostleship inclosed no lesse than three thousand soules Oh powerfull Gospell that can fetch sinfull men from out of the depthes of naturall corruption Oh happie soules that from the blinde and muddie cels of our wicked nature are drawne forth to the glorious libertie of the sonnes of God! Simons Net breakes with the store aboundance is sometimes no lesse troublesome than want the Net should haue held if Christ had not meant to ouer-charge Simon both with blessing and admiration How happily is that Net broken whose rupture drawes the fisher to Christ Though the Net brake yet the fish escaped not He that brought them thither to be taken held them there till they were taken They beckned to their partners in the other ship that they should come and helpe them There are other ships in partnership with Peter hee doth not fish all the Lake alone There cannot be a better improuement of societie than to help vs gaine to relieue vs in our profitable labours to draw vp the spirituall draught into the vessell of Christ and his Church wherefore hath God giuen vs partners but that wee should becken to them for their aide in our necessarie occasions Neither doth Simon slacken his hand because he had assistants What shall wee say to those lazie fishers who can set others to the Drag whiles themselues looke on at ease caring onely to feede themselues with the fish not willing to wet their hands with the Net What shall we say to this excesse of gaine The Nets breake the ships sinke with their burden Oh happie complaint of too large a capture O Sauiour if those Apostolicall vessels of thy first rigging were thus ouer-laide ours flote and totter with a ballasted lightnesse Thou who art no lesse present in these bottomes of ours lade them with an equall fraight of conuerted soules and let vs praise thee for thus sinking SIMON was a skilfull Fisher and knew well the depth of his trade and now
filthinesse of the sinne was not so great as the impudency of the manner When the Prophet Nathan came with that heauy message of reproofe and menace to Dauid after his sinne with Bathsheba hee could say from God Behold I will raise vp euill against thee out of thine owne house and will take thy wiues before thine eyes and giue them vnto thy neighbour and he shall lie with thy wiues in the sight of this Sunne For thou didst it secretly but I will doe this thing before all Israel and before this Sunne The counsell of Achitophel and the lust of Absalom haue fulfilled the iudgement of God Oh the wisedome of the Almighty that can vse the worst of euils well and most iustly make the sins of men his executioners It was the sinne of Reuben that he defiled his fathers bed yet not in the same height of lewdnes what Reuben did in a youthfull wantonnesse Absalom did in a malicious despight Reuben sinned with one Absalom with ten Reuben secretly Absalom in the open eyes of heauen and earth yet old Iacob could say of Reuben Thou shalt not excell thy dignitie is gone whiles Achitophel sayes to Absalom Thy dignitie shall arise from incest Climbe vp to thy fathers bed if thou wilt sit in his throne If Achitophel were a politician Iacob was a Prophet if the one spake from carnall sense the other from diuine reuelation Certainly to sin is not the way to prosper what euer vaine fooles promise to themselues there is no wisdome nor vnderstanding nor counsell against the Lord. After the rebellion is secured for continuance the next care is that it may end in victory this also hath the working head of Achitophel proiected Wit experience told him that in these cases of assault celeritie vses to bring forth the happiest dispatch whereas protraction is no small aduantage to the defendant Let me saith he choose out now twelue thousand men and I will vp and follow after Dauid this night and I will come vpon him while he is weary and weak-handed No aduice could be more pernicious For besides the wearinesse and vnreadinesse of Dauid and his army the spirits of that worthy leader were daunted and deiected with sorrow and offered way to the violence of a sudden assault The field had beene halfe won ere any blow stricken Achitophel could not haue beene reputed so wise if he had not learned the due proportion betwixt actions and times He that obserueth euery winde shall neuer sow but he that obserues no winde at all shall neuer reape The likeliest deuices doe not alwayes succeed The God that had appointed to establish Dauids throne and determined Salomon to his succession findes meanes to crosse the plot of Achitophel by a lesse-probable aduice Hushai was not sent backe for nothing where God hath in his secret will decreed any euent hee inclines the wills of men to approue that which may promote his owne purposes Neither had Hushai so deepe an head neither was his counsell so sure as that of Achitophel yet his tongue shall refell Achitophel and diuert Absalom The pretences were fairer though the grounds were vnfound First to sweeten his opposition hee yeelds the praise of wisdome to his aduersary in all other counsels that hee may haue leaue to deny it in this His very contradiction in the present insinuates a generall allowance Then he suggests certaine apparent truths concerning Dauids valour and skill to giue countenance to the inferēces of his improbabilities Lastly he cunningly feeds the proud humor of Absaloza in magnifying the power and extent of his commands and ends in the glorious boasts of his fore-promised victory As it is with faces so with counsell that is faire that pleaseth He that giues the vttrance to words giues also their speed Fauour both of speech and men is not euer according to desert but according to fore-ordination The tongue of Hushai the heart of Absalom is guided by a power aboue their owne Hushai shall therefore preuaile with Absalom that the treason of Absalom may not preuaile Hee that worketh all in all things so disposeth of wicked men and spirits that whiles they doe most oppose his reuealed will they execute his secret and whiles they thinke most to please they ouerthrow themselues When Absalom first met Hushai returned to Hierusalem hee vpbraided him pleasantly with the scoffe of his professed friendship to Dauid Is this thy kindnesse to thy friend Sometimes there is more truth in the mouth then in the heart more in iest then in earnest Hushai was a friend his stay was his kindnes and now he hath done that for which he was left at Hierusalem disappointed Achitophel preserued Dauid Neither did his kindnesse to his friend rest here but as one that was iustly iealous of him with whom he was allowed to temporize he mistrusts the approbation of Absalom and not daring to put the life of his master vpon such an hazard he giues charge to Zadok and Abiathar of this intelligence vnto Dauid we cannot be too suspicious when we haue to doe with those that are faithlesse We cannot be too curious of the safety of good Princes Hushai feares not to descry the secrets of Absaloms counsell to betray a traytor is no other then a commendable worke Zadok and Abiathar are fast within the gates of Hierusalem their sonnes lay purposely abroad in the fields this message that concerned no lesse then the life of Dauid and the whole kingdome of Israel must bee trusted with a Maid Sometimes it pleaseth the wisedome of God who hath the variety of heauen and earth before him to single out weake instruments for great seruices and they shall serue his turne as well as the best No councellor of State could haue made this dispatch more effectually Ionathan and Ahimaaz are sent descried pursued preserued The fidelity of a maid instructed them in their message the suttlety of a woman saued their liues At the Well of Rogel they receiued their message in the Well of Bahurim was their life saued The sudden wit of a woman hath choked the mouth of her Well with dried corne that it might not bewray the messengers and now Dauid heares safely of his danger and preuents it and though weary with trauell and laden with sorrow he must spend the night in his remoue Gods promises of his deliuerance and the confirmation of his kingdome may not make him neglect the means of his safety If he be faithfull we may not be carelesse since our diligence and care are appointed for the factors of that diuine prouidence The acts of God must abate nothing of ours rather must we labour by doing that which he requireth to further that which he decreeth There are those that haue great wits for the publique none for themselues Such was Achitophel who whiles he had powers to gouerne a State could not tell how to rule his owne passions Neuer till now doe we find his counsell balked neither was it now
now all hearts are cold all faces pale and euery man hath but life enough to runne away How suddenly is this brauing troupe dispersed Adonijah their new Prince flies to the hornes of the Altar as distrusting all hopes of life saue the Sanctity of the place and the mercy of his riuall So doth the wise and iust God befoole proud and insolent sinners in those secret plots wherein they hope to vndermine the true sonne of Dauid the Prince of Peace he suffers them to lay their heads together and to feast themselues in a iocund securitie and promise of successe at last when they are at the height of their ioyes and hopes he confounds all their deuices and layes them open to the scorne of the world and to the anguish of their owne guilty hearts DAVIDS end and SALOMONS beginning IT well became Salomon to begin his Raigne in peace Adonijah receiues pardon vpon his good behauiour and findes the Throne of Salomon as safe as the Altar Dauid liues to see a wise sonne warme in his seat and now hee that had yeelded to succession yeelds to nature Many good counsels had Dauid giuen his Heire now hee summes them vp in his end Dying words are wont to bee weightiest The Soule when it is entring into glory breathes nothing but diuine I goe the way of all the earth How well is that Princely heart content to subscribe to the conditions of humane mortality as one that knew Soueraigntie doth not reach to the affaires of nature Though a King he neither expects nor desires an immunity from dissolution making not account to goe in any other then the common track to the vniuersall home of mankind the house of age Whither should earth but to earth and why should we grugde to doe that which all doe Be thou strong therefore and shew thy selfe a man Euen when his spirit was going out he puts spirit into his Sonne Age puts life into youth and the dying animates the vigorous He had well found that strength was requisit to gouernment that he had need to be no lesse then a man that should rule ouer men If greatnesse should neuer receiue any opposition yet those worlds powers A weake man may obey none but the strong can gouerne Gracelesse courage were but the whetstone of tyranny Take heed therefore to the charge of the Lord thy God to walke in his wayes and to keepe his Statutes The best legacy that Dauid bequeathes to his heire is the care of piety himselfe had found the sweetnesse of a good conscience and now he commends it to his successor If there be any thing that in our desires of the prosperous condition of our children takes place of goodnesse our hearts are not vpright Here was the father a King charging the King his sonne to keepe the Statutes of the King of Kings as one that knew greatnesse could neither exempt from obedience nor priuiledge sinne as one that knew the least deuiation in the greatest and highest Orbe is both most sensible and most dangerous Neither would he haue his sonne to looke for any prosperity saue onely from well-doing That happinesse is built vpon sands or Ice which is raised vpon any foundation besides vertue If Salomon were wise Dauid was good and if old Salomon had well remembred the counsell of old Dauid he had not so foulely mis-caried After the precepts of pietie follow those of iustice distributing in a due recompence as reuenge to Ioab and Shimei so fauour to the house of Barzillai The bloodinesse of Ioab had lien long vpon Dauids heart the hideous noyse of those treacherous murders as it had pierced heauen so it still filled the eares of Dauid He could abhorre that villanie though he could not reuenge it What he cannnot pay hee will owe and approue himselfe at last a faithfull debtor Now hee will defray it by the hand of Salomon The slaughter was of Abner and Amasa Dauid appropriates it Thou knowest what Ioab did to me The Soueraigne is smitten in the Subiect Neither is it other then iust that the arraignment of meane malefactors runnes in the stile of wrong to the Kings Crowne and dignity How much more 〈◊〉 thou O Sonne of Dauid take to thy selfe those insolencies which are done to thy poorest subiects seruants sonnes members here vpon earth No Saul can touch a Christian here below but thou feelest it in heauen and complainest But what shall we thinke of this Dauid was a man of Warre Salomon a King of Peace yet Dauid referres this reuenge to Salomon How iust it was that he who shed the blood of warre in peace and put the blood of war vpon his girdle that was about his loynes should haue his blood shed in peace by a Prince of peace Peace is fittest to rectifie the out-rages of Warre Or whether is not this done in type of that diuine administration wherein thou O father of heauen hast committed all iudgement vnto thine eternall Sonne Thou who couldst immediately either plague or absolue sinners wilt doe neither but by the hand of a Mediator Salomon learned betimes what his ripenesse taught afterwards Take away the wicked from the King and his Throne shall be established in righteousnesse Cruell Ioab and malicious Shimei must be therfore vpon the first opportunity remoued The one lay open to present iustice for abetting the conspiracy of Adonijah neither needes the helpe of time for a new aduantage The other went vnder the protection of an oath from Dauid and therefore must be fetcht in vpon a new challenge The hoare head of both must bee brought to the graue with blood else Dauids head could not bee brought to his graue in peace Due punishment of malefactors is the debt of authority If that holy King haue runne into arerages yet as one that hates and feares to breake the banke he giues order to his pay-master It shall bee defraid if not by him yet for him Generous natures cannot be vnthankfull Barzillai had shewed Dauid some kindnesse in his extremity and now the good man will haue posterity to inherite the thankes How much more bountifull is the Father of mercies in the remuneration of our poore vnworthy seruices Euen successions of generations shall fare the better for one good parent The dying words and thoughts of the man after Gods owne heart did not confine themselues to the straites of these particular charges but inlarged themselues to the care of Gods publike seruice As good men are best at last Dauid did neuer so busily and carefully marshall the affaires of God as when he was fixed to the bed of his age and death Then did he lode his sonne Salomon with the charge of building the house of God then did hee lay before the eyes of his sonne the modell and patterne of that whole sacred worke whereof if Salomon beare the name yet Dauid no lesse merits it He now giues the platforme of the Courts and buildings Hee giues the gold and siluer for
of ioy and thankfulnesse Hee knew well this meteor was not at the biggest it was newly borne of the wombe of the waters and in some minutes of age must grow to a large stature stay but a while and Heauen is couered with it From how small beginnings haue great matters arisen It is no otherwise in all the gracious proceedings of God with the soule scarce sensible are those first workes of his spirit in the heart which grow vp at last to the wonder of men and applause of Angels Well did Elijah know that God who is perfection it selfe would not defile his hand with an inchoate and scanted fauour as one therefore that fore-saw the face of heauen ouer-spread with this cloudy spot hee sends to Ahab to hasten his Charet that the raine stop him not It is long since Ahab feared this let neuer was the newes of a danger more welcome Doubtlesse the King of Israel whiles hee was at his diet lookt long for Elijahs promised showers where is the raine whose sound the Prophet heard how is it that his eares were so much quicker then our eyes Wee saw his fire to our terrour how gladly would we see his Waters When now the seruant of Elijah brings him newes from heauen that the clouds were setting forward and if hee hastened not would be before him The winde arises the clouds gather the sky thickens Ahab betakes him to his Charet Elijah girds vp his loynes and runnes before him Surely the Prophet could not want the offer of more ease in his passage but he will be for the time Ahabs lacquey that the King and all Israel may see his humility no lesse than his power and may confesse that the glory of those miracles hath not made him insolent Hee knew that his very sight was monitorie neither could Ahabs minde be beside the miraculous workes of God whiles his eye was vpon Elijah neither could the Kings heart be otherwise then well-affected towards the Prophet whiles he saw that himselfe and all Israel had receiued a new Life by his procurement But what newes was here for Iezebel Certainly Ahab minced nothing of the report of all those astonishing accidents If but to salue vp his owne honour in the death of those Baalites hee made the best of Elijahs merits hee told of his challenge conflict victorie of the fire that fell downe from Heauen of the conuiction of Israel of the vnauoidable execution of the Prophets of the prediction and fall of those happy showers and lastly of Elijahs officious attendance Who would not haue expected that Iezebel should haue said It is no striuing no dallying with the Almightie No reasonable creature can doubt after so prodigious a decision God hath wonne vs from Heauen hee must possesse vs Iustly are our seducers perished None but the God that can command fire and water shall bee ours There is no Prophet but his But shee contrarily in stead of relenting rageth and sends a message of death to Elijah So let the gods doe to mee and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time Neither scourges nor fauours can worke any thing with the obstinately wicked All euill hearts are not equally dis-affected to good Ahab and Iezebel were both bad enough yet Ahab yeelds to that worke of God which Iezebel stubbornly opposeth Ahab melts with that water with that fire wherewith Iezebel is hardened Ahab was bashfully Iezebel audaciously impious The weaker sexe is euer commonly stronger in passion and more vehemently caried with the sway of their desires whether to good or euill She sweares and stamps at that whereat shee should haue trembled She sweares by those gods of hers which were not able to saue their Prophets that she will kill the Prophet of God who had scorned her gods and slaine her Prophets It is well that Iezebel could not keepe counsell Her threat preâ—eâ—ted him whom shee had meant to kill The wisedome and power of God could â—â—ue found euasions for his Prophet in her greatest secresie but now he needs no other meanes of rescue but her owne lips She is no lesse vaine then the gods shee sweares by In spight of her fury and her oath and her gods Elijah shall liue At once shall she finde her selfe frustrate and forsworne She is now ready to bite her tongue to eat her heart for anger at the disappointment of her cruell Vow It were no liuing for godly men if the hands of Tyrants were allowed to be as bloody as their hearts Men and Deuils are vnder the restraint of the Almighty neither are their designes more lauish then their executions short Holy Elijah flees for his life wee heare not of the command of God but we would willingly presuppose it So diuine a Prophet should doe nothing without God His heeles were no new refuge As no where safe within the ten Tribes hee flees to Beersheba in the Territories of Iudah as not there safe from the machinations of Iezebel hee flees alone one dayes iourney into the wildernesse there hee sits him downe vnder a Iuniper tree and as weary of life no lesse then of his way wishes to rise no more It is enough now O Lord take away my life for I am not better then my Fathers O strange and vncouth mutation What is this wee heare Elijah fainting and giuing vp that heroicall spirit deiected and prostrate Hee that durst say to Ahabs face It is thou and thy fathers house that troubleth Israel hee that could raise the dead open and shut the Heauens fetch downe both fire and water with his prayers hee that durst chide and contest with all Israel that durst kill the foure hundred and fifty Baalites with the sword doth hee shrinke at the frownes and threats of a woman doth hee wish to be rid of his life because hee feared to lose it Who can expect an vndaunted constancie from flesh and blood when Elijah failes The strongest and holiest Saint vpon earth is subiect to some qualmes of feare and infirmitie To bee alwayes and vnchangeably good is proper onely to the glorious Spirits in heauen Thus the wise and holy God will haue his power perfited in our weaknesse It is in vaine for vs whiles wee carie this flesh about vs to hope for so exact health as not to be cast downe sometimes with fits of spirituall distemper It is no new thing for holy men to wish for death Who can either maruell at or blame the desire of aduantage For the weary traueller to long for rest the prisoner for libertie the banished for home it is so naturall that the contrary disposition were monstrous The benefit of the change is a iust motiue to our appetition but to call for death out of a satietie of life out of an impatience of suffering is a weaknesse vnbeseeming a Saint It is not enough O Elijah God hath more worke yet for thee thy God hath more honoured thee
in the poole of Samaria the dogges come to claime their due they licke vp the blood of the great King of Israel The tongues of those brute creatures shall make good the tongue of Gods Prophet Michaiah is iustified Naboth is reuenged the Baalites confounded Ahab iudged Righteous art thou O God in all thy waies and holy in all thy workes AHAzIAH sicke and ELIJAH reuenged AHaziah succeeds his father Ahab both in his throne and in his sinne Who could looke for better issue of those loines of those examples God followes him with a double iudgement of the reuolt of Moab and of his owne sicknesse All the reigne of Ahab had Moab beene a quiet Tributarie and furnished Israel with rich flockes and fleeces now their subiection dies with that warlike King and will not be inherited This rebellion tooke aduantage as from the weaker spirits so from the sickly body of Ahaziah whose disease was not naturall but casuall walking in his palace of Samaria some grate in the floore of his Chamber breakes vnder him and giues way to that fall whereby hee is bruised and languisheth The same hand that guided Ahabs shaft cracks Ahaziahs lattesse How infinite varietie of plagues hath the iust GOD for obstinate sinners whether in the field or in the chamber he knowes to finde them out How fearlesly did Ahaziah walke on his wonted pauement The Lord hath laid a trap for him whereinto whiles he thinkes least he fals irrecouerably No place is safe for the man that is at variance with God The body of Ahaziah was not more sicke then his soule was gracelesse None but chance was his enemy none but the God of Ekron must bee his friend He lookes not vp to the Omnipotent hand of diuine iustice for the disease or of mercy for the remedy An Idoll is his refuge whether for cure or intelligence Wee heare not till now of Baal-zebub this new God of flies is perhaps of his making who now is a suter to his owne erection All these heathen Deities were but a Deuill with change of appellations the influence of that euill spirit deluded those miserable clients else there was no fly so impotent as that out-side of the god of Ekron Who would thinke that any Israelite could so farre dote vpon a stocke or a Fiend Time gathered much credit to this Idol in so much as the Iewes afterwards stiled Beel-zebub the Prince of all the regions of darknesse Ahaziah is the first that brings his Oracle in request and payes him the tribute of his deuotion Hee sends messengers and sayes Goe inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recouer of this disease The message was either idle or wicked idle if he sent it to a stock if to a deuill both idle and wicked What can the most intelligent spirits know of future things but what they see either in their causes or in the light of participation What a madnesse was it in Ahaziah to seeke to the posterne whiles the fore-gate stood open Could those euill spirits truely foretell euents no way pre-existent yet they might not without sinne bee consulted the euill of their nature debarres all the benefit of their information If not as intelligencers much lesse may they be sought to as gods who cannot blush to heare and see that euen the very Euangelicall Israel should yeeld Pilgrims to the shrines of darknesse How many after this cleere light of the Gospell in their losses in their sicknesses send to these infernall Oracles and damne themselues wilfully in a vaine curiositie The message of the iealous God intercepts them with a iust disdaine as here by Elijah Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that yee goe to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron What can be a greater disparagement to the True God then to be neglected then to stand aside and see vs make loue to an hellish riuall were there no God in Israel in heauen what could wee doe other what worse This affront of what euer Ahaziah cannot escape without a reuenge Therefore thus saith the Lord Thou shalt not come downe from that bed on which thou art gone vp but shalt surely die It is an high indignitie to the True God not to be sought to in our necessities but so to bee cashiered from our deuotions as to haue a false god thrust in his roome is such a scorne as it is well if it can escape with one death Let now the famous god of Ekron take off that brand of feared mortalitie which the liuing God hath set vpon Ahaziah Let Baal-zebub make good some better newes to his distressed suppliant Rather the King of Israel is himselfe without his repentance hasting to Beel-zebub This errand is soone done The messengers are returned ere they goe Not a little were they amazed to heare their secret message from anothers mouth neither could chuse but thinke Hee that can tell what Ahaziah said what hee thought can foretell how hee shall speed Wee haue met with a greater God then wee went to seeke what need wee inquire for another answer With this conceit with this report they returne to their sicke Lord and astonish him with so short so sad a relation No maruell if the King inquired curiously of the habit and fashion of the man that could know this that durst say this They describe him a man whether of an hairy skin or of rough course carelesse attire thus drest thus girded Ahaziah readily apprehends it to be Elijah the old friend of his father Ahab of his mother Iezebel More then once had he seene him an vnwelcome guest in the Court of Israel The times had beene such that the Prophet could not at once speake true and please Nothing but reproofes and menaces sounded from the mouth of Elijah Michaiah and hee were still as welcome to the eyes of that guilty Prince as the Syrian arrow was into his flesh Too well therefore had Ahaziah noted that querulous Seer and now is not a little troubled to see himselfe in succession haunted with that bold and ill-boding spirit Behold the true sonne of Iezebel the anguish of his disease the expectation of death cannot take off the edge of his persecution of Elijah It is against his will that his death-bed is not bloody Had Ahaziah meant any other then a cruell violence to Elijah he had sent a peaceable messenger to call him to the Court hee had not sent a Captaine with a band of Souldiers to fetch him the instruments which hee vseth cary reuenge in their face If he had not thought Elijah more then a man what needed a band of fifty to apprehend one and if he did thinke him such why would hee send to apprehend him by fifty Surely Ahaziah knew of old how miraculous a Prophet Elijah was what power that man had ouer all their base Deities what command of the Elements of the heauens and yet hee sends to attache him It is a strange thing
Warriour an honorable Courtier yet a Leper no disease incident to the body is so nasty so loathsome as Leprosie Greatnes can secure no man from the most odious wearisome condition how little pleasure did this Syrian Peere take to be stooped to by others whiles he hated to see himselfe Euen those that honored him auoided him neither was he other then abhorred of those that flattred him yea his hand could not moue to his mouth without his own detestation the basest slaue of Syria would not change skins with him if hee might haue his honour to boot Thus hath the wise God thought meet to sauce the valour dignitie renowne victories of the famous Generall of the Syrians Seldome euer was any man serued with simple fauors These compositions make both our crosses tolerable and our blessings wholesome The body of Naaman was not more tainted with his lepry then his soule was tainted with Rimmon and besides his Idolatry he was a professed enemy to Israel and succesfull in his enmity How farre doth God fetch about his purposes The leprosie the hostility of Naaman shall bee the occasions of his saluation That leprosie shall make his soule sound That hostility shall adopt him a sonne of God In some prosperous in-rodes that the Syrians vnder Naamans conduct haue made into the land of Israel a little maid is taken captiue shee shall attend on Naamans wife and shall suggest to her mistresse the miraculous cures of Elisha A small chinke may serue to let in much light Her report findes credit in the Court and begets both a letter from the King and a iourney of his Peere whiles the Syrians thought of nothing but their booty they bring happinesse to the house of Naaman The captiuity of a poore Hebrew girle is a meanes to make the greatest Lord of Syria a subiect to God It is good to acquaint our children with the workes of God with the praises of his Prophets Little doe we know how they may improue this knowledge and whither they may carie it perhaps the remotest Nations may light their candle at their coale Euen the weakest intimations may not bee neglected A childe a seruant a stranger may say that which we may blesse God to haue heard How well did it become the mouth of an Israelite to extoll a Prophet to wish the cure of her master though an Aramite to aduise that iourney vnto the man of God by whom both body and soule might bee cured True Religion teacheth vs pious and charitable respects to our Gouernors though Aliens from the Common-wealth of God No man that I heare blames the credulity of Naaman vpon no other ground doth the King of Syria send his chiefe Peere with his letters to the King of Israel from his hands requiring the Cure The Syrian supposed that what euer a subiect could doe a Soueraigne might command that such a Prophet could neither bee out of the knowledge nor out of the obedience of his Prince neuer did he dreame of any exemption but imagining Iehoram to be no lesse a King of Prophets then of people and Elisha no lesse a subiect then a Seer he writes Now when this letter is comne to thee behold I haue herewith sent Naaman my seruant to thee that thou mayest recouer him of his leprosie Great is the power of Princes euery mans hand is theirs whether for skill or for strength Besides the eminency of their owne gifts all the subordinate excellencies of their subiects are no lesse at their seruice then if they were inherent in their persons Great men are wanting to their owne perfections if they doe not both know and exercise the graces of their inferiors The King of Israel cannot read the letter without amazement of heart without rending of garments and saies Am I God to kill and to make aliue that this man sends to me to recouer a man of his leprosie Wherefore consider and see I pray you how he seeketh a quarrell against me If God haue vouchsafed to call Kings Gods it well becomes Kings to call themselues men and to confesse the distance wherein they stand to their Maker Man may kill man cannot kill and make aliue yea of himselfe he can doe neither with God a Worme or a fly may kill a man without God no Potentate can doe it much lesse can any created power both kill and reuiue since to restore life is more then to bereaue it more then to continue it more then to giue it And if leprosie be a death what humane power can either inflict or cure it It is a trouble to a well-affected heart to receiue impossible commands To require that of an inferiour which is proper to the highest is a derogation from that supreme power whose propertie it is Had Iehoram beene truly religious the iniurie done to his Maker in this motion as hee tooke it had more afflicted him then the danger of his owne quarrell Belike Elisha was not in the thoughts of the King of Israel Hee might haue heard that this Prophet had made aliue one whom hee killed not Himselfe with the two other Kings had beene eye-witnesses of what Elisha could doe yet now the Calues of Dan and Bethel haue so often taken vp his heart that there is no roome for the memorie of Elisha whom hee sued to in his extremitie now his prosperitie hath forgotten Carnall hearts when need driues them can thinke of God and his Prophet when their turne is serued can as vtterly neglect them as if they were not Yet cannot good Elisha repay neglect and forgetfulnesse He listens what is done at the Court and finding the distresse of his Soueraigne profers that seruice which should haue beene required Wherefore hast thou rent thy cloathes Let him come now to mee and he shall know that there is a Prophet in Israel It was no small fright from which Elisha deliuers his King Iehoram was in awe of the Syrians euer since their late victory wherein his Father Ahab was slaine Israel and Iudah discomfited nothing was more dreadfull to him then the frownes of these Aramites the quarrell which hee suspected to be hatched by them is cleared by Elisha their Leper shall be healed both they and Israel shall know they haue neglected a God whose Prophet can doe wonders Many eyes doubtlesse are fastened vpon the issue of this message But what state is this that Elisha takes vpon him hee doth not say I will come to him but Let him come now to me The three Kings came downe once to his Tent it is no maruell if hee preuent not the iourney of a Syrian Courtier It well beseemes him that will bee a suiter for fauour to bee obsequious We may not stand vpon termes of our labour or dignitie where wee expect a benefit Naaman comes richly attended with his troopes of seruants and horses and waits in his Charet at the doore of a Prophet I doe not heare Elisha call him in for though he were great yet
instance in Moses 866 The wicked in their afflictions like the beasts that grow mad with baiting 874 Euery maine affliction is the godly mans Red-Sea 883 A way to discerne the afflictions of God and Satan 884 The enduring afflictions commendable 887 Afflictions send men to prayer 930 The purpose of affliction is to make vs importunate 971 When God hath beaten his child he will burne the rod. 971 The aduantage which afflictions haue 994 our afflictions more noted of the sender then of the sufferer 995 It is the infirmitie of our nature oft-times to bee afflicted with the causes of our ioy 997 An example of Gods making our afflictions beneficial 1000 Extremitie of distresse will send the prophanest to God 1109 1110 Agag of him and Saul 1073 Ag◠a pretty diuision of our ages and hopes in them 46 and burthens also 48 Agnus Dei The vertue of that which was sent by Pope Vrbanus the fift vnto the Greeke Emperour 621 Ahab of him Benhadad 1351 Of him and Naboth 1356 His spleene against Naboth whether of anger or griefe 1357 Iezebels cōforting him 1357 The power of conscience in him 1359 His sorrow censured 1359 Of his death 1360 c. The number of his Prophets ibid. All Satans subtiltie in desiring not all but halfe the heart p. 2 Our seruice to God must bee totall 477. 478 Whether all may reade the Scriptures 617 Trust him in nothing that hath not a conscience in euery thing 1006 Partiall conuersion of man is but hatefull hypocrisie 1051 The worst men will make head against some though not all sinnes 1109 Allegeance of the oath and iust suffering of those that refuse it 342 c. Almes it ought to be like Oyle 708 Alone Sinne is not acted alone 1138 Altar the altar of the Reubenites 967 No gaine so sweet as of a robbed altar 1054 The Altar cleaued to in danger by Ioab but otherwise not regarded 1261 1262 But t is no fit place for a bloody Homicide 1262 Alteration the itching desire of alteration manifested 1053 Amalek his foyle 893 His sin called to reckoning 1074 Ambition an ambitious man is the greatest enemy to himselfe 5 It hath torment enough in euery estate 16 Pretty steps of ambition 95 Its Character 197 Hard to say whether there be more Pride or Ignorance in ambition 985 Ambition euer in trauel 1150 Ammon of him and Thamar 1144 His lust prettily laid out 1146 Anabaptists their Kings or Captaines pride 443 Their dissention at Amsterdam prettily set out 445 Angels of the offices and acts of good and euill Angels 66 67 The vse that we should make of them as our friends and foes ibid. The danger of wicked men which haue Gods Angels to oppose them 934 Good Angels haue their stints in their executions ibid. How forward the good Angels are to incite to pietie 997 Hearty sacrifices are an Angels feast ibid. T is presumption to discourse of their Orders Titles c. 997 Of the Angell and Zacharie 1159 They reioyce to bee with vs whilst wee are with God 1161 What it is to pray to Angels in the Virgins salutation 1163 Anger the small difference betweene anger and madnesse 140 Anna and Peninna 1028 Of Eli and Hanna 1030 Amsterdam vid. Title Brownists and Separatists their separation iniury to the Church with the censure and aduice 315 Antiquitie of popish deprauing antiquitie 349 Apparell the children of God haue three suits of apparell 37 The glory of apparell is sought in noueltie c. with a sharpe reproofe of out-running modestie in it 1135 Appearance nothing more vncertaine then it 489 Of appearance of things and Men. 490 Appearance may bee reduced into three heads ibid. Where appearance is the rule see how the ordinances of God become to bee scorned 492 The Saints mis-deemed the Gallants estate mis-iudged 493 And false religion seeme true 494 Appearance is either a true falsehood or an vncertaine truth 1078 Application the life of doctrine 1142 Apocrypha whether it be to be receiued as Scripture 614 Austeritie there is euer an holy austeritie must follow the calling of God 995 Arke How to bee reuerenced 949 The strength of Gods Arke 952 The Arke and Dagon 1043 The prophane Philistims toyle in carying the Arke shames many our attendance at it ibid. The Arkes reuenge and returne 1046 The Israelites ioy of the returne of the Arke 1049 The remoue of the Arke 1050 Of Vzzah and the Arke 1127 Arts all arts are handmaids to Diuinitie 143 Asa of him 1326 Foure principall monuments of Asa his vertues 1327 Astonishment By it God makes way for his greatest messages 870 Authority An impression of Maiesty in lawfull authoritie 904 The errour of the mightie is armed with authority 917 Authority the marke of enuy 920 Awe The awefulnesse that God hath put into Soueraignty 1116 Awefulnesse is a good interpreter of Gods secret acts 1129 B BAdam Of him 931 And of his Asse 934 His madnesse in cursing the people 936 A pretty vse of Baalams death ibid. Bablers a good note of them 12 Baptisme A discourse of the necessity of it and of the estate of those which necessarily want it 367 Of Christs baptisme 1189 It giues vertue to ours ibid. Bathsheba Of her and Dauid and Vriah 1137 Shee mournes for her husbands death 1141 Beasts God will call vs to account for our cruelty to dumbe beasts 935 Beauty If it bee not well disciplin'd it proues not a friend but a foe 1145 Beelzebub Who he was 1289 Beginnings Wee must stop the beginnings of sin 937 Strange beginnings are not vsually cast away 994 Those affaires are like to proceed well that haue their beginnings of God 1025 Little can wee iudge by the beginnings of an action what will be the end 1053 As it is seene in Saul 1056 Beleefe First beleeue then conceiue 25 vide Faithfulnesse Beniamin His desolation 1019 Beneficence Our cheerfulnesse thereto excited 373 Benefits Wee lose the comfort of them if wee renue not our perils by meditation 1000 Birth Not to be too much discouraged by the basenesse of our birth 991 The very birth and conception of extraordinary persons is extraordinary 994 Bishops Whether ours be Antichristian 578 Blood It is a restlesse suter 1262 Boaz and Ruth 1025 Body How to bee caried in the worship of God 13 The gesture of the body shold expresse and helpe the deuotion of the soule 894 Dead bodies are not lost but layd vp 942 Boldnesse It s vsuall issue without ability 5 It is dangerous to bee too bold with the ordinances of God 949 Fearfull to vse the holy Ordinances of God with an vnreuerend boldnesse 1049 Boldnesse and feare are commonly misplaced in the best hearts 1052 A good conscience wil make a man bold 1060 Bookes Of neglecting good bookes 411 A bewailing the want of order iudgement in reading Popish bookes 412 God hath two bookes one of his word another of his works 1124 Brownists vide Separatists their scandalous aspersions
when euery vertue hath a disgrace 865 Victory The victories of God goe not by strength but by innocencie 955 Virgin The Virgin Maries extraordinarie Honour fauour and happinesse 1163 Of her Purification 1173 Her wofull mourning in the missing of her sonne 1186 Visions God neuer graceth the idle with visions 870 Not to bee proud of seeing visions the reason 934 935 Vnanimity It is not in the greatest Ecclesiasticall assemblies euer an argument of truth 1361 Vngodlinesse An vnmannerly godlesnesse to take Gods creatures without his leaue 1055 Vnitie Where God vniteth heart carnall respects are too weake to disseuer them 1086 Vnseasonablenesse The vnseasonablenesse of our actions rather hurt then benefit vs. 653 Vnthankefulnesse It is not in generous natures 1259 Vnthrift His character 198 Vnworthy It is no small miserie to be obliged to the vnworthy 991 Vocation vid. Calling Honest men may not bee ashamed of honest vocations 869 Vow Ieptha's vow 992 Vowes are like Sents ibid. An vnlawfull vow not to bee kept 993 The obligation of a secret vow 1032 How sacred our vow should be in things iust and expedient 1066 Rash vowes seldome free from inconueniencies ibid. Of Dauids Vow 1104 Vriah Of him and Dauid and Bathsheba 1137 How his austeritie doth condemne Dauids wantonnesse 1139 Vse It makes masterdome 143 Vzâ—ah And the Arke 1127 Of his death and pretty obseruations thereon 1128 His sinne ibid. W WAnt There is no want for which a man may not finde a remedy in himselfe except grace 56 57 Want meeting with impatient minds how it transports 885 By want will Sathan tempt vs to vnwarrantable courses 1194 Wantonnesse our wantonnesse in the enioyment of the Word notably expressed 62 No sinne more plausible then it 936 Warre Their names and censure who hold that warre is forbidden vnder the Gospell 452 There must be in warre two grounds two directions 452 Warres misery described 481 482 There is no warring against God 951 A good rule to bee obserued in the successe or want of successe in warre 955 To make warre any other but our last remedy is not courage but cruelty in Gods sight 992 Not fury but discretion must be the guide of warre 1081 Warre It is a noble dissposition in a victor to call for cessation of warre 1120 Warfare Our spirituall warfare admits no intermission 539 Warning Not taken is a presage of destruction 1007 No warning will serue the obdurate heart 1051 Warrant A note of doing vnwarrantable actions 1011 Water What it doth in Baptisme 1190 Wayes A Christian in all his waies must haue three guides First Truth Secondly Charitie Thirdly Wisedome 137 Weaknesse Wherefore serues the examples of the weake 1103 Wealth vid. Riches worldly wealth how to be esteemed 698 The strangenesse of a wealthy mans being proud and that in two respects 699 No iudging of men by their purses 1103 White It was euer the colour of ioy and linnen was light for vse 1130 Whitakers commended 287 Wicked vid. sinne and wickednesse The wicked hath three terrible spectacles 7 No maruell of the wicked mans peace ibid. The wicked afraid of euery thing 32 The wicked owe themselues to the good 837 Wickednesse is euer cowardly 863 The wicked in their prosperitie will hardly giue God his owne 873 The company of the wicked dangerous 921 The wicked neuer care for obseruing Gods iudgements vntil themselues be touched 931 Wickednesse meeting with power what it doth 933 It is not enough to gaze on the wickednesse of the times except we set too to redresse it 938 When God by the wicked hath beaten his children he will burne the Rod. 971 It is no thankes to themselues that wicked men cannot be cruell 1003 Wicked men neuer see fairer prospects then when they are vpon the brinke of destruction 1004 1005 Wicked men cannot see their prosperity a curse 1019 Wickednesse can seldome brag of any long prosperitie 1020 Wicked men when by carnall meanes they thinke to make their peace plunge themselues into deeper miserie 1076 The world hath none so great enemie to him as hee is to himselfe 1107 The mercy of the wicked cruell 1322 Widow A widowes sonne raised 1281 Wife How shee must carie her selfe 240 The good house wife many wayes 241 A good note for wiues 996 What it is to follow nothing but the eye in the choice of a wife 998 All the riches of the world not worth a vertuous prudent wife 1028 The hurt that came to Salomon by his wiues 1273 Of Ieroboams wife 1323 Will The will of God is the rule of all good and therefore it is not good to inquire after any other reasons of it 1108 Wilfulnesse wilfull men that are blind in all dangers are deafe to all counsells 105 Willingnesse of it how God will accept 896 Wine it is a Mocker 1140 Wise or wisdome the character of a wise man 173 Wherein it consists 211 Its fruits 212 Lewd men call their wicked policies wisdome 864 Good discourse is but the froth of wisdome 1271 Witches Sauls seeking to them 1079 Wherein hee may seeme a saint to some of our times ibid. Of the witch of Endor 1109 She was no lesse crafty then wicked 1111 Witnesse wee can doe nothing without a million of witnesses 64 Wonder Rarenesse causeth it 49 The application of it 50 They that affect to tell wonders fall into many absurdities ibid. A fruitlesse wonder that ends not in feare 1188 Word the milke and strong meat therein 145 146 Many hardned by the word 836 Words Sauls faire words 1087. O Nabals euill words 1103 Workes Two things viz honor and profit goe together in good workes 54 Our faith must be manifested by our workes 415 When wee make a right vse of the workes of God 947 World It is a stage both in regard of good and bad 27 Worldly cares fitly compared to thornes 142 An Epistle on the contempt of the world 276 How to vse tne world without danger 385 Worldly wealth how to be esteemed 698 The ouerprizing of worldly things what it doth 956 The worlds courtesies what 1001 The vaine hopes of worldly men cost them deare 1047 The holinesse of the worldly minded 1066 A worldly mind can rise easily but knowes not how to descend with patience or safety 1080 The quick-sighted worlding puâ— blind in spirituals 1245 Worldling His life most miserable 4 Euery worldling an Hypocrite 6 Worship concerning the superstitious heathenish and ridiculous worship of Papists 661 Of enioying a false worship with ease 1011 Y YOuth It must bee studious that old age may bee fruitfull 9 A good thing to 〈◊〉 youth to speake well 11 God will not accept of the dregs of old age if wee giue him not the head of our youth 140 An admonition to parents for being carefull of their youth 670 Of too much speed in sending our youth to trauell 671 Where youths lawlessenesse can finde pity what wickednesse can it forbeare 1015 Youth and ease let loose their appetites 1145 A lesson for youth froÌ„ Christs being so timely in the Temple 1187 The wayes of youth steep and slippery 1273 1274 Youth described very largely 1313 Z ZAcharie Of him and the Angell 1159 How chosen to his ministration 1160 Why an Angell and why this Angell was sent to him 1161 Of his speechlessenesse 1163 Zeale the goodnesse of God in winking at the errours of honest zeale 903 The zeale of God barres out weake deliberations 938 Gods loue to our zeale ibid. Wisdome is a good guide for zeale 968 We may learne zeale of Idolaters 1008 Good zeale cannot beare out presumption 1019 The heat of zeale what preiudice it doth sometimes 1120 Selfe-loue doth sometimes borrow the face of true zeale 1121 Worldly hearts can see nothing in actions of zeale but folly and madnesse 1130 Ziba of him and Mephibosheth 1131 His flattery and falshood discouered 1132 His due what it was deseruedly 1133 Ziglag spoyled and reuenged 1113 Gentle READER THE end of making Tables is not that thereby men might bee made Truants but it is rather to helpe to those memories that are weake or whose occasions are so great as that they cannot intend to turne ouer such a Volume as this though worth thy dayly and diligent reading and reuiewing For the further benefiting of thy selfe therefore take to thee this Rule Where euer thou findest any Obseruation or Aphorisme there if thou wilt make any further vse cast thine eyes on that which goes before or followes after and thou shalt finde it offering thee both excellent comfort and a furthering of thine inuention to the benefiting both of thy selfe and others And this I will promise thee further that if God shall lend this Mellifluous Bernard of Our Times the time of perfecting His Contemplations thou shalt haue in an other Volume as compleat a Table as this for finding euery particular word or Sentence And because there is feare on the Buyers part that there shall bee still additions of his Contemplations whereby he is discouraged from buying this Volume let me assure thee that it is the Authors intention to set out no more parts thereof vntill it riseth to a complete second Tome But content thy selfe with this that thou hast and pray to God with mee for the life and health of this Great Light and shining Lampe of our Church and I doubt not but he will giue good satisfaction vnto those that are industrious and ingenious And so I rest Thine as farre as thou wishest well to this Workman and his Labours Ro. Lo.