of his mouth like an armory stored with cruell instruments of death whose teeth are speares and arrowes and his tongue a sharpe sword his words like hammers his throat like a gaping sepulchre the whole nature set on fire and now this faire Image of God this Microcosinus this little world for beauty and excellence is made a confused Image of shame and confusion so that in the whole nature of things vnder heauen there is not found so vgly mis-shapen a monster as an angry man What should we now say if that deformity might be seene which lurkes within Hence come slaunders deare brethren hence blasphemies cursing swearing lying fightings warres bloudshed euen from wrath the seminary of all mischiefe what Beare hauing broken the Grates is more sauage or outragious then Anger hauing once gotten out of the warde and custody of Reason We grieue not for the euill we haue done but for that we could not doe we will sooner repent what wee promised out of the aduice of Loue than what wee haue menaced in our fury O wretches if we doe not yet conceiue what wrong we doe to others yet let vs pitty our selues Our anger hurteth vs before it can hurt our brother What then gainest thou if thy ovvne minde being darkened reason cast behinde thy vnderstanding led captiue in wracke of thy soule and in confusion of thy selfe thy fury hath preuayled to hurt thy brother Nay what if thou hurt him not but with thy stroke hast lanced his vlcer and let out his impostumation as the enemy of Alexander Pheraeus did What if thou haue deserued of him better by being a bitter enemy than a svveet friend what if by this he become regardfull watchfull of his life What if thy wrongs haue turned to his gaine But were it not so yet by being injustly angry thou dost more absurdly than hee vvhich asked an hundred stripes that his fellovv might haue halfe for thou giuest thy selfe many stripes but art not sure to giue him one Thou dost but venture his vexation thou art sure of thine ovvne Thou makest men his enemies thou hast made God thine enemy Thou fightest against him with that svvord the very poynt whereof thou turnest to thine ovvne heart Thou woundest his fame thou slayest thine ovvne soule Socrates was wont to say when he saw a drunken man Num ego talis Am I such a one Let vs consider whether we be such as I haue said let vs see whether we haue offended God more by not repenting the euill then by committing it whether wee haue cursed them whom we should haue blessed vvhether vvee haue smitten them vvhom vve should haue defended if wee haue turned our compassions into cruelties and our loues into hatreds Let vs consider if wee haue rashly or despitefully slaundered our brethren and giuen the reines to sinne and made our members the vveapons of wrath and reuenge and say Are we such Doubtlesse the sinne of Anger should be so much the more detested of vs hovv much the more it fighteth against Loue and Charity the very Badges and Recognisances of our calling Neither ought vve to abhorre Anger onely as I haue spoken but all priuy and secret consultation vvith it For there is a sort of men which vvould seeme vvisest vvhich dissemble Wrath and giue it strength by delay vvhich harbour Hatred as a treasure in their hearts These doe but as the Lacedemonian Boy vvhich stole a Foxe and hid him so long vnder his cloake till at last hee did gnavve out his heart For vvhere Wrath is most hidden and concealed there is it not onely most filthy and abhominable but more pernicious and to be feared Therefore as Anger is sinne let vs not act our Anger neither openly neither in secret neither with a cause nor without a cause We haue handled two parts First the Permission Secondly the Prohibition Now followes the Exhortation in which we are instructed to confine this passion of our mind that it passe not her bounds Let not the Sunne goe downe vpon your wrath Plutarch in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Brotherly Loue writeth that it was the custome of Pythagoras Schollers how euer they had beene at oddes jarring and wrangling in their Disputations yet before the Sunnes set to kisse and shake hands as they departed out of Schoole A custome most worthy obseruation and most fit for the Scholers of CHRIST to end all dissentions and controuersie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the holy kisse of loue GOD forbid that when our liues are mortall that our hatreds should be immortall Nay if we haue entertained Anger as a bad guest let vs send him away quickely and turne him out of doores For he that but toucheth Pitch shall be defiled how much more hee that holdeth it in his bosome We should be glad to apprehend any occasion to shunne that which is euill This short night telleth vs of a long night The setting of this Sunne warneth vs of the setting of our life If GOD to our visible sight be contented to bury this blessed Sunne and â—…his sweet light of Heauen vnder the Earth all night shall we refuse to bury foule displeasure and cursed hatred and sinne How dare we commit our selues to Anger when we sleepe with which we haue no safe conuersation waking Who will deliuer the keyes of his house to a thiefe which will robbe him and lodge him in his secret Chamber and rest with him in bed Cuiuslibet est errare nullius nisi insipientis in errore per seuerare Any man may erre but none but madde men will perseuere in their errour What then can we better doe then redeeme our selues quickely from captiuity The Dogs in Egypt for feare of Crocodiles doe runne and drinke and doe wee drinke downe malice and lie downe and sleepe Doubtlesse hee which hath not maistred the enemie by the light of the day will be lesse able to doe it in the darkenesse of the night But let vs see what fruit may redound to vs from this counsell of the Apostle First we shall avoyde the familiarity of sinne then which nothing is more daungerous and shunne those occasions by which sinne insinuating it selfe into vs preuaileth at last to seeme sweet and pleasing so that it should neuer possibly appeare to vs but in her blacke shape and abhorred nature for the custome and fellowship with sinne lendeth that ougly monster opportunity to dissemble and shrowd it selfe vnder the couering of nature Be the familiarity of sinne as farre from the children of God as light from darknesse let rancor and malice and fury rest in the natures of fierce and sauage beasts whose outward formes and aspects doe threaten violence and cruelty If we iustly auoyde the company of sinners how much more the sinne it selfe How far should we be from harbouring dissention and strife in vs which if we follow the rule of the Apostle must not be named in vs. The
him Doubtlesse such trials are necessary for vs that as the loue of God bearing soueraignty in our hearts should make all the loues and delights of our life sweet so the feare of God in vs exceeding all other feares should make all the euills of this World to seeme lesse bitter Now as touching our purpose We see Abraham which had beene sufficiently tryed before in bearing his Crosse now put to the highest triall of all Whether he can sustaine to sacrifice his Sonne He had passed a long Pilgrimage before these things through many banishments and difficulties to fourescore yeares of Age he held his troubled life in Care in Euils in Danger in Bitternes in Feare He was twise driuen to depart the land to which he was called by promise and for necessity of Famine to flie to Aegypt his deere Wife was twise plucked out of his bosome He warred with foure Kings not without great danger of his life his Wife continued barraine on whose issue the Hope of his life attended When he had a Sonne by Hagar he is driuen to abandon him Now Isack is Borne he hath the Promise sealed in his bosome he hath quiet and rest in his old age But see God thundreth from Heauen and rowseth Abraham out of the onely ioy and content of his life Abraham take now thy only Sonne Izack whom thou louest Let Abraham teach vs what our life is He which bore the greatest loue to God what did hee but sustaine the greatest Triall Hee which held as a great Captaine in the hoste of God the buckler of Faith before vs all how notably doth hee shew the danger of so many sharpe encounters by so many dints of temptation and the impression of so many fiery darts of the Diuell Now as through Faith he ouercame in all so by him wee are taught that our life is nothing else but a certaine order and ranke of temptations where when one endeth another beginneth wherefore the Wise man saith My sonne when thou wilt come into the seruice of God stand fast in righteousnesse and feare and prepare thy soule to temptations But let vs not feare those euills which neuer linne mouing and tumbling vs vntill they haue set vs vpon the Rocke which is higher than they Let vs not feare that fire which can burne nothing but our drosse Let vs not feare those wounds which can let forth nothing but our corruptions but let vs brandish the sword of the Spirit against all spirits against the spirit of the flesh which seeketh sweet things against the spirit of the world which coueteth vaine things and against the lying spirit which was a murtherer from the beginning The iust shall liue by faith By Faith here iust Abraham liued by the Faith in which he offered his sonne Isack he ouerthrew the tentation which otherwise had ouerthrowne him Si credis caues si caues conaris conatum tum neuit Deus voluntatem inspicit luctam cum carne considerat hortatur vt pugnes adiuvat vt vincas certantem spectat deficientem sublevat vincentem coronat If thou haue Faith saith Saint Augustine thou wilt attend to thy Faith and God knoweth thy endeuour and considereth thy striuing with thy flesh and looketh into thy will and exhorts thee to the fight and helpes that thou maist ouercome and beholds thy striuing and proppeth thee when thou art falling and crowneth thee when thou hast ouercome But come we to the temptation it selfe where finding it said that God proued Abraham we learne that God hath his manner of tempting and prouing vs but such as is for our good and the exercise of our faith whose end is no other than to bring forth the light of good workes and a more sweet sauour of our life Neither is that of Saint Iames repugnant which saith No man is tempted of God but of his owne concupiscence For his purpose is onely to refute their damned blasphemy which to acquite themselues would make God the Author of their sinne therefore Saint Iames telleth vs that we must ascribe the causes of sinne to our owne concupiscence For the roote of them is from our owne heart For albeit Satan instill his poison and kindle with his bellowes a fire of euill desires in vs yet it is our owne flesh that is first mouer and our owne will which we obey For as corrūption could not by the heate of the ayre ambient enter into our bodies if our bodies did not consist of such a nature as hath in her selfe the causes of corruption No more could sinne which is a generall rot and corruption of the soule enter into vs through the allurement or prouocation of outward things if our soules had not first of themselues receiued that inward hurt by which their desire is made subiect to sinne as the womans desire was made subiect to the husband and as the Philosophers say the Matter to the Forme Now the forme of this temptation Moses setteth down in the highest sort whereas God doth seeme to shake the faith of his word in the heart of his holy seruant by a contrary engine of the same word To this God citeth Abraham by name twice to obedience that hee might haue no doubt who is the Author of the temptation Had he not beene certainely perswaded that it was the voyce the word of God with which hee stood charged to offer his sonne Izak hee might most easily auoyde any other temptation or whatsoeuer Art or subtilty the Diuell might haue vsed to batter his faith Now hauing no other standing but in the Word no other sword to fight against distrust he seemeth to be entrapped in his standing and with the same Sword himselfe is wounded with which hee should haue hurt the enemy For beloued brethren if this Sword being but taken from vs we must needs fall what shall wee doe when God seemeth to strike at vs with the edge thereof Now this was Abrahams case Let vs then heare the Word speake Take thy sonne Izhak whom thou louest c. We see with what griefe and resisting we endure the searching or cutting of our naturall affections though sinfull how then must it grieue him to vndergoe the rasing out of tender pitty of fatherly compassion which not onely were planted by Nature in his heart but were fed and cherished by Gods owne word If Zipporah could say to Moses thou art a bloudy husband for causing her to circumcise her son might not Abraham vrged by commandement to sacrifice his sonne say This is a bloudy word If the child had beene commaunded to haue attempted some hard thing against the father the like difficulty of execution had not ensued For albeit the commandement biddeth the sonne to Honour his father whereas no word of command vrgeth the father to honour the sonne This is done to no other end but to require the loue of children to
cast forth into the Wildernesse into the place of Dragons to haue thy abiding with Zym and Dragons and Ostriches and Ohim c. yet heere God looketh vpon thee The same God which saw thee when thou fleddest from thy Brother I the same God which saw thee when thy Mother which bare thee forsooke thee and shut thee vp in a little Arke of Slime and Pitch and cast thee forth among the Bulrushes and left thee floating vpon the water We see as the littlenesse or vnaptnesse of the persons cannot hinder God in executing by them works of wonder no more can the vnlikelinesse or vnaptnesse of the place He can make as many Springs to flow out of the rocky Desart as from Apenninus the father of Riuers hee can store the waste and roaring Wildernesse with as much prouision as fruitfull Aegypt he can leuye as great an Armie from Sina bushes as from the middest of Pharaohs Kingdome But what is the reason that God appeareth to Moses rather in the Wildernesse then in Aegypt Haue the Aegyptians onely driuen out Moses from them Haue they not also chased God away He cannot abide in Pharaohs Court there is so much hardnesse in Pharaohs hart he cannot abide in their land for their cruelty nor in their Temples for their Idolatry It was a poore entertaynement that the Lord of life when he came to dwell with vs and to inhabite our flesh that hee must be driuen to seeke the Asses cratch and that our vnthankefulnesse did thrust the God of life into a Stable but it was harder that quietly the Babe IESVS could not enioy that but Mary must be driuen to flie by the way of the Wildernesse into Aegypt to hide her Sonne for feare of Herod and the Iewes Why doe we thus banish God from vs and chase him forth into remote and farre Countries from whence he will not returne but to smite vs and iudge vs as he did the Aegiptians heere Why doth hee rather dwell in the thornie bush then in Pharaohs heart He is not in Samaria but he is in the Desart with Eliah he is not with Belshazzar in his Pallace Dan. 5. but he is with Daniell in the denne of the Lyons Dan. 6. He is not in Sodome but hee is in the Mountaine with Lot He is not with Saul in his Tent but he is with Dauid in the caue Oh our vngratefulnesse nay our wretchednesse if where we are most there God is least Now for the third part in order the Place particular It should little boote to set downe the varietie of the opinions of them which haue interpreted this vision but God had doubtlesse his secret heere Some apply it to the Israelites and their peruerse disposition which were alwaies like the thornes which resistes the fire Some take for the Bush the wombe of the blessed Virgin some the bodie of CHRIST I will not maintayne these opinions neyther will I impugne them but we more safely compare this vision with that of Abrahams where God appeared to him in a firebrand out of a darke Fornace The reason is God sufreth not his people to be extinguished in darkenesse The afflicted and oppressed people of Israell we may resemble to the low shrub or bush The tyranny of Pharaoh to the fire burning in the middest which had consumed them had not God miraculously preserued them So by the presence of God the bush scapes the fire as it is written that although the flouds lift vp themselues against the Sanctuary of God yet it shall not be moued because God is in the middest of it Saint Paul saith of God our God is a consuming fire But Moses can say our God is a preseruing fire To the Aegyptians he was a consuming fire but to the Israelites a preseruer from fire He consumed the Captaynes of Ahaziah but he preserued Elijah Hee consumed the Princes of Nabuchodonosor but he preserued the three children in the middest of the fire Isay was preserued by this fire for when God touched his mouth with a coale burning from the Altar he heard Thine iniquitie shal be taken away and thy sinne purged And although the fire be now out of the Bush yet Christ hath brought fire anew from heauen and left it burning in the Tongues and Lippes of his Apostles and made them the Lights of the world Now touching the Vision No doubt but Moses was wonderfully astonished with the miracle he goeth aside to wonder to gaze at this strange sight But these if thou compare Moses with those miracles which God wil worke by thee with those great wonders in Aegypt with his continuall appearing to thee in a Cloude by day and in a Pillar of fire by night This burning flame I say if thou compare with these and with Mount Sinai burning all with fire it shall seeme to be but a little sparke And yet that great deliuerance of Gods people which was wrought by Moses at which all the earth trembled which filled all hearts with astonishment which was done with so mighty an hand outstretched arme compare we it to our deliuerance in Iesu Christ and it will seeme but as shadow to a body and lesse indeede than a little sparkle to a great flame What is their deliuerance from Aegypt to our deliuerance from Death and Hell What the leading of them through the red Sea to our washing in the bloud of Christ What the standing of the Sunne at the praier of Ioshuah to the descending of the Sunne of God into the world What the slaying of the first borne in Aegypt to the crucifying of Iesus Christ the Lord of Life Come we how to the manner of his calling which is the fourth in order Heere wee earne first that this was no dumbe shew to terrifie the holy man For it hath Doctrine annexed to establish his minde And indeede the miracle is great but the calling of Moses is greater And God calleth Moses by name familiarly which telleth him that now hee hath a kinde of fellowship and acquaintance with God that he must now walke with God and forget his father and acquaintance in the flesh and his flocke of sheepe and the world and follow his calling For God by speaking to him in this sort doth enter and insinuate himselfe into his minde and moue him to regard his daily walking as a continuall judging For how must they walke with whom Gods eie doth alwayes walke as an indiuiduall companion Now God by nameing vs when hee calleth shewes that hee knowes vs when he speaketh not He calls vs in time he knowes vs before time when he calleth he is not neerer to vs than he was before but he teacheth vs to draw nearer to him But this is the least we can imagine of God to thinke hee walketh with vs as an indiuiduall companion for hee walketh in our soule and betweene the diuisions of