Selected quad for the lemma: world_n
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A01077
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The bitter vvaters of Babylon, or The miserable estate of the citizens of Sion considered by the confusion of all things in this world.
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Forsyth, James, fl. 1615-1619.
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1615
(1615)
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STC 11191; ESTC S121939
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26,614
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42
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cause them wrong their conscience neither do I hope to heare of such confusion wrought by men that feare God Neuerthelesse looke into the intricate endlesse enrolling of their proceedings in law and you shal finde a great confusion in making such demurres and delaies in their proceeding that oftentimes it comes to passe when the matter long depending is brought to an issue that then the summe of expenses shall weigh downe the worth of the sentence is not this confusion If the time would permit I might take a view of all estates that by their fashion I should finde a fit frame to make vp a Babel Sycophants and flatteres are daily preferred but Tom-teltroth little regarded Dionisius was often wont to bewaile the state of Princes and especially in this that men would not speake freely before them whereby the truth was hidden from them and Lewes the eleuenth the French King was wont to say that he had plenty of all things in his court but of one and being demanded what it was answered it was truth if truth be wanting in King courts what confusion is this to the common wealth Sigâ—… the Emperor was wont to account those Princes onely happie 〈◊〉 it would banish proud men out of their Courts and being â—n courteous and humble men in their places hee did not speake of the expelling of Sicophants â—…vers dissâ—… and tale-bearers for I thinke he thought then that many of their Courts should remaine vnfurnished if you runne thorough courts citties and countries to obserue them you shall hardly finde any thing but confusion The seruant rides on horse-backe the Master walkes on foote the body is onely had in estimation for they wil be sure to looke to the gilding of their goodly carkasses Pluris opes nunc sunt quam prisci temporis annis the body neuer more regarded but for the soule it may starue before it be restored of them The Kings daughter is all glorious within saith the Psalmist but Satans children are all gorgeous without like painted sepulchers that within are full of rotten bones thus yee see that Babel may be well compared to the world for the world is Babel and nothing in it almost but confusion which if it be not redressed in this life will bring a subuersion vpon both body and soule in the world to come and so I proceede with my comparison As the world may very well be compared to Babel euen so all the things therein may be well compared into the Riuers of Babel although Babel be a pleasant place yet it hath riuers in it which carries all away all things in the world are vaine momentarie and subiect to mutabilitie like vnto the riuers of Babel both ebbe and flow It is written of Sesostris a King of the Aegiptians that he had his coach drawne with foure Kings whom before he had conquered and one time perceiuing one of them to looke often backe did demaund the cause thereof I doe saith he behold and obserue that part of the wheele which was lowest becomes by and by highest and the highest lowest cogito de mutatione fortunae I note the vnstabilitie of things in this world such surely is the estate of all things in this world that there is nothing stable vnder thâ—…e Consider but the life of man and you shall perceiue iâ—… passe away like to the waters in the riuer as Gregorie Nazianzene doth well obserue it quae velut à fontis sui origine nascendo surgit sed ad ima defluens moriendo pertransit which from our birth as from a fountaine we arise to the height of our yeares but by passing away our daies in vanitie in the end we fall into the gulfe of death as the riuers runne into the sea which the woman of Tekoah very well noteth vnto Dauid omnes morimur sicut aquae dilabimur in terram quae non reuertuntur we all die and like water wee are powred out vpon the ground which doth not returne Not only our liues but also all things in this world which we do possesse Honor preferment riches strength all are momentanie and subiect to alteration they are of no continuance for either wee are taken from them or they depart from vs what profit had the rich wretch in the Gospell of his great substance when his soule was snatcht away that very night from him in the midst of his wealth and what gaine get many couetous worldlings of their goods when in the midst of their yeares they forsake them to passe away from vs they hauemany euasions The Prophet Ieremy saith that as a partridge doth hatch her yoong ones and by her helpe in relieuing of them they come to som groth then they forsake her euen so when a rich man hath taken great paines in heaping together riches in the midst of his daies they forsake him and leaue him like a foule It is reported of Saladine the Emperor that mightie Monarch that by his conquests obtained great wealth on a time lying vpon his death bed considering the vanitie and mutabilitie of earthly things he commanded a sheete to be tied to a poule and carried about the Citie and crie behold Saladine that great rich and mighty Prince of Asia for all his abundance in worldly things he carries nothing with him but this ragge Wherefore the Apostle Saint Iohn did diswade all men and women from the loue thereof Loue not the world neither any thing therein for in it there is nâ—â—â—ing but vanitie And the world shall passe away with the lust thereof but he that fulfilleth the will of God abideth for euer And so from the comparison betweene the world and Babel I come to obserue the different behauiour betweene the Citizens of Babel and the Citizens of Sion and that in three things specified in my text 1. The Citizens of Babel they sit in the midst of Babel â—either can they perceiue these things sedent in fluminibus they are so delighted with the pleasures thereof that they cannot see the confusion of them but the children of God sedent inxta flumina vel super flumina sit neere to the riuers or by the bankside and discerne their abhomination neither will they be ouertaken with them A man that walketh in the mist cannot perceiue whence it commeth nor whether it goeth but if he betake him aside vnto some top of a mountaine neere adioyning he shall discerne that it is nothing but a vapor arising from the serines and entrals of the earth thickning in the cloudes and vanishing in the aire so long as the earthly mindes of couetous worldlings are ouershaddowed with the darknesse of ignorance thickned with a greedie desire of worldly things as grosse and palpable as the darke mist of Egypt they cannot see perceiue nor vnderstand a worldly man doth not vnderstand these things that are of the spirit of God as long as they are in the midst of them they
cannot perceiue the vanitie nor frailty of them but if they would take them aside into the consideration of Sion and bee lifted vp in their mindes with an holy meditation they should perceiue that all the thinges of this life proceede from the bowels of the earth and vanish away in the aire The godly man he sees this and therefore sits by them and is not taken in delight with them but the wicked man vnderstands not and therefore like a foole is ouertaken with them O that the rich wretched worldling would but conceiue this that takes such pleasure in his riches and increaseth his wealth by vnlawfull meanes that sets his whole delight vpon the transitory things of this world and sits in the midst of Babel that as long as he dwels in the delight of these things he is subiect to confusion surely I thinke hee would be more liberall to the poore lesse hurtfull and enuious to his neighbors and put his riches to better vse then now he doth when hee puts his money to vsury but because he knowes not nor perceiues he not in what danger he is therefore he cannot shunne it as long as he dwels in a greedie desire things coueting worldly he cannot see but if he would betake him to a liberall distribution and by an heauenly contemplation consider the estate of his present being he should be able to discerne it Mathew sitting at the receipt of custome following his couetous calling with a greedle desire after coine rose vp at Christs call and followed him I would to God that I could finde one soule sitting here in a greedie desire after worldly things that would be mooued with contrition of heart for their couetous behauiour then should I thinke my selfe most happie in discharging my calling and winning one soule vnto God and also that soule saued in Sion euerlastingly 2 The Citizens of Sion spend not their time in mirth melodie as the wicked Babilonians do but rather in sorrow heauinesse the wicked saith Iob that liue in the delights of Babel nihil vlâ—ra sperantes looking for no other felicitie but that which they presently possesse spend their daies in mirth solace and feasting and walke with their kinssolkes friendes wiues and children and suddenly they go downe to hell together but the godly passe ouer their daies in sorrow heauinesse and lamentation and in the end are carried of the good Angels after the ending of their dolefull daies into Abrahams bosome we read in stories of former times how that the holy men in the primitiue Church did passe ouer their daies in solitarinesse praier and fasting as the Apostle to the Hebrewes doth very well obserue it sed tempora mutantur nos mutamur in illis the times are altered for men and women delight in these daies to spend their time in dissolutenesse rioting playing and feasting they did consider the miserie of this present Babel wherein they did liue their frailtie to yeeld vnto the wicked allurements of that cursed Countrey But I think men and women in these daies hope for no more ioy nor pleasure hereafter and therefore they make this life a recreation for their misery to come and satisfie themselues herewith while they are here but the wise man Salomon tell vs that it is better to go into the house of mourning then into the house of feasting because saith he where mirth is there are the hearts of fooles but where sorrow is there are the hearts of wise men wherefore our Sauiour pronounceth a blessing vpon those that lament in this life for they shall be comforted Aut continui dolores cruciabuut paenitentem vitam meam aut cruciatus aeterni vexabunt puniendam animam meaÌ„ necesse est peccatorem slerivel hic vel in futuro saith Saint Augustine Either continuall sorrowes must afflict a mans penitent life or else eternall torments shall vexe his damnable soule and of necessitie a sinner must weepe either heere in this life or hereafter The hearts of worldly men are so glutted with excesse of worldly pleasure that to be sorrowfull for their sinnes they haue no leasure Peter denies his Master and Peter weepes bitterly for his trespasse thou deniest thy Master daily and howerly by thy swearing lyingâ— and thy deceitfull actions and yet thou neuer weepest for it ipsi Petre statim demisit quia amarissimè fleuit si tu non sleas Christus non ad terespiciet noc tua culpa recedit Our Sauiour Christ gaue Peter a present pardon vpon his mourning if thou weepe not for thy transgression neither will Christ looke towards thee nor yet remit thy sinne for that sentence of our Sauiour is against euery one that remaines hardened in sinne except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Mary Magdalene shee wept for her adulterie and fornication but the Gallants of these times make it only a matter of recreation adolescentem scortari non est vitiuÌ„ to be wanton is but a tricke of youth If a man durst aske many of these young Gentlemen that walke gallantly along the streetes and they would ingeniously answere them they might as Diogenes did being demaunded whether he went going from the Lacedemonians to the Athenians eo à viris ad faeminas I go from men to women for to an harlet to the stewes or to a tobaco shoppe is their furthest iourney But why should I perswade men or women to a solitarie life seeing there is nothing in this world but matter of miserie therefore I should rather counsell them to take their recreation Beloued the wicked are too much giuen to worldly mirth and therefore when any solitary fit ouertakes them they will take them to somelewd company to driue away melancholy but let vs take heede when we are most secure in our merry moode then is Sathan most watchfull to winnow vs like wheat while Iobs children are feasting in their elder brothers house then the Diuell workes their ouerthrow Awake therefore all yee that sleepe in the securitie of sinne and fill vp your measure of mirth beyond all measure rouse vp yourselues ye that reioice in Babilon and weepe for your transgressions Awake ye drunkards and weepe howle all ye drinkers of wine because of the now wine for it shal be pulled from your mouthes Rouse vp your selues you Adulterers and Fornicators that stretch your selues vpon the bed of fornication to fulfill your lusts and lament for your vncleannesse because without yee repent in your pollution ye shall perish Ye Conetous-worldings arise from greedines and from getting of vnlawfull goods least yee be punished with Diues in hell torments And finally let vs all awake arise and rouse vp our selues from sin and weepe and mourne for our transgressions Auicen writeth that the Country of Caldea being full of riuers the Hart being wearied in chase and coming to the riuerside which she cannot passe goeth vnto the first man she seeth