themselues vnto them yet are they no other indeed but the Chimeraes and Gorgons heads of ridiculous and fanaticall fopperie From out all these impious and impure routes of pretended purity and perfection the view of the sacred beauty of the true purity and perfection of Christ Iesus doth deliuer vs and teacheth vs that men are deceiued most with shewes and that the diuell when he meanes most mischiefe then doth he as Iezabel did paint and set out himselfe to shew Let vs therefore hence learne important considerations and wise iudgements and let vs trie the spirits whether they be of God or no for all is not gold that glittereth saith the old and true English Adage Is there one that can cunningly expound the Scriptures Do not suddenly beleeue him for so could the caytiffe Caiphas Is an other skilfull in all diuine and humane hearing so was Iulian yet an apostate Hath an other receiued gracious and principall gifts of Gods spirit So had Saule the reprobate Do others know the mysteries of faith of Moses and of the Prophets So knew King Agrippa yet his best was but almost a Christian. Can others foretell and presage things to come So could bawling Balaam being a base hireling Can they cite the Scriptures So could the damned diuel Are they readie in the Fathers of the Church and in the Councels so were the ancient hereticks Faustus Arrius Manichaeus Especially note them if they pretend holy and pure names as do the mahumeticall Saracens at this day boasting that they came of Sara the free woman when as indeed they are Agarens of Agar as Zosomen a thousand yeares agoe obserued And as the Iudaites did call themselues of Iudas the Gaulonite or Galilean who would not endure the name of Lord to be attributed to any creature They themselues being a rabble as the booke of God tells vs of desperate cutthroates Beware then of false prophets and be assured that as many as partake of this beauty are essentially sincere not in words onely but in deeds not in conceit or opinion but in vnderstanding and verity for whatsoeuer they beleeue it is either of nature grace or glory The things of nature they see touch and feele The blessings of grace they reade they perceiue they enioy and ioy in the certaine expectation of glory which euen now they haue a taste of and earnestly long after The things they hope for are not Absolons pillar set vp in the kings dale nor the flower of the poppie the hypocrites hypothesis But those beatitudes which they expect are sure certaine and euen in this life by faith euident The things they ought to do they acknowledge to be the mandates of the highest God Therefore to be performed They know they are iudgements not opinions therefore to be subscribed vnto They are statutes like these of the Medes and Persians therefore not to be repealed they are testimonies and therefore binde the consciences We pray therefore That this name may be sanctified by goodnesse not dishonored by seeming godlines That his will may be done in sincerity not neglected with pretence of purity and that his kingdome may come vnto vs in verity and not we put it from vs in deceitfull integrity For the life of an hypocrite is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a masked mummery not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a knowne veritie His faith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things imaginary not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of soliditie His memoriall as a post that hastneth by his good deeds as the trace of a ship in the waters no where to be seene and his glory as the waffing of a birds wings in the aire but her passage appeares not Let the Atheist then tremble hereat for he is indeed the diuels vizard Let the Libertines feare that arose frō Coppin and Quintan in the Low countries being the basery of basenesse Let the begetters and hatchers of new opinions be amazed who more trust their priuate spirit then the streame of iudgement who had rather be the head of a foxe then the taile of a lyon and choose rather with imperious Caesar to be the first and chiefe of meane and beggerly Tarentum then the second of imperiall and triumphant Rome And let vs men and brethren be rauished with the true and matchlesse beautie of our Lord Iesus Gods best beloued our welbeloued and let vs be Reals not Nominals onely knowing that we looke not for an imaginary heauen but for the heauen of heauens the coelum coelorum being alwaies mindfull of that of our Sauiour Vnlesse your righteousnes exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisies that is of all hypocriticall and seeming professors you cannot enter into the kingdome of heauen Come then ye faithfull soules vnto this pure and bright fountaine of grace and his bloud shall purge you from all sinnes past present and to come Come to this pure fountaine for here is the cleane water that Ezechìel speakes of powred out vpon you to purifie you in Gods sight by the inuisible hand of the sacred Trinitie Call vpon God that he may wash you with hysope of grace here that you may be truly cleane as all his people are and that in the end he may present you beautifull and blamelesse in his displaied glory in the bright and white eminent robes of his owne righteousnesse in Christ our onely mediatour and perfecter And then doubtlesse our soules shall yet further see euen in this life another glimpse of this surpassing beautie for our beloued is not onely white but ruddie also white in purenesse ruddy in zealous loue towards vs both seraphicall and cherubicall herein both wholy passible and wholy amiable Let vs reuiew then this his zealous loue in the mystery of the colour prefiguring his passion and in the history of the substance performing the forespoken prophecies There is a threefold red 1. a skarlet red 2. a roseall red 3. a purple red all prefiguring this our welbeloued in his sufferings and really performed in him Who is this that cometh from Edome that is frō this cursed earth saith Esay with red-coloured clothes of Bozrah that is with trophies of victory and triumph c. There is skarlet red Esay 63. 1. I am the rose of the field and the lillie of the vallies saith Christ of himselfe there is roseall red Cant. 2. 1. And in the Gospel we reade that his enemies put a purple garment vpon him to portend his purple death This colour was also prefigured in the red sea that saued Israel in the red cowe in the sacrifices in the red cord in Reahabs window the secure hostage of warre in the red threed about Zarahs arme in his birth of whose pedegree Christ descended Oh our welbeloued is a violet in humilitie a lillie in puritie a rose in suauity You see the colour behold also the substance and performance of this zealous loue which to display vnto you I shall be bold to take vp
Ieremies proclamation vsed in his Lamentations and say vnto you as if Christ himselfe spake in person and shewing you his sufferings should crie Haue ye no regard all ye that passe by this way Behold and see if there be any sorrow like vnto my sorrow which is done vnto me and wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce wrath For what could he haue suffered that he did not suffer He was most lamentably afflicted by all sorts of men for whom he suffered Despised he was of Iewes 2. Scorned of Gentiles Princes of the earth stood vp and kings banded themselues against the Lord and against his Christ. 4. Priests conspire in counsell and choose a murtherer rather then the Lord of life Souldiers deuide his vestures 6. His owne seruants flie from him Iudas betraies him Peter denies him Thus we may on all sides see Iewes and Gentiles Princes and Priests souldiers and seruants doing whatsoeuer the Lord of heauen had determined before to be done Looke vpon him againe and see him perplexed in all his members with loathsome spittings in his blessed face with piercing thornes vpon his sacred head with buffets vpon his comely cheekes with stripes vpon his manly backe and with the transverse part of the crosse vpon his glorious shoulders 3. Impeached in his estate with scornefull reproches his good name wronged with blasphemies his honor trampled vpon with shamelesse obloquies his holy garments shared with profane lottery and his reputation stained with the association of theeues 4. Tormented in his senses his touch with the piercing nayles his sent with the loathsomnesse of Caluarie the place of dead sculs his hearing with wicked detractions his sight with the sorrow of his blessed mother and with the moane of his beloued disciple his taste with gall and vineger Inwardly also distressed for his soule is heauie euen vnto the death so that he cries Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me and sweateth clots of bloud that trikle downe to the earth to blesse it that was accursed At which time an Angell is sent from heauen to comfort him Yea in the extremity of this his vnspeakeable passion he cries with a loud voice My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Yet none of this nor all this could suffice vntill he had yeelded vp his sacred soule into the hands of his heauenly Father Blessed and beloued men fathers and brethren in this our Beloued is not this his zealous loue the roseall beautie of our benediction 1. Is not this that bloud that purgeth vs from all our sinnes 2. that speaketh better things for vs then the bloud of Abel for that called for vengeance but this craues for vs mercie 3. Is not this the sacrifice whereby we haue remission of our sinne 4. Is not this the reconciliation whereby wee do partake of the diuine nature this sacred bloud being shed into our hearts by the Spirit of God 1. Is not this red sea the bath for all sinners to cure vs of our leprosies of incontinency of our lethargies of ingratitude of our dropsies of couetousnesse and of our palsies of inconstancy and strayings aside from God 3. Is not this the oblation that maketh God propitious and a louing father vnto vs openeth the kingdome of heauen that was shut and sealeth vnto vs all the holy promises of God Let then a beleeuing soule say O Lord Iesus what shall I repay vnto thee for this thy loue I owed the debt and thou didst pay it I haue sinned and thou art punished this whole worke of thine is singular patience the performance of it wonderfull humility the cause vnspeakeable charity I haue circuited the whole earth and can finde no where any such loue as in thy glorious passion the breadth whereof is Charity diffused dilating it selfe into the fowre parts of the world The length is long suffering for thou hast borne mans iniquities the height is the hope of heauen and a certaine assurance of the same The depth of it is deliuerance from the lowest deepe the pit of fatall and finall destruction If any should perswade me to come downe from the high meditation of this sacred mystery I should greatly refuse it for it shall euer be a bundle of Myrrhe betweene my breasts yea here will I die and not descend vntill the Lord stretch his hand from heauen and take me into his holy sanctuary But to the retchlesse and respectlesse soule which regardeth none of this our welbeloued saith farther See what I suffer these paines these grones these moanes these nayles these thornes this speare this profusion and red sea of crimson bloud yet am I much more inly tormented that thy wilfull soule should yet be vnthankfull for this so vnspeakable loue for this so vnutterable and grieuous passion sustained for thy sake to make thee a wretched sonne of man by nature to become a blessed sonne of God by grace Let vs beloued and beleeuing brethren take yet a reuiew of this blessed beauty in the sacred mixture of white and red for he is ruddy both in himselfe and in his mysticall members 1. In himselfe his beauty appeares ruddie for in the sacrament he is white in the bread and red in the wine therefore in the Scripture stiled sometime Manna which was white like the christall dew and sometime a Vine which yeeldeth red grapes to glad the heart of man The grapes of this sacred vine were the parts of his body the crosse the wine presse his bloud the holy liquor thereof making glad both God and man God in the holy obedience of his sacred Sonne purchasing himselfe a glorious kingdome and man in the saluation of his sinfull soule These sacred seales of bread and wine shew the Lords death vntill he come againe Iosephs coate besprinkled with bloud portended him to old Israel as dead but not actually but these shew our true Ioseph to be crucified and done to death in deed and yet he like Sanpsons lion sends forth euen in after his death sweete hony combes and most redolent graces For his death abateth the sting of death abandoneth sinne despoileth sathan the strong man of his weapons and procureth for vs that die in him the land of the liuing This holy mixture of white and red appeared in the opening of his side whence flowed water and bloud this blessed opening being much more powerfull then Moses rod for that caused water onely to come out of the rocke but this both water and bloud The Fathers therefore obserue that as out of the side of the first Adam the woman was taken by whom came sinne so out of the side of the second Adam the Church should be framed to saue as Noahs arke the sonnes of men from the generall and fearefull deluge of sinne and shame Let then now all Histories tell or historiographers of the world shew if in any age they haue seene or read how that a mans
liue in his feare Taste then and see how gracious the Lord Iesus is and how plentifull is his goodnesse which he hath layed vp for them that feare him and prepared for them that trust in him euen before the sonnes of men He being the perfection of Priesthood and prophecie of sacrifice and sacrament so that now who so setteth his heart vpon any thing but vpon the Lord Iesus is liable to the extreme curse of Gods desertion Set not then your hearts on beautie beloued it is but a forward blossome soone nipt nor on pleasure it is but a bitter pill lapt in sugar nor on your belly it is but the pantrie for the draft house nor on riches they are but guiles and baites to insnare vs which while they are in getting wearie vs while they are possessed befoole vs and when we lose them they crucifie vs. Set not your hearts on the fauour of Princes or Potentates for they are but the sonnes of men nor on ambition it is but a feather tossed with the wind nor on gay apparell it is but rags nor on goodly houses they are but so many bonefiers against the day of doome nor on any thing vnder the sunne but only like and loue them in and for the Lord Iesus sake as they are either remedies for sin or directions in ordine ad Deum for our vsefull necessities and furtherances to further our future happinesse But as for those who despite the spirit of grace and trample the blessed bloud of the new Testament vnder their feete as do all sycophantizing Papists schismatizing Puritans neutralizing Atheists satanizing scorners of all godlinesse truth and honestie I will euer pray against their wickednesse Psal. 69. Let their table be their snare their eies dimmed their habitation voide their backes bowed downe let them heape vp iniquitie vpon iniquitie and let their names be razed out of the booke of life Let them be vnto vs as paganish Ethnicks and Publicans as vncleane leapers put out of the campe of Israel as rotten members cut off from the bodie of the Church as dead branches broken off from the true vine as vncleane dogges put out of the holy Citie and as those of the Concision of whom we must beware Phil. 3. 2. Yea let all that is about them be hatefull vnto vs. Let the goods of such be as the cursed things of Iericho their houses as odious as a iakes their possessions as direfull as Acheldama their gaines as vile as the Pharisies Corban their name as branded and as infamous as was Ieroboams their posteritie as obscure as the vntimely fruite of a woman which neuer seeth the sunne If they be honourable and do not honor Christ ô Lord lay their honor in the dust If noble let them be accompted base vnlesse they be ennobled in Iesus Christ. If learned let their learning be a by-word and a fable among the vulgar that studie not to be students in Christs schoole If they be a whole nation let their portion be as the men of Ashdod 1. Sam. 5. If a king let him be made as Nebuchadnezzar that he may know the Almightie If a Courtier let him be despised in the sight of the king yea let all them be deliuered ouer that loue not the Lord Iesus but despise him vnto Sathan by excommunication that confession at least may be wrested from them as it was from Simon Magus and Elimas the Bariesu who craued aide of the Church which formerly they desperatly despised that if it be the will of the Lord they may be saued by repentance in this day of grace before that fatall and finall diuorce from the Lord of their soules and bodies be denounced before the curses of separation Depart from me of indignation ye cursed of dolor into fire of desperatiō into hell fire of confusion prepared for the deuil and his angels be in the last iudgement awarded against them for their contempt of the Lord Iesus Christ. But to them that seeke the Lord Iesus mella fluant illis and all the beatitudes of mount Gerazim let their eares neuer heare the horrors of the vale of the children of Hinnon but let Sions rayes shine vpon them all their life and let the Lord Iesus appeare vnto them in his second coming to saluation who loue him and looke for him from heauen and long for him from the bottome of their hearts crying come Lord Iesu. Let them heare ô Lord thy perfect blessings of association Come of benediction ye blessed of inheritance possesse of glory the kingdome of election prepared for you before the foundations of the world were layed And God perswade Iaphet to dwell in the tents of blessed Sem. Euen so ô Lord be it Amen My welbeloued is white and ruddie the chiefest of ten thousand Cant. 5. 10. YOu may iustly demand of me blessed and beloued in the Lord Iesus as the daughters or faithfull people of Ierusalem do here of the spouse in the Canticles concerning her beloued saying What is thy beloued more then other beloued what is thy beloued more then another louer that thou dost so charge vs because of late I denounced from this place before you not against you for I am perswaded better things of you my brethren and such as accompanie saluation Paule his fearefull curse of Anathema Maranatha to wit If any man loue not the Lord Iesus let him be accursed when the Lord shall come And my reply vnto you must be my text which the spouse here maketh to the like demand that is My beloued is white and ruddie the chiefest of ten thousand The words are few the matter manifold Out of Sion saith Dauid hath God appeared in perfect beautie for what higher and more heauenly perfection can be imagined or was euer hard of then Sions sacred rayes which giue bright splendor and most glorious lustre to the whole Christian world The rigor of the law frō Sinay is satisfied in the righteousnesse of the Gospell from mount Sion If any thē be affectionate let him come hither here is loue and if he haue grace here is his welbeloued also and this commencement and commerce of sweet loue will be the whetstone of true perfect and perpetuall loue If any be curious here is amiable beautie white and ruddie white answering the purenesse he would haue and ruddie corresponding the zealous hartines he would craue And further if he shall be curious and be elegans formarum spectator here is choice euen the chiefest of ten thousand For here he may behold the spouse first shewing her deere affection then her true loues description her affection she vttereth by appellation of vnfained loue welbeloued and also by application thus My welbeloued she then describes him generally as thus is white and ruddie the chiefest of ten thousand And then particularly in his parts as in the verses following of this Chapter In her generall description she sets him downe in
orient colours of heauenly perfection as first his puritie is white both essentially is and especially to white Secondly his purity and zeale both Zeraphical and also Cherubical wholie passible wholy amiable euen in these words and ruddie which is a sweete and seemely cōmixture of white and red Then the choice aboue thousands and the chiefe of choice the chiefest of ten thousand In loue then you see he is matchlesse in purity spotlesse in zeale pricelesse in choice peerelesse Come hither then thou passionate louer and repent thee of thine inordinate and immoderate loue to alluring and deceiptfull beautie that vaine vermillion die mingled with white like bloud in snow both vanishing with the Suns beames with sicknes old age and many other casualties and whereof thou thy selfe art suspicious euen while thou dost enioy it and art inlie tormented lest an other should pertake with thee come hither I say and sit downe at these pure waters a while and let thy soule see and be rauished with the sight of celestiall beautie and grace shining vnto thee miserable and wretched man euen from heauen and yet thou neuer didst vouchsafe so much as once to cast thine eie vpon it No man I confesse can pourtray or delineate this loue vnto thee as it is in deede therfore I could wish that my soule had consulted with the Lord Iesus his Paranymph the beloued disciple who leaned vpō his sacred breast at supper and felt the breathes of blessed loue that breathed out of his tender bowels or had bene rapt vp with Paule into the third heauen to be lift vp aboue my selfe or had seene that glimpse of glory which Peter saw in mount Tabor or had conferred with him who died meditating on this loue and saying at his last gaspe Loue is as strong as death or had bene with Philip Melancthon who departed this life saying Egrediamur egrediamur or at least had heard sweete Bernard preach thereof or learned Theodar Beze both purposing to write their meditations thereon and to go through this song but both dying before they could finish it as being surprised as I conceiue with the singular loue of the Lord Iesus pourtrayed herein most mystically and diuinely But how shall I then dare to aduenture or take vpon me to open my mouth to set forth this loue seeing as S. Bernard saith None can vnderstād Paules meaning but they that are endued with Paules mind so none can conceiue the spouses affection but they that are touched with the like loue How shall wee either speake of the spouses tender affection or you heare accordingly seeing we are all carnall sold vnder sinne and these things are mystically and spiritually discerned This onely comforts me that God hath granted two meanes to know these sacred mysteries the one infused and extraordinarie onely proper and peculiar to the men of God in the former ages the other attained by studie and industrie ioyned with inuocation to God for illumination grace the onely sacred reliques of Iesus Christ left to his seruants in these last ages The Gospel being the foundation of all our sacred skill out of the which whosoeuer preacheth Christ crucified hath the mind of Christ. And hauing his mind we may with reuerend boldnesse auerre that we also know the true Churches meaning Hearken then to the Church here styling Christ her welbeloued for he is hers and shee is his first she by way of petition intreateth saying Shew me ô thou whom my soule loueth when thou feedest where thou liest at noone And then he by way of replication answereth My loue my doue mine vndefiled open vnto me for my head is full of dewe and my haire of the drops of the morning whereupon the Church doth in eight Chapters in this diuine song nine and twenty times style him her best beloued as if she could neuer too oft remember his vnspeakeable loue towards her his welbeloued Saint Paule also a sonne of this sacred mother hath in his Epistles fiue hundred times the name of his Lord Iesus as accōpting himselfe most happie when that most sacred name of loue and life sounded in his lips or was written with his pen. If therefore we of the last and worst generation be transported and out of our wits as you think being rauished with the surpassing loue of God it being shed in our hearts by the holy Ghost weare it to God or if we be modest and in our right mind we are it vnto you for the loue of Christ constraineth vs. S. Iohn the beloued disciple now being old writes of nothing else but of this loue as appeareth in his canonical Epistles chusing now to die and depart in beholding the surpassing beautie thereof insomuch that he summons all degrees children yong men and the aged to the view thereof as being indeed their heauen vpon earth For who so abideth in this loue dwelleth in God If we shall descend lower to other lights of the Church we shall also see that this was the earnest most certaine pledge that their soules had here euen to be swayed and transported with this diuine loue Euery thing is caried with his weight Loue is my weight saith S. Augustine by it am I caried whither soeuer I am trāsported S. Bernard admireth this loue that God being so great so greatly should loue vs wretched miscreants and that freely Cyprian aduiseth vs to preferre nothing before the loue of Christ forasmuch as he preferred nothing before our loue Eusebius Emiss epitomiseth our seruice thus Be not distracted with many circumstances for what God requireth of thee is in thee to wit the seruice of thy mouth by confession and the affection of thine heart in faithfulnes In thy heart then hath God set the soules city of refuge that whence the sin came the medicine might thence also issue How nigh then is this remedie How sweete is this counsell Of this doubtles spake Moses It is neare euen in thy mouth and in thine heart miserable therfore is our condition saith Ierome not to be with him without whom we cannot be Be with God we cannot otherwise while we are here then by affection What ô loue can be sufficiently said in thy praise saith Hugo de S. Victore seeing through thee God should humble himselfe to descend from heauen and man should be exalted from earth to heauen great is thy power that thus God should be abased and sinfull man so aduanced Thus haue the sacred sonnes of the true Churches generation expressed their affectionate rauishments in this diuine loue shewing that nothing can be more pious nothing is more precious And this heauenly affection also is not onely generall in the whole Church but also particularly in euery religious soule which applieth it soundly certainely and sweetly to it selfe and saith as the spouse here He is my beloued by way of appropriation whereby wee may discerne a twofold certainety of our
the cloud that led the people of God in the wildernesse was darke toward the Aegyptians but bright and lightsome toward the Israelits So if our Gospell be hid it is hid to them that are lost for now the booke is opened and the seales loosed By Baptisme the second seale we put on Christ Gal. 3. 2. For as many as are baptized into Christ haue put on Christ are engraffed into him by the Spirit Rom. 6. For if we be graffed into him by the similitude of his death euen so shall we be in the similitude of his resurrection It being the lauacre of regeneration both priuatiuely and positiuely priuatiuely in forgiuing our sinfulnesse and positiuely in conferring his owne righteousnesse vpon vs begun by sanctification perfected by glorification This blessed seale of sacred baptisme being vnto vs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Alexandrinus calleth it the counterpoise of all deadly venime of corruption being also the diluuium peccati as Nazianzen cleapes it the deluge of sinne the water of adoption so Basil and the purgatory of life so Chrysostome These vertues being not in the element nor in the weight of the worke nor in the intention of the Baptizer but onely in the bloud of Christ which purgeth vs from sinne and shame By the third seale to wit his Passion we are reconciled to God the Father and sealed to euerlasting life Behold the wounds of Christ hanging vpon the crosse his precious bloud shed in his agony of death the price of our redemption Behold againe his head on the crosse inclined to heare vs pray his heart opened that we might see his deare loue his armes stretched forth to embrace vs his whole body exposed to shame scorne and torture to redeeme vs. His descent the fourth seale was the death of death and the death of the diuell who had the power of death the ruine of the gates of hell that they might neuer preuaile against his people the triumph ouer darknesse and the defiance of all hellish power and principalities By his resurrection the fift seale our corruption putteth on incorruption the bandes of death are broken the horror of the graue is turned to sweete repose and sacred rest in the Lord. By his ascension the sixt seale reuealed is opened an entrance to heauen for vs from whence before wee were exiled He is entred himselfe not in his owne name but in ours according as he himselfe saith I go to prouide you a place Ioh. 14. In a word he ascended to fulfill all things the earth with his mercie hell with his iustice and the heauens with his glory The mission of the holy Ghost being the seauenth seale hath furnished the Christian Church of the redeemed with the seauenfold graces of his glorious spirit Gregory vpon Ezech. saith that seauen ascents or steps were to go vp into Ierusalem the holy citie mystically signifying the seauen graces of Gods spirit tending to the perfection of Christian glory The first of these gifts is filiall feare making vs humble The second Christian pietie making vs mercifull The third diuine knowledge making vs discreet The fourth sacred intelligence causing vs to be prouident The fift is the wisdome of God making vs prudent The sixt fortitude setting vs free The seauenth counsell making vs wise to saluation in euery occurrence These graces of Gods Spirit are also signes vnto our brethren and seales vnto our selues of our heauenly perfection For by his reuealed Natiuity wee as new borne babes in the second birth must desire the sincere milke of the word to feede our soules therby vp to eternall life By baptisme we learne to confesse our sinnes to God and turne our misdeeds outwards as the Scolapendra doth her entrals to wash them By his passion onely to reioyce in the crosse of Christ whereby the world is crucified vnto vs and we vnto the world By his descent into hell to remember that we couet not lest we fall into temptation and snares of the diuell By his resurrection to striue that we may haue part in the first resurrection so shall not the second death touch vs. By his ascension to seeke the things that are aboue where now Christ our treasure is and not the things beneath And by the sending of his graces whereby the loue of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit which is giuen vnto vs that all things may be consecrated to Gods glory Which things that we may performe behold Christ the chiefest in heauen hath opened the book that we might know them and loosed the seales that we might do them Woe therefore be vnto them to whom his booke is yet shut and those seales yet vnloosed for our Gospell is hid to none but to them that are lost Christ Iesus is also the chiefest to be found on earth In the Reuelation of S. Ioh. Chap. 7. there are 144000 sealed by twelues Christ is sealed in the tribe of Iuda in whom also the rest are sealed to be the associats of the Lambe according to that ancient prophecy of Iacob Gen. 49. saying that the Scepter should not depart from Iuda vntill Silo come And against Dan he prophecieth thus O Lord I haue waited for thy saluation meaning Christ. Thus the Chaldaean paraphrasts I will not here mention the pourtraiture which Pub. Lentul sent vnto the Senate of Rome describing the lineaments of our Sauiour as he was vpon earth That he was gracious in aspect of a smooth brow of an aburne haire long and wauing at his backe like a Nazarite with a parted beard and the whole frame of his blessed body being incomparably beyond all men that euer were both in feature and fauour For I am not ignorant how apocriphall that relation is in sacred history and how grosly the Papists abuse themselues and others in the table painting limming of that Lord of life according to the rude hand of many an idle lozel that dares aduenture to pourtray that sacred beautie But what a one the Scripture mystically hath decyphered and described him to be that willingly will we looke vpon and behold with awfull eyes of feare and diuine reuerence And therein also we shall see him the chiefest of ten thousand The Psalmographer in the 45. Psal. setteth him out in the person of Salomon to be of surpassing beauty in the dignity of his forme For he was fairer then the sonnes of men Gracious in his speech for grace was powred from his lips valiant in his acts for he was mighty in renowne powerfull in his facts for his arrowes pierced the hearts of his enemies splendent in his royalty his throne being for euer and his scepter a scepter of righteousnesse it selfe Magnificent in his whole deportment for all his garments smell of Myrrhe Aloes and Cassia The beauty of Ioseph Dauid and Absolon are recommended in Scripture but the first had an alluring beauty the father and the sonne goodly to be looked on but in Christ it was the beauty
limmes did showre downe streames of bloud or that in any agony the face of man should stand beset with drops of crimson bloud Neither doth this content the holy wisdome of God but that also wee should see this loue of Christ resembled yea testified vnto vs againe in reference euen in his mysticall members that is in the beleeuers by forgiuing whos 's sinnes he hath made them pure and white in his fight and giuing also many of them grace and honouring them so farre that they willingly suffered as martyrs whereby they also became purple red Of the first white this is vnderstood Purge me with hyssop and I shall be cleane wash me and I shall be whiter then snow This is the perfect beauty indeed to be purged from sinne Of the second it is said of his beloued martyrs That they were prodigall of their liues euen vnto the death for the testimony of the Lord Iesus Such were Iames Antipas Ignatius Polycarpus in the former ages and all other euen those thousands in hose Mariana tempora whom fire and faggot deuoured and all other exquisite torments that could be deuised by the wicked bloudy butcherlike mindes of Gods enemies All which blessed soules were translated to God whom they loued in fierie chariots of persecution and were rapt vp with Elias to the vision of the eternall God This being indeed their matchlesse felicitie that they were so greatly honored of their God that they should shadow out vnto him his Christ whipped stocked striken stoned tormented tortured and bloudily butchered Let not then the vaine and gallant minions of the world boast of their venereous ladies or of their bright curtizans or Helenaes on whom they dote which are but as the dunghils vnsauory salt of the earth for behold here is a lillie and a rose from heauen euen our Lord Iesus a white lillie deuoide of sinne and a damaske rose in his pure and crimson passion And let them againe behold his martyrs as pure lillies cloathed with his righteousnesse and as red roses in their sacred martyrdomes into whose calendar euery beleeuing soule should desire rather to be registred then in the catalogue of all the worlds misbeleeuing or misperswaded Magnificoes And seeing beloued that we are come to bloud let vs pause a little and stand still awhile as the people did when in the wars they came and saw Azael lie weltring in his bloud and let vs see the godly suffer for the godles the guiltlesse for the guilty Let vs looke vp to the crosse and see our Sauiour lie weltring gasping crying bathing strugling and dying in his bloud Dauid could say when he saw the Angell of the Lord kill the people with the plague of pestilence I haue sinned what haue these sheepe done But Christ might haue said otherwise These sheepe haue sinned what haue I done I am constrained to pay the things I neuer tooke What more blessed brethren could he haue done for his vineyard what greater loue can be shewed then for a man to die for his friends yet our welbeloued died for vs his enemies But what doth the Lord require at our hands in retribution for all these blessings Surely onely faith and feruency of zeale by which we also shall become white and ruddie by his sanctifying and by his sauing grace Faith is as Iacobs hand which will not let the Angell go vntill he haue the blessing It is also as Iacobs robe put on to gaine our elder brother Christ Iesus his blessings and it is the wedding garment wherewith we must enter into the wedding house of our spouse And feruency of zeale is an effect of our loue and is an heroicall and magnanimious vertue shed in our hearts by the holy Ghost whereby we are moued to holy anger when either the glory of God his truth or his honor is violated Behold the zealous and ruddy beautified Christians in this kind Who will rise with me against the wicked or who will take my part against the euill doers saith Dauid the Lords worthy And in another Psalme I fainted because men kept not thy law And againe The zeale of thine house hath euen eaten me vp The zeale of God doth eate one vp when God giueth such courage and magnanimity of heart vnto some one man that he withstands many mightie and malicious transgressors and yet is not remoued from his holy valour and resolution though the earth be moued and the mountaines caried into the midst of the sea Such an one was Elias against all Baals false prophets and Micheas against the foure hundred false prophets of Ahab and of late yeares Martin Luther against the Pope and all his complices But we in our last and worst age eate vp the zeale of God because wee do not resist the euill wherein totus mundus ponitur the whole world lieth nor the arrogancie of the presumptuous nor the malice of the mighty nor the haughtines of the proud nor the tyrannie of the oppressors but like bastards and not children declaring to our owne selues that we haue not one drop of the good bloud of our heauenly Father in vs for bonus sanguis non mentitur honorable bloud cannot dissemble we suffer God to be blasphemed in our hearing Christ to be scorned his sacred Ministrie to be despised and we in the meane while either assent thereunto or neglect to rebuke it which sheweth that we partake not at all of this diuine and roselike beautie O that the Seraphicall zeale of God had inflamed the Princes the Prelates and people of the Christian world as it did Dauid not a martiall zeale which is a feruour without discretion but a zeale according to knowledge not anger per vitium but holy anger by zeale not priuate grudge but zeale appertaining to the vocation and calling we are of which hath both a good roote and a good end Such as was Elias zeale for the Lord of hoastes against idolatrie Such as was Phineas zeale against the beastlinesse of Zmiri the sonne of Sale and Cozbi Such as was Ezechias zeale for the peoples reuolt Such as was good king Iosias zeale for the Lords dishonor among the Priests Such as was Nehemiahs zeale when he heard the people speake halfe Hebrew halfe Ashdod halfe Sur halfe Sion halfe Christ halfe Belial Oh to these holy Cherubicall zeales I exhort you beloued in the name of the Lord. Be you angrie with those that are angrie with God when tribulation befals them or if their hearts bee not glutted with all the delights they desire or if God do not fill their bellies with onions and garlike and other such like grosnesse Be angrie with preachers that lie as Ionah did vnder the gourd and preach not Be angrie with the dogs that returne to their vomit and with hogs that wallow in the mire albeit they haue bene ten times purged Be angrie with vice that ruleth with the diuell that rageth with vanity that reigneth with lies that sway almost