that large and reall Map of the World thou didst thus abridge it into this little table of Man hee alone consists of Heauen and Earth Soule and Body Euen this earthly part which is vile in comparison of the other as it is thine O God I dare admire it though I can neglect it as mine owne for lo this heape of Earth hath an outward reference to Heauen other Creatures grouell downe to their earth and haue all their senses intent vpon it this is reared vp towards Heauen and hath no more power to looke beside Heauen then to tread beside the Earth Vnto this euery part hath his wonder The head is nearest to heauen as in place so in resemblance both for roundnesse of figure for those diuine ghests which haue their seat in it There dwell those maiesticall Powers of reason which make a Man all the senses as they haue their originall from thence so they doe all agree there to manifest the vertue how goodly proportions hast thou set in the face such as tho oft times we can giue no reason when they please yet transport vs to admiration What liuing glasses are those which thou hast placed in the midst of this visage whereby all obiects from far are clearely represented to the mind and because their tendernes lies open to dangers how hast thou defenced them with hollow bones and with prominent browes and lids And lest they should be too much bent on vvhat they ought not thou hast giuen them peculiar nerues to pull them vp towards the seat of their rest What a tongue hast thou giuen him the instrument not of taste only but of speech how sweet excellent voices are formed by that little loose filme of flesh what an incredible strength hast thou giuen to the weake bones of the iawes What a comely and towre like necke therefore most sinewy because smallest And lest I be infinite what able armes and actiue hands hast thou framed him whereby he can frame all things to his owne conceit In euery part beauty strength conuenience meet together Neither is there any whereof our weaknesse cannot giue reason why it should be no otherwise How hast thou disposed of all the inward vessels for all offices of life nourishment egestion generation No veine sinew arterie is idle There is no piece in this exquisite frame whereof the place vse forme doth not admit wonder and exceed it Yet this body if it be compared to the soule what is it but as a clay wall that encompasses a treasure as a woodden boxe of a Ieweller as a coorse case to a rich instrument or as a maske to a beautifull face Man was made last because he was worthiest The soule was inspired last because yet more noble If the body haue this honor to be the companion of the Soule yet withall it is the drudge If it bee the instrument yet also the clog of that diuine part The companion for life the drudge for seruice the instrument for action the clog in respect of contemplation These externall workes are effected by it the internall which are more noble hindered contrary to the bird which sings most in her cage but flyes most and highest at libertie This my soule teaches me of it selfe that it selfe cannot conceiue how capable how actiue it is It can passe by her nimble thoughts from heauen to earth in a moment it can be all things can comprehend all things know that which is and conceiue that which neuer was neuer shal be Nothing can fill it but thou which art infinite nothing can limit it but thou which art euery-where O God which madest it replenish it possesse it dwel thou in it which hast appointed it to dwell in clay The bodie was made of earth common to his fellowes the soule inspired immediately from God The body lay senselesse vpon the earth like it selfe the breath of liues gaue it what it is and that breath was from thee Sense motion reason are infused into it at once From whence then was this quickening breath No ayre no earth no water was here vsed to giue helpe to this Worke Thou that breathedst vpon man and gauest him the Holy Spirit didst also breathe vpon the bodie and gauest it a liuing Spirit we are beholden to nothing but thee for our soule Our flesh is from flesh our spirit is from the God of spirits How should our soules rise vp to thee and fixe themselues in their thoughts vpon thee who alone created them in their infusion and infused them in their creation How should they long to returne backe to the Fountaine of their being and Author of being glorious Why may wee not say that this soule as it came from thee so it is like thee as thou so it is one immateriall immortall vnderstanding spirit distinguished into three powers which all make vp one spirit So thou the vvise Creator of all things wouldest haue some things to resemble their Creator These other creatures are all body Man is body and spirit the Angels are all spirit not without a kind of spirituall composition Thou art alone after thine owne manner simple glorious infinite no creature can bee like thee in thy proper being because it is a creature How should our finite weake compounded nature giue any perfect resemblance of thine Yet of all visible creatures thou vouchsafest Man the neerest correspondence to thee not so much in the naturall faculties as its those diuine graces vvherewith thou beautifiest his soule Our knowledge holinesse righteousnesse vvas like the first copie from which they were drawne Behold we were not more like thee in these then now we are vnlike our selues in their losse O God we now praise our selues to our shame for the better wee were we are the vvorse as the sonnes of some prodigall or tainted Ancestors tell of the Lands and Lordships which were once theirs Onely doe thou vvhet our desires answerably to the readinesse of thy mercies that we may redeeme what we haue lost that we may recouer in thee what we haue lost in our selues The fault shall be ours if our damage proue not beneficiall I doe not finde that Man thus framed found the want of an helper His fruition of God gaue him fulnesse of contentment the sweetnesse which hee found in the contemplation of this new workmanship and the glory of the Author did so take him vp that he had neither leisure nor cause of complaint If Man had craued an helper hee had grudged at the condition of his Creation and had questioned that which he had perfection of being But hee that gaue him his being and knew him better then himselfe thinkes of giuing him comfort in the creature whiles hee sought none but in his Maker He sees our wants and fore-casts our reliefe when wee thinke our selues too happy to complaine How ready will he be to help our necessities that thus prouides for our perfection God giues the nature to his creatures Man must
that they are my fellowes in respect of creation whereas there is no proportion betwixt mee and my Maker 66 One said It is good to inure thy youth to speake well for good speech is many times drawne into the affection But I would feare that speaking well without feeling were the next way to procure an habituall hypocrisie Let my good words follow good affections not goe before them I will therefore speake as I thinke but withall I will labour to thinke well and then I know I cannot but speake well 67 When I consider my soule I could be proud to thinke of how diuine a nature and qualitie it is but when I cast downe mine eies to my body as the Swanne to her blacke legs and see what loathsome matter issues from the mouth nostrils cares pores and other passages and how most carrion-like of all other creatures it is after death I am iustly ashamed to thinke that so excellent a guest dwels but in a meere cleanly dunghill 68 Euery worldling is a mad man For besides that hee preferreth profit and pleasure to Vertue the World to God Earth to Heauen Time to Eternitie hee pampers the body and starues the soule He feedes one Fowle an hundred times that it may feed him but once and seekes all Lands and Seas for dainties not caring whether any or what repast he prouideth for his soule Hee cloathes the body with all rich ornaments that it may bee as faire without as it is filthie within whilest his soule goes bare and naked hauing not a tag of knowledge to couer it Yea hee cares not to destroy his soule to please the body when for the saluation of the soule he will not so much as hold the body short of the least pleasure What is if this be not a reasonable kinde of madnesse Let me enioy my soule no longer than I preferre it to my body Let mee haue a deformed leane crooked vnhealthfull neglected body so that I may finde my soule sound strong well furnished well disposed both for earth and heauen 69 Asa was sicke but of his feet farre from the heart yet because he sought to the Physicians not to God he escaped not Ezechiah was sicke to die yet because he trusted to God not to Physicians he was restored Meanes without God cannot helpe God without meanes can and often doth I will vse good meanes not rest in them 70 A mans best monument is his vertuous actions Foolish is the hope of immortality and future praise by the cost of senselesse stone when the Passenger shall onely say Here lies a faire stone and a filthy carkasse That only can report thee rich but for other praises thy selfe must build thy monument aliue and write thy owne Epitaph in honest and honourable actions Which are so much more noble than the other as liuing men are better than dead stones Nay I know not if the other be not the way to worke a perpetuall succession of infamy whiles the censorious Reader vpon occasion therof shall comment vpon thy bad life whereas in this euery mans heart is a Toombe and euery mans tongue writeth an Epitaph vpon the well-behaued Either I will procure me such a monument to be remembred by or else it is better to be inglorious than infamous 71 The basest things are euer most plentifull History and experience tell vs that some kinde of Mouse breedeth 120 young ones in one nest whereas the Lion or Elephant beareth but one at once I haue euer found The least wit yeeldeth the most words It is both the surest and wisest way to Speake little and Thinke more 72 An euill man is clay to God wax to the Deuill God may stamp him into powder or temper him anew but none of his meanes can melt him Contrariwise a good man is Gods wax and Satans clay he relents at euery looke of God but is not stirred at any tentation I had rather bow than breake to God but for Satan or the world I had rather be broken in peeces with their violence than suffer my selfe to be bowed vnto their obedience 73 It is an easie matter for a man to be carelesse of himselfe and yet much easier to be enamoured of himselfe For if he be a Christian whiles he contemneth the world perfectly it is hard for him to reserue a competent measure of loue to himselfe if a worldling it is not possible but he must ouer-loue himselfe I will striue for the meane of both and so hate the world that I may care for my selfe and so care for my selfe that I bee not in loue with the world 74 I will hate popularitie and ostentation as euer dangerous but most of all in Gods businesse which who so affect doe as ill spokesmen who when they are sent to wooe for God speake for themselues I know how dangerous it is to haue God my Riuall 75 Earth affords no sound contentment For what is there vnder Heauen not troublesome besides that which is called pleasure and that in the end I finde most irksome of all other My soule shall euer looke vpward for ioy and downeward for penitence 76 God is euer with me euer before me I know he cannot but ouer-see me alwaies though my eies be held that I see him not yea he is still within me though I feele him not neither is there any moment that I can liue without God Why doe I not therefore alwaies liue with him Why doe I not account all houres lost wherein I enioy him not 77 There is no man so happy as the Christian When he lookes vp vnto heauen hee thinkes That is my home the God that made it and owes it is my Father the Angels more glorious in nature than my selfe are my attendants mine enemies are my vassals Yea those things which are the terriblest of all to the wicked are most pleasant to him When he heares God thunder aboue his head he thinks This is the voice of my Father When he remembreth the Tribunall of the last Iudgement he thinkes It is my Sauiour that sits in it when death he esteemes it but as the Angell set before Paradise which with one blow admits him to eternall ioy And which is most of all nothing in earth or hell can make him miserable There is nothing in the world worth enuying but a Christian 78 As Man is a little world so euery Christian is a little Church within himselfe As the Church therefore is sometimes in the wane through persecution other times in her full glory and brightnesse so let mee expect my selfe sometimes drouping vnder Tentations and sadly hanging downe the head for the want of the feeling of Gods presence at other times caried with the full saile of a resolute assurance to heauen knowing that as it is a Church at the weakest stay so shall I in my greatest deiection hold the Childe of God 79 Tentations on the right hand are more perillous than those on the left and destroy a
All mouthes are boldly opened with a conceit of impunitie My eare shall bee no graue to burie my friends good name But as I will bee my present friends selfe So will I bee my absent friends deputie to say for him what he would and cannot speake for himselfe 70 The losse of my friend as it shall moderately grieue mee so it shall another way much benefit mee in recompence of his want for it shall make mee thinke more often and seriously of earth and of heauen Of earth for his body which is reposed in it Of Heauen for his soule which possesseth it before mee Of earth to put me in minde of my like frailtie and mortality Of Heauen to make me desire and after a sort emulate his happinesse and glory 71 Varietie of obiects is wont to cause distraction when againe a little one laid close to the eye if but of a peny breadth wholly takes vp the sight which could else see the whole halfe Heauen at once I will haue the eies of my minde euer fore-stalled and filled with those two obiects the shortnesse of my life eternity after death 72 I see that he is more happy that hath nothing to lose than he that loseth that which he hath I will therefore neither hope for riches nor feare pouerty 73 I care not so much in any thing for multitude as for choice Bookes and friends I will not haue many I had rather seriously conuerse with a few than wander amongst many 74 The wicked man is a very coward and is afraid of euery thing Of God because he is his enemy of Satan because he is his tormentor of Gods creatures because they ioyning with their Maker fight against him of himselfe because he beares about him his owne accuser and executioner The godly man contrarily is afraid of nothing Not of God because he knowes him his best friend and therefore will not hurt him not of Satan because he cannot hurt him not of afflictions because he knowes they proceed from a louing God and end to his owne good not of the creatures since the very stones of the field are in league with him not of himselfe since his conscience is at peace A wicked man may be secure because he knowes not what he hath to feare or desperate through extremitie of feare but truly couragious he cannot be Faithlesnesse cannot chuse but be false-hearted I will euer by my courage take triall of my faith By how much more I feare by so much lesse I beleeue 75 The godly man liues hardly and like the Ant toiles here during the Summer of his peace holding himselfe short of his pleasures as looking to prouide for an hard Winter Which when it comes he is able to weare it out comfortably whereas the wicked man doth prodigally lash out all his ioyes in the time of his prosperitie and like the Grashopper singing merrily all Summer is starued in Winter I will so enioy the present that I will lay vp more for hereafter 76 I haue wondred oft and blushed for shame to reade in meere Philosophers which had no other Mistresse but Nature such strange resolution in the contempt of both fortunes as they call them such notable precepts for a constant setlednesse and tranquillitie of minde and to compare it with my owne disposition and practice whom I haue found too much drouping and deiected vnder small crosses and easily againe caried away with little prosperitie To see such courage and strength to contemne death in those which thought they wholly perished in death and to finde such faint-heartednesse in my selfe at the first conceit of death who yet am thorowly perswaded of the future happinesse of my soule I haue the benefit of nature as well as they besides infinite other helps that they wanted Oh the dulnesse and blindnesse of vs vnworthy Christians that suffer Heathens by the dim candle-light of Nature to goe further than we by the cleere Sun of the Gospell that an indifferent man could not tell by our practice whether were the Pagan Let me neuer for shame account my selfe a Christian vnlesse my Art of Christianitie haue imitated and gone beyond nature so farre that I can finde the best Heathen as farre below me in true resolution as the vulgar sort were below them Else I may shame Religion it can neither honest nor helpe me 77 If I would be irreligious and vnconscionable I would make no doubt to be rich For if a man will defraud dissemble forsweare bribe oppresse serue the time make vse of all men for his owne turne make no scruple of any wicked action for his aduantage I cannot see how hee can escape wealth and preferment But for an vpright man to rise is difficult while his conscience straightly curbes him in from euery vniust action and will not allow him to aduance himselfe by indirect meanes So riches come seldome easily to a good man seldome hardly to the consciencelesse Happy is that man that can be rich with truth or poore with contentment I will not enuy the grauell in the vniust mans throat Of riches let mee neuer haue more than an honest man can beare away 78 God is the God of order not of confusion As therefore in naturall things he vseth to proceed from one extreme to another by degrees through the meane so doth hee in spirituall The Sun riseth not at once to his highest from the darknesse of midnight but first sends forth some feeble glimmering of light in the dawning then lookes out with weake and watrish beames and so by degrees ascends to the midst of heauen So in the seasons of the yeere we are not one day scorched with a Summer heat and on the next frozen with a sudden extremitie of cold But Winter comes on softly first by cold dewes then hoare frosts vntill at last it descend to the hardest weather of all such are Gods spirituall proceedings He neuer brings any man from the estate of sin to the estate of glory but through the estate of grace And as for grace he seldome brings a man from grosse wickednesse to any eminence of perfection I will be charitably iealous of those men which from notorious lewdnesse leape at once into a sudden forwardnesse of profession Holinesse doth not like Ionas gourd grow vp in a night I like it better to goe on soft and sure than for an hastie fit to runne my selfe out of winde and after stand still and breathe me 79 It hath beene said of old To doe well and heare ill is princely Which as it is most true by reason of the enuy which followes vpon iustice so is the contrary no lesse iustified by many experiments To doe ill and to heare well is the fashion of many great men To doe ill because they are borne out with the assurance of impunitie To heare well because of abundance of Parasites which as Rauens to a carkasse gather about great men Neither is there any so great misery in
it is come to passe that though there be many legions of Deuils and euery one more strong than many legions of men and more malicious than strong yet the little flocke of Gods Church liueth and prospereth I haue euer with me inuisible friends and enemies The consideration of mine enemies shall keepe me from securitie and make me fearefull of doing ought to aduantage them The consideration of my spirituall friends shall comfort me against the terrour of the other shall remedie my solitarinesse shall make me warie of doing ought indecently grieuing me rather that I haue euer heretofore made them turne away their eyes for shame of that whereof I haue not beene ashamed that I haue no more enioyed their societie that I haue beene no more affected with their presence What though I see them not I beleeue them I were no Christian if my faith were not as sure as my sense 96 There is no word or action but may be taken with two hands either with the right hand of charitable construction or the sinister interpretation of malice and suspicion and all things doe so succeed as they are taken I haue noted euill actions well taken passe currant for either indifferent or commendable Contrarily a good speech or action ill taken scarce allowed for indifferent an indifferent one censured for euill an euill one for notorious So fauour makes vertues of vices and suspicion makes vertues faults and faults crimes Of the two I had rather my right hand should offend It is alwaies safer offending on the better part To construe an euill act well is but a pleasing and profitable deceit of my selfe but to misconstrue a good thing is a treble wrong to my selfe the action the author If no good sense can be made of a deed or speech let the blame light vpon the author If a good interpretation may be giuen and I chuse a worse let me be as much censured of others as that misconceit is punishment to my selfe 97 I know not how it comes to passe that the minde of man doth naturally both ouerprize his owne in comparison of others and yet contemne and neglect his owne in comparison of what he wants The remedie of this latter euil is to compare the good things we haue with the euils which we haue not and others groane vnder Thou art in health and regardest it not Looke on the miserie of those which on their bed of sicknesse through extremitie of paine and anguish intreat death to release them Thou hast cleare eye-sight sound lims vse of reason and passest these ouer with slight respect Thinke how many there are which in their vncomfortable blindnesse would giue all the world for but one glimpse of light how many that deformedly crawle on all foure after the manner of the most loathsome creatures how many that in mad phrensies are worse than brutish worse than dead thus thou mightest bee and art not If I be not happy for the good that I haue I am yet happy for the euils that I might haue had and haue escaped I haue deserued the greatest euill euery euill that I misse is a new mercy 98 Earth which is the basest element is both our mother that brought vs forth our stage that beares vs aliue and our graue wherein at last we are entombed giuing to vs both our originall our harbour our Sepulcher She hath yeelded her backe to beare thousands of generations and at last opened her mouth to receiue them so swallowing them vp that she still both beareth more and lookes for more not bewraying any change in her selfe while she so oft hath changed her brood and her burden It is a wonder we can be proud of our parentage or of our selues while we see both the basenesse and stabilitie of the earth whence we came What difference is there Liuing earth treads vpon the dead earth which afterwards descends into the graue as senselesse and dead as the earth that receiues it Not many are proud of their soules and none but fooles can be proud of their bodies While wee walke and looke vpon the earth we cannot but acknowledge sensible admonitions of humility and while we remember them we cannot forget our selues It is a mother-like fauour of the earth that she beares and nourishes me and at the last entertaines my dead carkase but it is a greater pleasure that she teacheth me my vilenesse by her owne and sends me to heauen for what she wants 99 The wicked man carrieth euery day a brand to his hell till his heape be come to the height then he ceaseth sinning and begins his torment whereas the repentant in euery fit of holy sorrow caries away a whole faggot from the flame and quencheth the coales that remaine with his teares There is no torment for the penitent no redemption for the obstinate Safetie consisteth not in not sinning but in repenting neither is it sinne that condemnes but impenitence O Lord I cannot bee righteous let me be repentant 100 The estate of heauenly and earthly things is plainly represented to vs by the two lights of heauen which are appointed to rule the night and the day Earthly things are rightly resembled by the Moone which being neerest to the region of mortalitie is euer in changes and neuer lookes vpon vs twice with the same face and when it is at the full is blemished with some darke blots not capable of any illumination Heauenly things are figured by the Sunne whose great and glorious light is both naturall to it selfe and euer constant That other fickle and dimme starre is fit enough for the night of misery wherein we liue here below And this firme and beautifull light is but good enough for that Day of glory which the Saints liue in If it be good liuing here where our sorrowes are changed with ioyes what is it to liue aboue where our ioyes change not I cannot looke vpon the body of the Sunne and yet I cannot see at all without the light of it I cannot behold the glory of thy Saints O Lord yet without the knowledge of it I am blinde If thy creature be so glorious to vs here below how glorious shall thy selfe be to vs when we are aboue this Sunne This Sunne shall not shine vpward where thy glory shineth the greater light extinguisheth the lesser O thou Sunne of righteousnesse which shalt onely shine to me when I am glorified doe thou heat enlighten comfort me with the beames of thy presence till I be glorified AMEN FINIS HEAVEN VPON EARTH OR OF TRVE PEACE AND TRANQVILLITIE of Minde By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE HENRY Earle of Huntingdon Lord Hastings Hungerford Botreaux Molines and Moiles his Maiesties Lieutenant in the Counties of Lâ—icester and Rutland my singular good Lord All increase of true Honour and HEAVEN begun vpon EARTH RIGHT HONORABLE I Haue
though not so blessed yet so shalt thou be separated that my very dust shall be vnited to thee still and to my Sauiour in thee Wert thou vnwilling at the command of thy Creator to ioine thy selfe at the first with this body of mine why art thou then loth to part with that which thou hast found The Testimonies though intire yet troublesome Doest thou not heare Salomon say The day of death is better than the day of thy birth dost thou not beleeue him or art thou in loue with the worse and displeased with the better If any man could haue found a life worthy to be preferred vnto death so great a King must needs haue done it now in his very Throne he commends his Coffin Yea what wilt thou say to those Heathens that mourned at the birth and feasted at the death of their children They knew the miseries of liuing as well as thou the happinesse of dying they could not know and if they reioiced out of a conceit of ceasing to be miserable how shouldest thou cheere thy selfe in an expectation yea an assurance of being happy He that is the Lord of life and tried what it was to die hath proclaimed them blessed that die in the Lord. Those are blessed I know that liue in him but they rest not from their labours Toyle and sorrow is betweene them and a perfect enioying of that blessednesse which they now possesse onely in hope and inchoation when death hath added rest their happinesse is finished O death how sweet is that rest The taste of our Meditation wherewith thou refreshest the weary Pilgrims of this vale of mortalitie How pleasant is thy face to those eies that haue acquainted themselues with the sight of it which to strangers is grim and gastly How worthy art thou to be welcome vnto those that know whence thou art and whither thou tendest who that knowes thee can feare thee who that is not all nature would rather hide himselfe amongst the baggage of this vile life than follow thee to a Crowne what indifferent Iudge that should see life painted ouer with vaine semblances of pleasures attended with troupes of sorrowes on the one side and on the other with vncertaintie of continuance and certaintie of dissolution and then should turne his eyes vnto death and see her blacke but comely attended on the one hand with a momentanie paine with eternitie of glorie on the other would not say out of choice that which the Prophet said out of passion It is better for me to die than to liue But O my Soule what ailes thee to bee thus suddenly backward and fearefull The Complaint No heart hath more freely discoursed of death in speculation no tongue hath more extolled it in absence And now that it is come to thy beds-side and hath drawne thy curtaines and takes thee by the hand and offers thee seruice thou shrinkest inward and by the palenesse of thy face and wildnesse of thine eye bewraiest an amazement at the presence of such a ghest That face which was so familiar to thy thoughts is now vnwelcome to thine eies I am ashamed of this weake irresolution Whitherto haue tended all thy serious meditations what hath Christianitie done to thee if thy feares bee still heathenish Is this thine imitation of so many worthy Saints of God whom thou hast seene entertaine the violentest deaths with smiles and songs Is this the fruit of thy long and frequent instruction Didst thou thinke death would haue beene content with words didst thou hope it would suffice thee to talke while all other suffer Where is thy faith Yea where art thou thy selfe O my soule Is heauen worthy of no more thankes no more ioy Shall Heretikes shall Pagans giue death a better welcome than thou Hath thy Maker thy Redemer sent for thee and art thou loth to goe hath hee sent for thee to put thee in possession of that glorious Inheritance which thy wardship hath cheerefully expected and art thou loth to goe Hath God with this Sergeant of his sent his Angels to fetch thee and art thou loth to goe Rouze vp thy selfe for shame O my soule and if euer thou hast truly beleeued shake off this vnchristian diffidence and addresse thy selfe ioyfully for thy glory The Wish Yea O my Lord it is thou that must raise vp this faint and drooping heart of mine thou onely canst rid me of this weake and cowardly distrust Thou that sendest for my soule canst prepare it for thy selfe thou onely canst make thy messenger welcome to me O that I could but see thy face through death Oh that I could see death not as it was but as thou hast made it Oh that I could heartily pledge thee my Sauiour in this cup that so I might drinke new wine with thee in thy Fathers Kingdome The Confession But alas O my God nature is strong and weake in mee at once I cannot wish to welcome death as it is worthy when I looke for most courage I finde strongest temptations I see and confesse that when I am my selfe thou hast no such coward as I Let me alone and I shall shame that name of thine which I haue professed euery secure worldling shall laugh at my feeblenesse O God were thy Martyrs thus haled to their stakes might they not haue beene loosed from their rackes and chose to die in those torments Let it be no shame for thy seruant to take vp that complaint which thou mad'st of thy better Attendants The spirit is willing but the flesh is weake The Petition and enforcement O thou God of spirits that hast coupled these two together vnite them in a desire of their dissolution weaken this flesh to receiue and encourage this spirit either to desire or to contemne death and now as I grow neerer to my home let me increase in the sense of my ioyes I am thine saue me O Lord It was thou that didst put such courage into thine ancient and late witnesses that they either inuited or challenged death and held their persecutors their best friends for letting them loose from these gieues of flesh I know thine hand is not shortned neither any of them hath receiued more proofes of thy former mercies Oh let thy goodnesse inable me to reach them in the comfortable steddinesse of my passage Doe but draw this vaile a little that I may see my glory and I cannot but be inflamed with the desire of it It was not I that either made this body for the earth or this soule for my body or this heauen for my soule or this glorie of heauen or this entrance into glory All is thine owne worke Oh perfect what thou hast begun that thy praise and my happinesse may be consummate at once The assurance or Confidence Yea O my soule what need'st thou wish the God of mercies to be tender of his owne honour Art thou not a member of that body whereof thy Sauiour
is without witnesse Openly many sinister respects may draw from vs a forme of religious duties secretly nothing but the power of a good conscience It is to be feared God hath more true and deuout seruice in Closets than in Churches 54 Words and diseases grow vpon vs with yeeres In age we talke much because wee haue seene much and soone after shall cease talking for euer Wee are most diseased because nature is weakest and death which is neere must haue harbingers such is the old age of the World No maruell if this last time be full of writing and weake discourse full of sects and heresies which are the sicknesses of this great and decaied body 55 The best ground vntilled soonest runs out into ranke weeds Such are Gods Children Ouer-growne with securitie ere they are aware vnlesse they bee well exercised both with Gods plow of affliction and their owne industry in meditation A man of knowledge that is either negligent or vncorrected cannot but grow wilde and godlesse 56 With vs vilest things are most common But with God the best things are most frequently giuen Grace which is the noblest of all Gods fauours is vnpartially bestowed vpon all willing receiuers whereas Nobilitie of bloud and height of place blessings of an inferiour nature are reserued for few Herein the Christian followes his Father his praiers which are his richest portion he communicates to all his substance according to his abilitie to few 57 God therefore giues because he hath giuen making his former fauours arguments for more Man therefore shuts his hand because hee hath opened it There is no such way to procure more from God as to vrge him with what hee hath done All Gods blessings are profitable and excellent not so much in themselues as that they are inducements to greater 58 Gods immediate actions are best at first The frame of this creation how exquisite was it vnder his hand afterward blemished by our sinne mans indeuours are weake in their beginnings and perfecter by degrees No science no deuice hath euer beene perfect in his cradle or at once hath seene his birth and maturitie of the same nature are those actions which God worketh mediatly by vs according to our measure of receit The cause of both is on the one side the infinitenesse of his wisdome and power which cannot be corrected by any second assaies On the other our weaknesse helping it selfe by former grounds and trials Hee is an happy man that detracts nothing from Gods works and addes most to his owne 59 The old saying is more common than true that those which are in hell know no other heauen for this makes the damned perfectly miserable that out of their owne torment they see the felicitie of the Saints together with their impossibility of attaining it Sight without hope of fruition is a torment alone Those that here might see God and will not or doe see him obscurely and loue him not shall once see him with anguish of soule and not enioy him 60 Sometimes euill speeches come from good men in their vnaduisednesse and sometimes euen the good speeches of men may proceed from an ill spirit No confession could be better than Satan gaue of Christ It is not enough to consider what is spoken or by whom but whence and for what The spirit is oftentimes tried by the speech but other-times the speech must be examined by the spirit and the spirit by the rule of an higher word 61 Greatnesse puts high thoughts and bigge words into a man whereas the deiected minde takes carelesly what offers it selfe Euery worldling is base-minded and therefore his thoughts creepe still low vpon the earth The Christian both is and knowes himselfe truly great and thereupon mindeth and speaketh of spirituall immortall glorious heauenly things So much as the soule stoopeth vnto earthly thoughts so much is it vnregenerate 62 Long acquaintance as it maketh those things which are euill to seeme lesse euill so it makes good things which at first were vnpleasant delightfull There is no euill of paine not no morall good action which is not harsh at the first Continuance of euill which might seeme to weary vs is the remedy and abatement of wearinesse and the practice of good as it profiteth so it pleaseth He that is a stranger to good and euill findes both of them troublesome God therefore doth well for vs while he exerciseth vs with long afflictions and we doe well to our selues while we continually busie our selues in good exercises 63 Sometimes it is well taken by men that we humble our selues lower than there is cause Thy seruant IACOB saith that good Patriarch to his brother to his inferiour And no lesse well doth God take these submisse extenuations of our selues I am a worme and no man Surely I am more foolish than a man and haue not the vnderstanding of a man in me But I neuer finde that any man bragged to God although in a matter of truth and within the compasse of his desert and was accepted A man may be too lowly in his dealing with men euen vnto contempt with God he cannot but the lower he falleth the higher is his exaltation 64 The soule is fed as the body starued with hunger as the body requires proportionable diet and necessary varietie as the body All ages and statures of the soule beare not the same nourishment There is milke for spirituall Infants strong meat for the growne Christian The spoone is fit for one the knife for the other The best Christian is not so growne that he need to scorne the spoone but the weake Christian may finde a strong feed dangerous How many haue beene cast away with spirituall surfets because being but new-borne they haue swallowed downe bigge morsels of the highest mysteries of godlinesse which they neuer could digest but together with them haue cast vp their proper nourishment A man must first know the power of his stomacke ere he know how with safetie and profit to frequent Gods Ordinary 65 It is very hard for the best man in a sudden extremity of death to satisfie himselfe in apprehending his stay and reposing his heart vpon it for the soule is so oppressed with sudden terrour that it cannot well command it selfe till it haue digested an euill It were miserable for the best Christian if all his former praiers and meditations did not serue to aide him in his last straits and meet together in the center of his extremitie yeelding though not sensible releefe yet secret benefit to the soule whereas the worldly man in this case hauing not laid vp for this houre hath no comfort from God or from others or from himselfe 66 All externall good or euill is measured by sense neither can we account that either good or ill which doth neither actually auaile nor hurt vs spiritually this rule holds not All our best good is insensible For all our future which is the greatest good we hold onely in hope and
looked to Gods hand for right Our fâ—ines exclude vs from Gods protection whereas vprightnesse challenges and findes his patronage An Affe taken had made him vncapable of fauour Corrupt Gouernors lose the comfort of their owne brest and the tuition of God The same tongue that prayed against the Conspirators prayes for the people As lewd men thinke to carie it with number Corah had so farre preuailed that hee had drawne the multitude to his side God the auenger of treasons would haue consumed them all at once Moses and Aaron pray for their Rebels Although they were worthy of death and nothing but death could stop their mouths yet their mercifull Leaders will not buy their owne peace with the losse of such enemies Oh rare and imitable mercy The people rise vp against their Gouernors Their Gouernors fall on their faces to God for the people so farre are they from plotting reuenge that they will not endure God should reuenge for them Moses knew well enough that all those Israelites must perish in the Wildernesse God had vowed it for their former insurrection yet how earnestly doth hee sue to God not to consume them at once The very respit of euils is a fauour next to the remouall Corah kindled the fire the two hundred and fifty Captaines brought sticks to it All Israel warmed themselues by it onely the incendiaries perish Now doe the Israelites owe their life to them whose death they intended God and Moses knew to distinguish betwixt the heads of a faction and the traine though neither be faultlesse yet the one is plagued the other forgiuen Gods vengeance when it is at the hotest makes differences of men Get you away from about the Tabernacles of Corah Euer before common iudgements there is a separation In the vniuersall iudgement of all the earth the Iudge himselfe will separate in these particular executions we must separate our selues The societie of wicked men especially in their sinnes is mortally dangerous whiles we will not be parted how can wee complaine if we be enwrapped in their condemnation Our very company sinnes with them why should wee not smart with them also Moses had well hoped that when these Rebels should see all the Israelites run from them as from monsters and looking affrightedly vpon their Tents and should heare that fearfull Proclamation of vengeance against them howsoeuer they did before set a face on their conspiracie yet now their hearts would haue misgiuen But lo these bold Traitors stand impudently staring in the doore of their Tents as if they would outface the reuenge of God As if Moses had neuer wrought miracle before them As if no one Israelite had euer bled for rebelling Those that shall perish are blinded Pride and infidelitie obdures the heart and makes euen cowards fearlesse So soone as the innocent are seuered the guilty perish the earth cleaues and swallowes vp the Rebels This element was not vsed to such morsels It deuoures the carkasses of men but bodies informed with liuing soules neuer before To haue seene them struck dead vpon the earth had been fearfull but to see the earth at once their executioner and graue was more horrible Neither the Sea nor the Earth are fit to giue passage The Sea is moist and flowing and will not be diuided for the continuitie of it The earth is dry and massie and will neither yeeld naturally not meet againe when it hath yeelded yet the waters did cleaue to giue way vnto Israel for their preseruation the earth did cleaue to giue way to the Conspirators in iudgement Both Sea and Earth did shut their iawes againe vpon the aduersaries of God There was more wonder in this latter It was a maruell that the waters opened it was no wonder that they shut againe for the retiring and flowing was naturall It was no lesse maruell that the earth opened but more maruell that it did shut againe because it had no naturall disposition to meet when it was diuided Now might Israel see they had to doe with a God that could reuenge with ease There were two sorts of Traitors the Earth swallowed vp the one the Fire the other All the elements agree to serue the vengeance of their Maker Nadab and Abihu brought fit persons but vnfit fire to God these Leuites bring the right fire but vnwarranted persons before him Fire from God consumes both It is a dangerous thing to vsurpe sacred functions The ministerie will not grace the man The man may disgrace the ministerie The common people were not so fast gathered to Corahs flattering perswasion before as now they ranne from the sight and feare of his iudgement I maruell not if they could not trust that earth whereon they stood whiles they knew their hearts had been false It is a madnesse to run away from punishment and not from sinne Contemplations THE SEVENTH BOOKE Aarons Censer and Rod. The Brazen Serpent Balaam Phinehas The death of Moses BY IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER TO MY RIGHT HONOVRABLE RELIGIOVS AND BOVNTIFVLL PATRONE EDWARD LORD DENNY BARON OF WALTHAM THE CHIEFE COMFORT OF MY LABOVRS J. H. WISHETH ALL TRVE HAPPINESSE AND DEDICATES THIS PART OF HIS MEDITATIONS Contemplations THE SEVENTH BOOKE AARONS Censer and Rod. WHen shall wee see an end of these murmurings and these iudgements Because these men rose vp against Moses and Aaron therefore God consumed them and because God consumed them therefore the people rise vp against Moses and Aaron and now because the people thus murmure God hath againe begun to consume them What a circle is here of sinnes and iudgements Wrath is gone out from God Moses is quick-sighted and spies it at the setting out By how much more faithfull and familiar wee are with God so much earlier doe we discerne his iudgements as those which are well acquainted with men know by their lookes and gestures that which strangers vnderstand but by their actions As finer tempers are more sensible of the changes of weather Hence the Seers of God haue euer from their Watch-tower descried the iudgements of God afarre off If another man had seene from Carmel a cloud of a hand-breadth he could not haue told Ahab he should be wet It is enough for Gods Messengers out of their acquaintance with their Masters proceedings to fore-see punishment No maruell if those see it not which are wilfully sinfull we men reueale not our secret purposes either to enemies or strangers all their fauour is to feele the plague ere they can espy it Moses though he were great with God yet hee takes not vpon him this reconciliation he may aduise Aaron what to do himselfe vndertakes not to act it It is the worke of the Priesthood to make an atonement for the people Aaron was first his brothers tongue to Pharaoh now he is the peoples tongue to God he onely must offer vp the incense of the publike prayers to God Who would not thinke it a small thing to hold a Censer in his
I see foure Temples in this one It is but one in matter as the God that dwels in it is but one three yet more in resemblance according to the diuision of them in whom it pleases God to inhabite For where euer God dwels there is his Temple Oh God thou vouchsafest to dwell in the beleeuing heart as we thy silly creatures haue our being in thee so thou the Creator of heauen earth hast thy dwelling in vs. The heauen of heauens is not able to containe thee and yet thou disdainest not to dwell in the strait lodgings of our renewed soule So then because Gods children are many and those many diuided in respect of themselues though vnited in their head therefore this Temple which is but one in collection as God is one is manifold in the distribution as the Saints are many each man bearing about him a little shrine of this infinite Maiestie And for that the most generall diuision of the Saints is in their place and estate some strugling and toyling in this earthly warfare others triumphing in heauenly glory therefore hath God two other more vniuersall Temples One the Church of his Saints on earth the other the highest heauen of his Saints glorified In all these O God thou dwellest for euer and this materiall house of thine is a cleare representation of these three spirituall Else what were a temple made with hands vnto the God of spirits And though one of these was a true type of all yet how are they all exceeded each by other This of stone though most rich and costly yet what is it to the liuing Temple of the holy Ghost which is our body What is the Temple of this body of ours to the Temple of Christs body which is his Church And what is the Temple of Gods Church on earth to that which triumpheth gloriously in heauen How easily doe wee see all these in this one visible Temple which as it had three distinctions of roomes the Porch the Holy-place the Holy of Holies so is each of them answered spiritually In the Porch wee finde the regenerate soule entring into the blessed society of the Church In the holy place the Communion of the true visible Church on earth selected from the world In the Holy of Holies whereinto the high Priest entred once a yeare the glorious heauen into which our true high-Priest Christ Iesus entred once for all to make an atonement betwixt God and man In all these what a meer correspondence there is both in proportion matter situation In proportion The same rule that skilfull caruers obserue in the cutting out of the perfect statue of a man that the height bee thrice the breadth and the breadth one third of the height was likewise onely obserued in the fabricke of the Temple whose length was double to the height and treble to the breadth as being sixty cubits long thirty high and twenty broad How exquisite a symmetry hast thou ordained O God betwixt the faithfull heart and thy Church on earth with that in heauen how accurate in each of these in all their powers and parts compared with other So hath God ordered the beleeuing soule that it hath neither too much shortnesse of grace nor too much height of conceit nor too much breadth of passion So hath he ordered his visible Church that there is a necessarie inequalitie without any disproportion an height of gouernment a length of extent a breadth of iurisdiction duely answerable to each other So hath he ordered his triumphant Church aboue that it hath a length of eternitie answered with an height of perfection and a breadth of incomprehensible glory In matter All was here of the best The wood was precious sweet lasting The stone beautifull costly insensible of age The gold pure and glittering So are the graces of Gods children excellent in their nature deare in their acceptation eternall in their vse So are the ordinances of God in his Church holy comfortable irrefragable So is the perfection of his glorified Saints incomparable vnconceiuable In situation the outer parts were here more common the inner more holy and peculiarly reserued I finde one Court of the Temple open to the vncleane to the vncircumcised Within that another open onely to the Israelites and of them to the cleane within that yet another proper onely to the Priests and Leuites where was the Brazen Altar for sacrifice and the Brazen sea for washings The eyes of the Laitie might follow their oblations in hither their feet might not Yet more in the couered roomes of the Temple there is whither the Priests onely may enter not the Leuites there is whither the high Priest onely may enter not his brethren It is thus in euery renewed man the indiuiduall temple of God the outward parts are allowed common to God and the world the inwardest and secretest which is the heart is reserued onely for the God that made it It is thus in the Church visible the false and foule-hearted hypocrite hath accesse to the holy ordinances of God and treads in his Courts onely the true Christian hath intire and priuate conuersation with the holy One of Israel He only is admitted into the Holy of Holies and enters within the glorious vaile of heauen If from the wals we looke vnto the furniture What is the Altar whereon our sacrifices of prayer and praises are offered to the Almightie but a contrite heart What the golden Candlestickes but the illumined vnderstanding wherein the light of the knowledge of God and his diuine will shineth for euer What the Tables of Shew-bread but the sanctified memory which keepeth the bread of life continually Yea if we shall presume so farre as to enter into the very closet of Gods Oracle Euen there O God doe wee finde our vnworthy hearts so honoured by thee that they are made thy very Arke wherein thy Royall law and the pot of thine heauenly Manna is kept for euer and from whose propitiatorie shaded with the wings of thy glorious Angels thou giuest thy gracious Testimonies of thy good spirit witnessing with ours that we are the children of thee the liuing God Behold if Salomon built a Temple vnto thee thou hast built a Temple vnto thy selfe in vs We are not onely through thy grace liuing stones in thy Temple but liuing Temples in thy Sion Oh doe thou euer dwell in this thine house and in this thy house let vs euer serue thee Wherefore else hast thou a Temple but for thy presence with vs and for our worshipping of thee The time was when as thy people so thy selfe didst lodge in flitting Tents euer shifting euer mouing thence thou thoughtest best to soiourne both in Shilo and the roofe of Obed-Edom After that thou condescendedst to settle thine abode with men and wouldest dwell in an house of thine owne at thy Ierusalem So didst thou in the beginning lodge with our first Parents in a Tent Soiourne with Israel vnder the law and now makest
though grieuous yet might be remote therefore for a present hansell of vengeance she is dismissed with the sad tidings of the death of her sonne When thy feet enter into the Citie the child shall dye It is heauy newes for a mother that shee must leese her sonne but worse yet that shee may not see him In these cases of our finall departures our presence giues some mitigation to our griefe might shee but haue closed the eyes and haue receiued the last breath of her dying sonne the losse had bin more tolerable I know not how our personall farewell eases our heart euen whiles it increases our passion but now she shall no more see nor bee seene of her Abijah She shall no sooner be in the City then hee shall bee out of the world Yet more to perfect her sorrow shee heares that in him alone there is found some good the rest of her issue are gracelesse she must leese the good and hold the gracelesse he shall die to afflict her they shall liue to afflict her Yet what a mixture is here of seueritie and fauour in one act fauour to the sonne seueritie to the father Seueritie to the father that hee must leese such a sonne fauour to the sonne that he shall be taken from such a father Ieroboam is wicked and therefore he shall not enioy an Abijah Abijah hath some good things therefore hee shall be remoued from the danger of the deprauation of Ieroboam Sometimes God strikes in fauour but more often forbeares out of seueritie The best are fittest for heauen the earth is fittest for the worst this is the region of sinne and misery that of immortalitie It is no argument of dis-fauour to be taken early from a well-led life as not of approbation to age in sinne As the soule of Abijah is fauoured in the remouall so is his body with a buriall he shall haue alone both teares and tombe all the rest of his brethren shall haue no graue but dogs and fowles no sorrow but for their life Though the carkasse be insensible of any position yet honest Sepulture is a blessing It is fit the body should bee duely respected on earth whose soule is glorious in heauen ASA THe two houses of Iuda and Israel grow vp now together in an ambitious riuality this splitted plant branches out so seuerally as if it had forgotten that euer it was ioyned in the root The throne of Dauid oft changeth the possessors and more complaineth of their iniquity then their remoue Abijam inherits the sins of his father Rehoboam no lesse then his Crowne and so spends his three yeares as if had been no whit of kinne to his grandfathers vertues It is no newes that grace is not traduced whiles vice is Therefore is his reigne short because it was wicked It was a sad case when both the Kings of Iudah and Israel though enemies yet conspired in sinne Rehoboam like his father Salomon began graciously but fell to Idolatry as he followed his father so his sonne so his people followed him Oh what a face of a Church was here when Israel worshipped Ieroboams calues when Iudah built them high places and Images and groues on euery high Hill and vnder euery greene tree On both hands GOD is forsaken his Temple neglected his worship adulterate and this not for some short brunt but during the succession of two Kings For after the first three yeares Rehoboam changed his fathers Religion as his shields from gold to brasse the rest of his seuenteene yeares were ledde in impietie His sonne Abijam trod in the same mierie steps and Iudah with them both If there were any doubtlesse there were some faithfull hearts yet remaining in both Kingdomes during these heauy times what a corrosiue it must needs haue been to them to see so deplored and miserable a deprauation There was no visible Church vpon earth but here and this what a one Oh God how low doest thou sometimes suffer thine owne flocke to bee driuen What wofull wanes and eclipses hast thou ordained for this heauenly body Yet at last an Asa shall arise from the loynes from the graue of Abijam hee shall reâ—iue Dauid and reforme Iudah The gloomie times of corruption shall not last alwayes The light of truth and peace shall at length breake out and blesse the sad hearts of the righteous It is a wonder how Asa should bee good of the seed of Abijam of the soyle of Maachah both wicked both Idolatrous God would haue vs see that grace is from heauen neither needes the helps of these earthly conueyances Should not the children of good parents sometimes be euill and the children of euill parents good vertue would seeme naturall and the giuer would leese his thankes Thus we haue seene a faire flower spring out of dung and a well-fruited tree rise out of a fowre stocke Education hath no lesse power to corrupt then nature It is therefore the iust praise of Asa that being trained vp vnder an Idolatrous Maachah he maintained his piety As contrarily it is a shame for those that haue beene bred vp in the precepts and examples of vertue and godlinesse to fall off to lewnesse or superstition There are foure principall monuments of Asaes vertue as so many rich stones in his Diadem He tooke away Sodomie and Idols out of Iudah Who cannot wonder more that he found them there then that he remoued them What a strange incongruity is this Sodom in Ierusalem Idols in Iudah Surely debauched profession proues desperate Admit the Idols ye cannot doubt of the Sodomy If they haue changed the glory of the vncorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible man and to birds and foure-footed beasts and creeping things it is no maruell if God giue them vp to vncleannesse through the lusts of their owne hearts to dishonour their own bodies betweene themselues If they changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and serued the creature more then the Creator who is blessed for euer no maruell if God giue them to vile affections to change the naturall vse into that which is against nature burning in lust one towards another men with men working that which is vnseemely Contrarily admit the Sodomy yee cannot doubt of the Idols Vnnaturall beastlinesse in manners is punished iustly with a sottish dotage in religion bodily pollution with spirituall How should the soule care to bee chaste that keepes a stewes in the body Asa begins with the banishment of both scouring Iudah of this double vncleannesse In vaine should he haue hoped to restore God to his Kingdome whiles these abominations inhabited it It is iustly the maine care of worthy and religious Princes to cleare their Coasts of the foulest sinnes Oh the vnpartiall zeale of Asa There were Idols that challenged a prerogatiue of fauour the Idols that his father had made all these he defaces the name of a father cannot protect an Idoll The duty to his Parent cannot winne him
Lord God of Abraham Isaac and Israel Let it be knowne this day that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy Seruant and that I haue done all these things at thy word Heare me O Lord heare me that this people may know that thou art the Lord God that thou hast turned their hearts backe againe The Baalites prayers were not more tedious then Elijahs was short and yet more pithy then short charging God with the care of his couenant of his truth of his glory It was Elijah that spake loud Oh strong cryes of faith that pierce the heauens and irresistably make their way to the throne of grace Israel shall well see that Elijahs God whom they haue forsaken is neither talking nor pursuing nor trauelling nor sleeping Instantly the fire of the Lord fals froÌ„ heauen consumes the burnt sacrifice the wood the stones the dust licks vp the water that was in the trench With what terror must Ahab and Israel needs see this fire rolling downe out of the sky and alighting with such fury so neere their heads heads no lesse fit for this flame then the sacrifice of Elijah Well might they haue thought How easily might this fire haue dilated it selfe and haue consumed our bodies as well as the wood and stone and haue lickt vp our blood as well as that water I know not whether they had the grace to acknowledge the mercy of God they could doe no lesse then confesse his power The Lord is God The Lord is God The iron was now hot with this heauenly fire Elijah stayes not till it coole againe but strikes immediately Take the Prophets of Baal let not one of them escape This wager was for life Had they preuailed in procuring this fire and Elijah failed of effect his head had been forfeited to them now in the contrary successe theirs are lost to him Let no man complaine that those holy hands were bloody This sacrifice was no lesse pleasing to God then that other Both the man and the act were extraordinarie and led by a peculiar instinct Neither doth the Prophet this without the assent of the supreme Magistrate who was now so affected with this miraculous worke that hee could not in the heat of that conuiction but allow the iustice of such sentence Farre be it from vs to accuse Gods commands or executions of cruelty It was the ancient and peremptory charge of God that the authors of Idolatry and seduction should dye the death no eye no hand might spare them The Prophet doth but moue the performance of that Law which Israel could not without sinne haue omitted It is a mercifull and thanke-worthy seuerity to rid the world of the Ring-leaders of wickednesse ELIjAH running before AHAB Flying from IEzEBEL I Heare no newes of the foure hundred Prophets of the Groues They lye close vnder the wing of Iezebel vnder their pleasing shades neither will be suffered to vndergoe the danger of this tryall the carkeises of their fellowes helpe to fill vp the haife-dry channell of Kishon Iustice is no sooner done then Ahab heares newes of mercy from Elijah Get thee vp eate and drinke for there is a sound of abundance of raine Their meeting was not more harsh then their parting was friendly It seemes Ahab had spent all that day fasting in an eager attendance of those conflicting Prophets It must needs bee late ere the execution could be done Elijahs part began not till the euening So farre must the King of Israel bee from taking thought for the massacre of those foure hundred and fifty Baalites that now hee may goe eate his bread with ioy and drinke his wine with a chearefull heart for God accepteth this worke and testifies it in the noise of much raine Euery drop of that Idolatrous blood was answered with a showre of raine with a streame of water and plenty poured downe in euery showre A sensible blessing followes the vnpartiall stroakes of seuere iustice Nothing is more cruell then an vniust pitie No eares but Elijahs could as yet perceiue a sound of raine the clouds were not yet gathered the vapours were not yet risen yet Elijah heares that which shall be Those that are of Gods Councell can discerne either fauours or iudgements afarre off the slacke apprehensions of carnall hearts make them hard to beleeue that as future which the quicke and refined senses of the faithfull perceiue as present Ahab goes vp to his repast Elijah goes vp to his prayers That day had bin painfull to him the vehemence of his spirit drawes him to a neglect of his body The holy man climbes vp to the top of Carmel that now hee may talke with his God alone neither is he sooner ascended then he casts himselfe downe vpon the earth He bowes his knees to God and bowes his face downe to his knees by this humble posture acknowledging his awfull respects to that Maiestie which he implored We cannot prostrate our bodies or soules too low to that infinitely glorious Deity who is the Creator of both His thoughts were more high then his body was low what he said wee know not we know that what he said opened the heauens that for three yeares and an halfe had bin shut vp God had said before I will send raine vpon the earth yet Elijah must pray for what God did promise The promises of the Almighty do not discharge our prayers but suppose them he will doe what he vndertakes but wee must sue for that which we would haue him doe Our petitions are included in the decrees in the ingagements of God The Prophet had newly seene and caused the fire to descend immediately out of heauen he doth not looke the water should doe so he knew that the raine must come from the clouds and that the clouds must arise from vapours and those vapours from the Sea thence doth he expect them But as not willing that the thoughts of his fixed deuotion should be distracted he doth not goe himselfe onely sends his seruant to bring him the newes of his successe At the first sight nothing appeares Seuen times must he walke to that prospect and not till his last view can discerne ought All that while is the Prophet in his prayers neither is any whit danted with that delay Hope holds vp the head of our holy desires and perseuerance crownes it If we receiue not an answer â—o our suits at the sixth motion wee may not bee out of countenance but must try the seuenth At last a little cloud arises out of the Sea of an hand breadâ—â— So many so feruent prayers cannot but pull water out of heauen as well as fire Those sighs reflect vpon the earth and from the earth reflect vpon heauen â—om heauen rebound vpon the Sea and raise vapours vp thence to heauen againe If we finde that our prayers are heard for the substance wee may not cauill at the quantitie Euen an hand broad cloud contents Eliah and fils his heart full
be yours Vouchsafe therefore to take part with your worthy Husband of these my simple Meditations And if your long and gracious experience haue written you a larger volume of wholesome lawes and better informed you by precepts fetcht from your owne feeling than J can hope for by my bare speculation yet where these my not vnlikely rules shall accord with yours let your redoubled assent allow them and they confirme it J made them not for the eie but for the heart neither doe J commend them to your reading but your practice wherein also it shall not be enough that you are a meere and ordinary agent but that you be a patterne propounded vnto others imitation So shall your vertuous and holy progresse besides your owne peace and happpinesse be my Crowne and reioycing in the Day of our common appearance Halsted Decemb. 4. Your L. humbly deuoted IOS HALL MEDITATIONS AND VOWES 1 A Man vnder Gods affliction is like a bird in a net the more he striueth the more he is intangled Gods Decree cannot be eluded with impatience What I cannot auoid I will learne to beare 2 I finde that all worldly things require a long time in getting and affoord a short pleasure in enioying them I will not care much for what I haue nothing for what I haue not 3 I see naturall bodies forsake their owne place and condition for the preseruation of the whole but of all other creatures Man and of all other Men Christians haue the least interest in themselues I will liue as giuen to others lent only to my selfe 4 That which is said of the Elephant that being guiltie of his deformitie hee cannot abide to looke on his owne face in the water but seekes for troubled and muddie channels we see well moralized in men of euill conscience who know their soules are so filthie that they dare not so much as view them but shift off all checks of their former iniquitie with vaine excuses of good-fellowship Whence it is that euery small reprehension so galls them because it calls the eye of the soule home to it selfe and makes them see a glimpse of what they would not So haue I seene a foolish and timorous Patient which knowing his wound very deepe would not endure the Chirurgion to search it whereon what can ensue but a festering of the part and a danger of the whole body So I haue seene many prodigall wasters run so farre in bookes that they cannot abide to heare of reckoning It hath beene an old and true Prouerbe Oft and euen reckonings make long friends I will oft summe my estate with God that I may know what I haue to expect and answer for Neither shall my score run on so long with God that I shall not know my debts or feare an Audit or despaire of pardon 5 I account this body nothing but a close prison to my soule and the earth a larger prison to my body I may not breake prison till I be loosed by death but I will leaue it not vnwillingly when I am loosed 6 The common feares of the World are causelesse and ill placed No man feares to doe ill euery man to suffer ill wherein if we consider it well we shall finde that we feare our best friends For my part I haue learned more of God and of my selfe in one weekes extremitie than all my whole lifes prosperitie had taught me afore And in reason and common experience prosperitie vsually makes vs forget our death aduersitie on the other side makes vs neglect our life Now if we measure both of these by their effects forgetfulnesse of death makes vs secure neglect of this life makes vs carefull of a better So much therefore as neglect of life is better than forgetfulnesse of death and watchfulnesse better than securitie so much more beneficiall will I esteeme aduersitie than prosperitie 7 Euen griefe it selfe is pleasant to the remembrance when it is once past as ioy is whiles it is present I will not therefore in my conceit make any so great difference betwixt ioy and griefe sith griefe past is ioyfull and long expectation of ioy is grieuous 8 Euery sicknesse is a little death I will be content to die oft that I may die once well 9 Oft times those things which haue beene sweet in opinion haue proued bitter in experience I will therefore euer suspend my resolute iudgement vntill the triall and euent in the meane while I will feare the worst and hope the best 10 In all diuine and morall good things I would faine keepe that I haue and get that I want I doe not more loath all other couetousnesse than I affect this In all these things alone I professe neuer to haue enough If I may increase them therefore either by labouring or begging or vsurie I shall leaue no meanes vnattempted 11 Some children are of that nature that they are neuer well but while the rod is ouer them such am I to God Let him beat me so he amend me let him take all away from me so he giue me himselfe 12 There must not be one vniforme proceeding with all men in reprehension but that must varie according to the disposition of the reproued I haue seene some men as thornes which easily touched hurt not but if hard and vnwarily fetch bloud of the hand others as nettles which if they be nicely handled sting and pricke but if hard and roughly pressed are pulled vp without harme Before I take any man in hand I will know whether he be a thorne or a nettle 13 I will account no sinne little since there is not the least but workes out the death of the soule It is all one whether I be drowned in the ebber shore or in the midst of the deepe Sea 14 It is a base thing to get goods to keepe them I see that God which only is infinitely rich holdeth nothing in his owne hands but giues all to his creatures But if we will needs lay vp where should wee rather repose it than in Christs treasurie The poore mans hand is the treasury of Christ All my superfluity shall be there hoorded vp where I know it shall be safely kept and surely returned me 15 The Schoole of God and Nature require two contrary manners of proceeding In the Schoole of Nature we must conceiue and then beleeue in the Schoole of God wee must first beleeue and then we shall conceiue He that beleeues no more than hee conceiues can neuer be a Christian nor he a Philosopher that assents without reason In Natures Schoole we are taught to bolt out the truth by Logicall discourse God cannot endure a Logician In his Schoole he is the best Scholler that reasons least and assents most In diuine things what I may I wil conceiue the rest I will beleeue and admire Not a curious head but a credulous and plaine heart is accepted with God 16 No worldly pleasure hath any absolute delight in it but as a Bee
perillous and impious presumption continuance can no more make any wickednesse safe than the author of sinne no Deuill If I haue once sinned it is too much if oft woe bee to mee if the iteration of my offence cause boldnesse and not rather more sorrow more detestation woe be to me and my sinne if I be not the better because I haue sinned 99 It is strange to see the varieties and proportion of spirituall and bodily diets there bee some creatures that are fatted and delighted with poysons others liue by nothing but aire and some they say by fire others will taste no water but muddie others feed on their fellowes or perhaps on part of themselues others on the excretions of nobler creatures some search into the earth for sustenance or diue into the waters others content themselues with what the vpper earth yeelds them without violence All these and more are answered in the palate of the soule there bee some yea the most to whom sinne which is of a most venemous nature is both food and dainties others that thinke it the onely life to feed on the popular aire of applause others that are neuer well out of the fire of contentions and that wilfully trouble all waters with their priuate humours and opinions others whose crueltie delights in oppression and bloud yea whose enuie gnawes vpon their owne hearts others that take pleasure to reuiue the wicked and foule heresies of the greater wits of the former times others whose worldly mindes root altogether in earthly cares or who not content with the ordinarie prouision of doctrine affect obscure subtilties vnknowne to wiser men others whose too indifferent mindes feed on what-euer opinion comes next to hand without any carefull disquisition of truth so some feed foule others but few cleane and wholsome As there is no beast vpon Earth which hath not his like in the Sea and which perhaps is not in some sort parallelled in the plants of the earth so there is no bestiall disposition which is not answerably found in some men Mankinde therefore hath within it selfe his Goats Chameleons Salamanders Camels Wolues Dogs Swine Moles and whateuer sorts of beasts there are but a few men amongst men to a wise man the shape is not so much as the qualities If I be not a man within in my choices affections inclinations it had beene better for mee to haue beene a beast without A beast is but like it selfe but an euill man is halfe a beast and halfe a Deuill S. 100 Forced fauours are thanklesse and commonly with noble mindes finde no acceptation for a man to giue his soule to God when he sees he can no longer hold it or to bestow his goods when he is forced to depart with them or to forsake his sinne when hee cannot follow it are but vnkinde and cold obediences God sees our necessitie and scornes our compelled offers what man of any generous spirit will abide himselfe made the last refuge of a craued denied and constrained courtesie While God giues mee leaue to keepe my soule yet then to bequeathe it to him and whiles strength and opportunitie serue mee to sinne then to forsake it is both accepted and crowned God loues neither grudged nor necessarie gifts I will offer betimes that hee may vouchsafe to take I will giue him the best that he may take all O God giue me this grace that I may giue thee my selfe freely and seasonably and then I know thou canst not but accept me because this gift is thine owne FINIS MEDITATIONS AND VOWES DIVINE AND MORALL A THIRD CENTVRY By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL SIR EDMVND BACON Knight increase of honour strength of body perfection of VERTVE SIR There is no wise man would giue his thoughts for all the world which as they are the most pleasing and noble businesse of man being the naturall and immediate issue of that reason whereby he is seuered from brute creatures so they are in their vse most beneficiall to our selues and others For by the meanes hereof we enioy both God and our selues and hereby we make others partners of those rich excellencies which God hath hid in the minde And though it be most easie and safe for a man with the Psalmist to commune with his owne heart in silence yet is it more behouefull to the common good for which both as men and Christians we are ordained that those thoughts which our experience hath found comfortable and fruitfull to our selues should with neglect of all censures be communicated to others The concealement whereof me thinkes can proceed from no other ground but either timorousnesse or enuie Which consideration hath induced me to clothe these naked thoughts in plaine and simple words and to aduenture them into the light after their fellowes Consecrating them the rather to your name for that besides all other respects of dutie they are part of those meditations which in my late peregrination with you tooke me vp vnder the solitarie hilles of Ardenna wanting as then the opportunitie of other employment J offer them to you not for that your selfe is not stored with choice of better but as poore men vse to bring presents to the rich Jf they may carrie acceptation from you and bring profit vnto my soule it shall abundantly satisfie mee who should thinke it honour enough if I might be vouchsafed to bring but one pinne towards the decking of the Spouse of Christ whiles others out of their abundance adorne her with costly robes and rich medals J commend their successe to God their patronage to you their vse to the world That God multiplie his rare fauours vpon you and your worthy Ladie and goe you on to fauour Your Worships humbly deuoted IOS HALL MEDITATIONS AND VOWES 1 GOOD men are placed by God as so many starres in the lower firmament of the world As they must imitate those heauenly bodies in their light and influence so also in their motion and therefore as the Planets haue a course proper to themselues against the sway of the Heauen that carries them about so must each good man haue a motion out of his owne iudgement contrary to the customes and opinions of the vulgar finishing his owne course with the least shew of resistance I will neuer affect singularity except it bee among those that are vicious It is better to doe or thinke well alone than to follow a multitude in euill 2 What strange variety of actions doth the eie of God see at once round about the compasse of the earth and within it Some building houses some deluing for metals some marching in troups or encamping one against another some bargaining in the market some trauelling on their way some praying in their closets others quaffing at the Tauerne some rowing in the Gallies others dallying in their chambers and in short as many
to feele and complaine of smart And if men haue deuised such exquisite torments what can spirits more subtile more malicious And if our momentanie sufferings seeme long how long shall that be that is eternall And if the sorrowes indifferently incident to Gods deare ones vpon earth be so extreme as sometimes to driue them within sight of despairing what shall those be that are reserued onely for those that hate him and that he hateth None but those who haue heard the desperate complaints of some guiltie Spyra of whose soules haue beene a little scorched with these flames can enough conceiue of the horror of this estate it being the policy of our common enemy to conceale it so long that we may see and feele it at once lest we should feare it before it be too late to be auoided SECT XVII Remedy of the last and greatest breach of peace arising from death NOw when this great Aduersary like a proud Giant comes stalking out in his fearefull shape and insults ouer our fraile mortalitie daring the world to match him with an equall Champion whiles a whole host of worldlings shew him their backs for feare the true Christian armed onely with confidence and resolution of his future happinesse dares boldly encounter him and can wound him in the forehead the wonted seat of terror and trampling vpon him can cut off his head with his owne sword and victoriously returning can sing in triumph O death where is thy sting An happy victory Wee die and are not foiled yea we are conquerours in dying we could not ouercome death if we died not That dissolution is well bestowed that parts the soule from the body that it may vnite both to God All our life here as that heauenly Doctor well tearmes it is but a vitall death Augustine How aduantâ—gious is that death that determines this false and dying life and begins a true one aboue all the titles of happinesse The Epicure or Sadduce dare not die for feare of not being The guiltie and loose worldling dares not die for feare of being miserable The distrustfull and doubting semi-Christian dares not die because he knowes not whether hee shall be or be miserable or not be at all The resolued Christian dares and would die because he knowes he shall be happy and looking merrily towards heauen the place of his rest can vnfainedly say I desire to be dissolued I see thee my home I see thee a sweet and glorious home after a weary pilgrimage I see thee and now after many lingring hopes I aspire to thee How oft haue I looked vp at thee with admiration and rauishment of soule and by the goodly beames that I haue seene ghessed at the glory that is aboue them How oft haue I scorned these dead and vnpleasant pleasures of earth in comparison of thine I come now my ioyes I come to possesse you I come through paine and death yea if hell it selfe were in the way betwixt you and mee I would passe through hell it selfe to enioy you Tull. Tuscul Callimach Epigram And in truth if that Heathen Cleombrotus a follower of the ancient Academie but vpon onely reading of his Master Platoes discourses of the immortalitie of the soule could cast downe himselfe head-long from an high rocke and wilfully breake his necke that he might be possessed of that immortalitie which he beleeued to follow vpon death how contented should they be to die that knew they shall be more than immortall glorious Hee went not in an hate of the flesh August de Haeres as the Patrician Heretickes of old but in a blinde loue to his soule out of bare opinion We vpon an holy loue grounded vpon assured knowledge He vpon an opinion of future life we on knowledge of future glory He went vnsent for we called for by our Maker Why should his courage exceed ours since our ground our estate so farre exceeds his Euen this age within the reach of our memorie bred that peremptory Italian which in imitation of old Romane courage left in that degenerated Nation there should be no step left of the qualities of their Ancestors entring vpon his torment for killing a Tyrant cheered himselfe with this confidence My death is sharpe Mors acerba Fama perpetua my fame shall be euerlasting The voice of a Romane not of a Christian My fame shall be eternall an idle comfort My fame shall liue not my soule liue to see it What shall it auaile thee to be talkt of while thou art not Then fame onely is precious when a man liues to enioy it The fame that suruiues the soule is bootlesse Yet euen this hope cheered him against the violence of his death What should it doe vs that not our fame but our life our glory after death cannot die He that hath Stephens eies to looke into heauen cannot but haue the tongue of the Saints Come Lord How long That man seeing the glory of the end cannot but contemne the hardnesse the way But who wants those eies if he say and sweares that he feares not death beleeue him not if he protest this Tranquillitie and yet feare death beleeue him not beleeue him not if he say he is not miserable SECT XVIII THese are enemies on the left hand There want not some on the right The second ranke of the enemies of peace which with lesse profession of hostilitie hurt no lesse Not so easily perceiued because they distemper the minde not without some kinde of pleasure Surfet kils more than famine These are the ouer-desiring and ouer-ioying of these earthly things All immoderations are enemies as to health so to peace He that desires Hippocr Aphoris wants as much as he that hath nothing The drunken man is as thirstie as the sweating traueller Hence are the studies cares feares iealousies hopes griefes enuies wishes platformes of atchieuing alterations of purposes and a thousand like whereof each one is enough to make the life troublesome One is sicke of his neighbours field whose mis-shapen angles disfigure his and hinder his Lordship of entirenesse what he hath is not regarded for the want of what hee cannot haue Another feeds on crusts to purchase what he must leaue perhaps to a foole or which is not much better to a prodigall heire Another in the extremitie of couetous folly chuses to die an vnpitied death hanging himselfe for the fall of the market while the Commons laugh at that losse and in their speeches Epitaph vpon him as on that Pope He liued as a Wolfe and died as a Dogge One cares not what attendance hee dances at all houres on whose staires he sits what vices he soothes what deformities he imitates what seruile offices he doth in an hope to rise Another stomackes the couered head and stiffe knee of his inferiour angry that other men thinke him not so good as he thinkes himselfe Another eats his owne heart with enuy at the richer furniture and better
whole processe second my rule with his example that so what might seeme obscure in the one may by the other be explained and the same steps he seeth me take in this he may accordingly tread in any other Theme CHAP. XVIII FIrst therefore it shall be expedient to consider seriously The practice of Meditation wherein First we begin with some description of that we meditate of what the thing is whereof we meditate What then O my soule is the life of the Saints whereof thou studiest Who are the Saints but those which hauing beene weakly holy vpon earth are perfectly holy aboue which euen on earth were perfectly holy in their Sauiour now are so in themselues which ouercomming on earth are truly canonized in Heauen What is their life but that blessed estate aboue wherein their glorified soule hath a full fruition of God CHAP. XIX THe nature whereof Secondly followes an easie and voluntary diuision of the matter meditated after we haue thus shadowed out to our selues by a description not curious alwaies and exactly framed according to the rules of Art but sufficient for our owne conceit the next is if it shall seeme needfull or if the matter will beare or offer it some easie and voluntary diuision whereby our thoughts shall haue more roome made for them and our proceeding shall be more distinct There is a life of nature wh n thou my soule dwellest in this body and informest thine earthly burthen There is a life of grace when the Spirit of God dwells in thee There is a life of glory when the body being vnited to thee both shall be vnited to God or when in the meane time being separated from thy companion thou inioyest God alone This life of thine therefore as the other hath his ages hath his statures for it entreth vpon his birth when thou passest out of thy body and changest this earthly house for an Heauenly It enters into his full vigour when at the day of the common resurrection thou resumest this thy companion vnlike to it selfe like to thee like to thy Sauiour immortall now and glorious In this life here may be degrees there can be no imperfection If some be like the skie others like the Starres yet all shine If some sit at their Sauiours right hand others at his left all are blessed If some vessels hold more all are full none complaineth of want none enuieth at him that hath more CHAP. XX. 3 A consideration of the causes thereof in all kinds of them WHich done it shall be requisit for our perfecter vnderstanding and for the laying grounds of matter for our affection to carry it thorow those other principall places and heads of reason which Nature hath taught euery man both for knowledge and amplification the first whereof are the Causes of all sorts Whence is this eternall life but from him which onely is eternall which onely is the fountaine of life yea life it selfe Who but the same God that giues our temporall life giueth also that eternall The Father bestoweth it the Sonne meriteth it the Holy Ghost seales and applieth it Expect it onely from him O my soule whose free election gaue thee the first title to it to be purchased by the bloud of thy Sauiour For thou shalt not therefore be happy because he saw that thou wouldst be good but therefore art thou good because he hath ordained thou shalt be happy Hee hath ordained thee to life he hath giuen thee a Sauiour to giue this life vnto thee faith whereby thou mightest attaine to this Sauiour his Word by which thou mightst attaine to this faith what is there in this not his And yet not his so simply as that it is without thee without thy merit indeed not without thine act Thou liuest here through his blessing but by bread thou shalt liue aboue through his mercy but by thy faith below apprehending the Author of thy life And yet as he will not saue thee without thy faith so thou canst neuer haue faith without his gift Looke vp to him therefore O my soule as the beginner and finisher of thy saluation and while thou magnifiest the Author be rauished with the glory of the worke which farre passeth both the tongue of Angels and the heart of man It can be no good thing that is not there How can they want water that haue the spring Where God is enioyed in whom only all things are good what good can bee wanting And what perfection of blisse is there where all goodnesse is met and vnited In thy presence is fulnesse of ioy and at thy right hand are pleasures for euermore O blessed reflection of glory We see there as we are seene in that we are seene it is our glory in that we see it is Gods glory therefore doth be glorifie vs that our glory should be to his How worthy art thou O Lord that through vs thou shouldest looke at thy selfe CHAP. XXI 4 The Consideration of the Fruits and Effects THe next place shal be the fruits and effects following vpon their seuerall causes which also affoords very feeling and copious matter to our meditation wherein it shall be euer best not so much to seeke for all as to chuse out the chiefest No maruell then if from this glory proceed vnspeakable ioy and from this ioy the sweet songs of praise and thanksgiuing The Spirit bids vs when we are merry sing How much more then when we are merry without all mixture of sorrow beyond all measure of our earthly affections shall we sing ioyfull Hallelu-iahs and Hosannahs to him that dwelleth in the highest Heauens our hearts shall be so full that we cannot chuse but sing and wee cannot but sing melodiously There is no iar in this Musicke no end of this song O blessed change of the Saints They doe nothing but weepe below and now nothing but sing aboue We sowed in teares reape in ioy there was some comfort in those teares when they were at worst but there is no danger of complaint in this heauenly mirth If we cannot sing here with Angels On earth peace yet there wee shall sing with them Glory to God on high and ioyning our voices to theirs shall make vp that celestiall consort which none can either heare or beare part in and not be happy CHAP. XXII 5 Consideration of the Subiect wherein or whereabout it is AFter which comes to be considered the Subiect either wherein that is or whereabout that is imploied which we meditate of As And indeed what lesse happinesse doth the very place promise wherein this glory is exhibited which is no other than the Paradise of God Here below we dwell or rather we wander in a continued wildernes there we shall rest vs in the true Eden I am come into my Garden my Sister my Spouse Kings vse not to dwell in Cottages of Clay but in Royall Courts fit for their estate How much more shall the King of Heauen who hath
prepared for men so faire mansions on earth make himselfe an habitation sutable to his Maiestie Euen earthly Princes haue dwelt in Cedar and Yuory But the great Citie Holy Ierusalem the Palace of the Highest hath her walls of Iasper her building of gold her foundation of precious stones her gates of pearle How glorious things are spoken of thee O thou City of God! We see but the pauement and yet how goodly it is The beleeuing Centurion thought himselfe vnworthy that Christ should come vnder his roofe yet wert thou O Sauiour in thine humbled estate in the forme of a seruant How then shall I thinke my selfe worthy to come vnder this roofe of thine so shining and glorious O if this clay of mine may come to this honour aboue let it bee trampled vpon and despised on earth CHAP. XXIII SIxtly shall follow the Appendances and Qualities 6 Consid of the Appendances and Qualities of it which cleaue vnto the subiect whereof we meditate As But were the place lesse noble and maiesticall yet the company which it affordeth hath enough to make the soule blessed For not the place giueth ornament to the guest so much as the guest to the place How loth are we to leaue this earth onely for the society of some few friends in whom we delight which yet are subiect euery day to mutuall dislikes what pleasure shall we then take in the enioying of the Saints when there is nothing in them not amiable nothing in vs that may coole the feruour of our loue There shalt thou my soule thy selfe glorified meete with thy deare Parents and friends alike glorious neuer to be seuered There thou shalt see and conuerse with those ancient Worthies of the former World the blessed Patriarchs and Prophets with the crowned Martyrs and Confessors with the holy Apostles and the Fathers of that Primitiue and this present Church shining each one according to the measure of his blessed labours There shalt thou liue familiarly in the sight of those Angels whom now thou receiuest good from but seest not There which is the head of all thy felicity thine eies shall see Him whom now thine heart longeth for that Sauiour of thine in the onely hope of whom now thou liuest Alas how dimly and afarre off doest thou now behold him How imperfectly doest thou enioy him while euery temptation bereaues thee for the time of his presence I sought him whom my soule loueth I sought him but found him not his backe is now towards thee many times through thy sinnes and therefore thou hardly discernest him Other-while and often thy backe is turned vnto him through negligence that when thou mightest obscurely see him thou doest not now thou shalt see him and thine eies thus fixed shall not bee remoued Yet neither could this glory make vs happy if being thus absolute it were not perpetuall To bee happy is not so sweet a state as it is miserable to haue beene happy Lest ought therefore should be wanting behold this felicity knoweth no end feareth no intermission and is as eternall for the continuance as he that had no beginning O blessednesse truly infinite Our earthly ioyes doe scarce euer begin but when they begin their end bordereth vpon their beginning One houre seeth vs oft-times ioyfull and miserable here alone is nothing but eternity If then the Diuine Prophet thought here one day in Gods earthly house better than a thousand other-where what shall I compare to thousands of millions of yeeres in Gods heauenly Temple Yea millions of yeeres are not so much as a minute to eternity and that other house not a cottage to this CHAP. XXIV SEuenthly our thoughts 7 Of that which is diuerse from it or contrary to it leauing a while the consideration of the thing as it is in it selfe shall descend vnto it as respectiuely with others and therefore first shall meditate of that which is diuerse from it or contrarie vnto it What doest thou here then O my soule What doest thou here groueling vpon earth where the best things are vanity the rest no better than vexation Looke round about thee and see whether thine eies can meet with any thing but either sinnes or miseries Those few and short pleasures thou seest end euer sorrowfully and in the meane time are intermingled with many grieuances Here thou hearest one cry out of a sicke body whereof there is no part which affords not choice of diseases This man layeth his hand vpon his consuming lungs and complaineth of short wind that other vpon his rising spleene a third shaketh his painfull head another roares out for the torment of his reines or bladder another for the racking of his gowty ioints one is distempered with a watery Dropsie another with a windie Collicke a third with a fiery Ague a fourth with an earthen Melancholy one grouels and fometh with the falling sicknesse another lyeth bed-rid halfe senselesse with a dead Palsie There are but few bodies that complaine not of some disease and that thou maiest not looke farre it is a wonder if thy selfe feele not alwaies one of these euills within thee There thou hearest another lament his losse either his estate is impaired by suretiship or stealth or shipwracke or oppression or his childe is vnruly or miscarried or his wife dead or disloyall another tormented with passions each one is some way miserable But that which is yet more irkesome thy one eare is beaten with cursings and blasphemies thy other with scornefull or wanton or murthering speeches thine eyes see nothing but pride filthinesse profanenesse bloud excesse and whatsoeuer else might vex a righteous soule and if all the world besides were innocent thou findest enough within thy selfe to make thy selfe wearie and thy life lothsome Thou needest not fetch cause of complaint from others thy corruptions yeeld thee too much at home euer sinning euer presuming Sinning euen when thou hast repented yea euen while thou repentest sinning Goe to now my soule and solace thy selfe here below suffer thy selfe besottted with these goodly contentments worthy of no better while thou fixest thy selfe on these see if thou canst finde any of these aboue and if thou canst meet with any distemper any losse any sinne any complaint from thy selfe or any other aboue despise thine Heauen as much as now thou louest the earth Or if all this cannot enough commend vnto thee the state of Heauenly Glory cast downe thine eyes yet lower into that deepe and bottomlesse pit full of horror full of torment where there is nothing but flames and teares and shrikes and gnashing of teeth nothing but Fiends and tortures where there is palpable darknesse and yet perpetuall fire where the damned are euer boyling neuer consumed euer dying neuer dead euer complaining neuer pitied where the Glutton that once would not giue a crust of bread now begs for one drop of water and yet alas if whole riuers of water should fall into his mouth how should they quench those
in our iourney we long not for home Doest thou see men so in loue with their natiue soile that euen when it is all deformed with the desolations of warre and turned into rude heapes or while it is euen now flaming with the fire of ciuill broiles they couet yet still to liue in it preferring it to all other places of more peace and pleasure and shalt thou seeing nothing but peace and blessednesse at home nothing but trouble abroad content thy selfe with a faint wish of thy dissolution If heauen were thy Iayle thou couldest but thinke of it vncomfortably Oh what affection can be worthy of such an home CHAP. XXVII 10. Consid of fit testimonies of Scripture concerning our Theme LAstly if wee can recall any pregnant Testimonies of Scripture concerning our Theme those shall fitly conclude this part of our Meditation Of Scripture for that in these matters of God none but diuine authority can command assent and settle the conscience Witnesses of holy men may serue for colours but the ground must be onely from God There it is saith the Spirit of God which cannot deceiue thee that all teares shall bee wiped from our eies there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying neither shall there bee any more paine yea there shall not onely bee an end of sorrowes but an abundant recompence for the sorrowes of our life as he that was rapt vp into the third Heauen and there saw what cannot be spoken speaketh yet thus of what he saw I count that the afflictions of this present time are not worthy of the glory which shall bee shewed to vs It was shewed vnto him what should hereafter be shewed vnto vs and he saw that if all the world full of miseries were laid in one ballance and the least glory of heauen in another those would be incomparably light yea as that diuine Father that one daies felicity aboue were worth a thousand yeeres torment below what then can be matched with the eternity of such ioyes Oh how great therefore is this thy goodnesse O Lord which thou hast laid vp for them that feare thee and done to them that trust in thee before the sonnes of men CHAP. XXVIII Of our second part of Meditation which is in the affections THe most difficult and knotty part of Meditation thus finished there remaineth that which is both more liuely and more easie vnto a good heart to be wrought altogether by the affections which if our discourses reach not vnto they proue vaine and to no purpose That which followeth therefore is the very soule of Meditation whereto all that is past serueth but as an instrument A man is a man by his vnderstanding part but he is a Christian by his will and affections Seeing therefore that all our former labour of the braine is onely to affect the heart after that the minde hath thus trauersed the point proposed through all the heads of reason it shall endeuour to finde in the first place some feeling touch Wherein is required a Taste and rellish of what we haue thought vpon and sweet rellish in that which it hath thus chewed which fruit through the blessing of God will voluntarily follow vpon a serious Meditation Dauid saith Oh taste and see how sweet the Lord is In Meditation we doe both see and taste but we see before we taste sight is of the vnderstanding taste of the affection neither can we see but we must taste we cannot know aright but we must needs be affected Let the heart therefore first conceiue and feele in it selfe the sweetnesse or bitternesse of the matter meditated which is neuer done without some passion nor expressed without some hearty exclamation Oh blessed estate of the Saints O glory not to be expressed euen by those which are glorified O incomprehensible saluation What sauour hath this earth to thee Who can regard the world that beleeueth thee Who can thinke of thee and not be rauished with wonder and desire Who can hope for thee and not reioyce Who can know thee and not be swallowed vp with admiration at the mercy of him that bestoweth thee O blessednesse worthy of Christs bloud to purchase thee Worthy of the continuall songs of Saints and Angels to celebrate thee How should I magnifie thee How should I long for thee How should I hate all this world for thee CHAP. XXIX AFter this Taste shall follow a Complaint Secondly a Complaint be wailing our wants and vntowardnesse wherein the heart bewaileth to it selfe his owne pouertie dulnesse and imperfection chiding and abasing it selfe in respect of his wants and indisposition wherein Humiliation truly goeth before glory For the more we are cast downe in our conceit the higher shall God lift vs vp at the end of this exercise in spirituall reioycing But alas where is my loue Where is my longing Where art thou O my soule What heauinesse hath ouertaken thee How hath the world bewitched and possessed thee that thou art become so carelesse of thine home so senselesse of spirituall delights so fond vpon thâ—se vanities Doest thou doubt whether there be an heauen or whether thou haue a God and a Sauiour there O farre be from thee this Atheisme farre be from thee the least thought of this desperate impiety Woe were thee if thou beleeuedst not But O thou of little Faith doest thou beleeue there is happinesse and happinesse for thee and desirest it not and delightest not in it Alas how weake and vnbeleeuing is thy beleefe How cold and faint are thy desires Tell me what such goodly entertainment hast thou met withall here on earth that was worthy to with-draw thee from these heauenly ioyes What pleasure in it euer gaue thee contentment or what cause of dislike findest thou aboue Oh no my soule it is onely thy miserable drowsinesse onely thy securitie The world the world hath besotted thee hath vndone thee with carelesnesse Alas if thy delight be so cold what difference is there in thee from an ignorant Heathen that doubts of another life yea from an Epicure that denies it Art thou a Christian or art thou none If thou bee what thou professest away with this dull and senselesse worldlinesse away with this earthly vncheerefulnesse shake off at last this prophane and godlesse securitie that hath thus long weighed thee downe from mounting vp to thy ioyes Looke vp to thy God and to thy Crowne and say with confidence O Lord I haue waited for thy saluation CHAP. XXX AFter this Complaint must succeed an hearty and passionate Wish of the soule Thirdly an hearty Wish of the soule for what it complaineth to want which ariseth cleerely from the two former degrees For that which a man hath found sweet and comfortable and complaines that he still wanteth hee cannot but wish to enioy O Lord that I could wait and long for thy saluation Oh that I could minde the things aboue that as I am a stranger indeed so I
could be also in affection Oh that mine eies like the eies of thy first Martyr could by the light of Faith see but a glimpse of heauen Oh that my heart could be rapt vp thither in desire How should I trample vpon these poore vanities of the earth How willingly should I endure all sorrowes all torments How scornfully should I passe by all pleasures How should I be in trauaile of my dissolution Oh when shall that blessed day come when all this wretched worldlinesse remoued I shall solace my selfe in my God Behold as the Hart braieth for the riuers of waters so panteth my soule after thee O God My soule thirsteth for God euen for the liuing God Oh when shall I come and appeare before the presence of God CHAP. XXXI 4. An humble Confession of our disability to effect what we wish AFter this Wishing shall follow humble Confession by iust order of nature for hauing bemoaned our want and wished supply not finding this hope in ourselues we must needs acknowledge it to him of whom onely we may both seeke and finde wherein it is to be duly obserued how the minde is by turnes depressed and lifted vp Being lifted vp with our taste of ioy it is cast downe with Complaint lift vp with Wishes it is cast downe with Confession which order doth best hold it in vre and iust temper and maketh it more feeling of the comfort which followeth in the conclusion This Confession must derogate all from ourselues and ascribe all to God Thus I desire O Lord to bee aright affected towards thee and thy glory I desire to come to thee but alas how weakly how heartlesly Thou knowest that I can neither come to thee nor desire to come but from thee It is Nature that holds me from thee this treacherous Nature fauours it selfe loueth the world hateth to thinke of a dissolution and chuseth rather to dwell in this dungeon with continuall sorrow and complaint than to endure a parting although to libertie and ioy Alas Lord it is my misery that I loue my paine How long shall these vanities thus besot me It is thou onely that canst turne away mine eies from regarding these follies and my heart from affecting them thou onely who as thou shalt one day receiue my soule into heauen so now before-hand canst fix my soule vpon heauen and thee CHAP. XXXII 5. An earnest Petition for that which we confesse to want AFter Confession naturally followes Petition earnestly requesting that at his hands which wee acknowledge our selues vnable and none but God able to performe O carrie it vp therefore thou that hast created and redeemed it carry it vp to thy glory Oh let me not alwaies be thus dull and brutish let not these scales of earthly affection alwaies dim and blinde mine eies Oh thou that laiedst clay vpon the blinde mans eies take away this clay from mine eies where-with alas they are so dawbed vp that they cannot see heauen Illuminate them from aboue and in thy light let mee see light Oh thou that hast prepared a place for my soule prepare my soule for that place prepare it with holinesse prepare it with desire and euen while it soiourneth on earth let it dwell in heauen with thee beholding euer the beautie of thy face the glory of thy Saints and of it selfe CHAP. XXXIII 6. A vehement Enforcement of our petition AFter Petition shall follow the Enforcement of our request from argument and importunate obsecration wherein we must take heed of complementing in termes with God as knowing that he will not be mocked by any fashionable forme of suit but requireth holy and feeling intreaty How graciously hast thou proclaimed to the world that who-euer wants wisdome shall aske it of thee which neither deniest nor vpbraidest O Lord I want heauenly wisdome to conceiue aright of heauen I want it and aske it of thee giue me to aske it instantly and giue me according to thy promise abundantly Thou seest it is no strange fauour that I begge of thee no other than that which thou hast richly bestowed vpon all thy valiant Martyrs Confessors Seruants from the beginning who neuer could haue so cheerefully embraced death and torment if through the middest of their flames and paine they had not seene their Crowne of glory The poore Theefe on the Crosse had no sooner craued thy remembrance when thou earnest to thy Kingdome than thou promisedst to take him with thee into heauen Presence was better to him than remembrance Behold now thou art in thy Kingdome I am on earth remember thine vnworthy seruant and let my soule in conceit in affection in conuersation be this day and for euer with thee in Paradise I see man walketh in a vaine shadow and disquieteth himselfe in vaine they are pittifull pleasures he enioyeth while he forgetteth thee I am as vaine make me more wise Oh let mee see heauen and I know I shall neuer enuie nor follow them My times are in thine hand I am no better than my fathers a stranger on earth As I speake of them so the next yea this generation shall speake of me as one that was My life is a bubble a smoake a shadow a thought I know it is no abiding in this thorow fare Oh suffer me not so mad as while I passe on the way I should forget the end It is that other life that I must trust to With thee it is that I shall continue Oh let mee not be so foolish as to settle my selfe on what I must leaue and to neglect eternitie I haue seene enough of this earth and yet I loue it too much O let me see heauen another while and loue it so much more than the earth by how much the things there are more worthy to be loued Oh God looke downe on thy wretched Pilgrim and teach me to looke vp to thee and to see thy goodnesse in the Land of the liuing Thou that boughtest heauen for me guide me thither and for the price that it cost thee for thy mercies sake in spight of all tentations enlighten thou my soule direct it crowne it CHAP. XXXIV AFter this Enforcement doth follow Confidence wherein the soule 7. A cheerefull Confidence of obtaining what we haue requested and enforced after many doubtfull and vnquiet bickerings gathereth vp her forces and cheerefully rowzeth vp it selfe and like one of Dauids Worthies breaketh thorow a whole Armie of doubts and fetcheth comfort from the Well of life which though in some latter yet in all is a sure reward from God of sincere Meditation Yea be thou bold O my soule and doe not meerely craue but challenge this fauour of God as that which he oweth thee he oweth it thee because he hath promised it and by his mercy hath made his gift his debt Faithfull is he that hath promised which will also doe it Hath he not giuen thee not onely his hand in the sweet hopes of the Gospell but his seale
I call it the way or the gate of life Sure I am that by it onely wâ— passe into that blessednesse whereof we haue so thought that we haue found it cannot be thought of enough The Description What then is this death but the taking downe of these sticks whereof this earthly Tent is composed The separation of two great and old friends till they meet againe The Gaole-deliuerie of a long prisoner Our iourney into that other world for which wee and this thorow-fare were made Our paiment of our first debt to Nature the sleepe of the body and the awaking of the soule The Diuision But lest thou shouldest seeme to flatter him whose name and face hath euer seemed terrible to others remember that there are more deaths than one If the first death bee not so fearefull as hee is made his horrour lying more in the conceit of the beholder than in his owne aspect surely the second is not made so fearefull as hee is No liuing eye can behold the terrours thereof it is as impossible to see them as to feele them and liue Nothing but a name is common to both The first hath men casualties diseases for his executioners the second Deuils The power of the first is in the graue the second in hell The worst of the first is senslesnesse the easiest of the second is a perpetuall sense of all the paine that can make a man exquisitely miserable The Causes Thou shalt haue no businesse O my soule with the second death Thy first Resurrection hath secured thee Thanke him that hath redeemed thee for thy safetie And how can I thanke thee enough O my Sauiour which hast so mercifully bought off my torment with thy owne and hast drunke off that bitter potion of thy Fathers wrath whereof the very taste had beene our death Yea such is thy mercie O thou Redeemer of men that thou hast not onely subdued the second death but reconciled the first so as thy children taste not at all of the second and finde the first so sweetned to them by thee that they complaine of bitternesse It was not thou O God that madest death our hands are they that were guiltie of this euill Thou sawest all thy worke that it was good we brought forth sinne and sinne brought forth death To the discharge of thy Iustice and Mercie we acknowledge this miserable conception and needs must that childe be vgly that hath such parents Certainly if Being and Good be as they are of an equall extent then the dissolution of our Being must needs in it selfe be euill How ful of darkenesse and horrour then is the priuation of this vitall light especially since thy wisdome intended it to the reuenge of sinne which is no lesse than the violation of an infinite Iustice it was thy iust pleasure to plague vs with this brood of our owne begetting Behold that death which was not till then in the world is now in euery thing one great Conqueror findes it in a Slate another findes it in a Flie one findes it in the kernel of a Grape another in the pricke of a thorne one in the taste of an herbe another in the smell of a flower one in a bit of meat another in a mouthfull of aire one in the very sight of a danger another in the conceit of what might haue beene Nothing in all our life is too little to hide death vnder it There need no cords nor kniues nor swords nor Peeces we haue made our selues as many waies to death as there are helps of liuing But if we were the authors of our death it was thou that didst alter it our disobedience made it and thy mercie made it not to be euill It had beene all one to thee to haue taken away the very Being of death from thine owne but thou thoughtest it best to take away the sting of it onely as good Physicians when they would apply their Leeches scowre them with Salt and Nettles and when their corrupt bloud is voided imploy them to the health of the patient It is more glory to thee that thou hast remoued enmitie from this Esau that now he meets vs with kisses in stead of frownes and if wee receiue a blow from this rough hand yet that very stripe is healing Oh how much more powerfull is thy death than our sinne O my Sauiour how hast thou perfumed and softened this bed of my graue by dying How can it grieue mee to tread in thy steps to glory Our sinne made death our last enemie The Effects thy goodnesse hath made it the first friend that we meet with in our passage to another world For as shee that receiues vs from the knees of our mother in our first entrance to the light washeth cleanseth dresseth vs and presents vs to the brest of our nurse or the armes of our mother challenges some interest in vs when we come to our growth so death which in our passage to that other life is the first that receiues and presents our naked soules to the hands of those Angels which carry it vp to her glorie cannot but thinke this office friendly and meritorious What if this guide leade my carcase through corruption and rottennesse when my soule in the very instant of her separation knowes it selfe happy What if my friends mourne about my bed and coffin when my soule sees the smiling face and louing embracements of him that was dead and is aliue What care I who shuts these earthen eyes when death opens the eye of my soule to see as I am seene What if my name be forgotten of men when I liue aboue with the God of Spirits If death would be still an enemie The Subiect it is the worst part of mee that he hath any thing to doe withall the best is aboue his reach and gaines more than the other can leese The worst peece of the horrour of death is the graue and set aside infidelitie what so great miserie is this That part which is corrupted feeles it not that which is free from corruption feeles an abundant recompence and foresees a ioyfull reparation What is here but a iust restitution We carry heauen and earth wrapt vp in our bosomes each part returnes homeward And if the exceeding glory of heauen cannot countetuaile the dolesomnesse of the graue what doe I beleeuing But if the beautie of that celestiall Sanctuarie doe more than equalize the horrour of the bottomlesse pit how can I shrinke at earth like my selfe when I know my glorie And if examples can moue thee any whit looke behinde thee O my soule and see which of the Worthies of that ancient latter world which of the Patriarchs Kings Prophets Apostles haue not trod in these red steps Where are those millions of generations which haue hitherto peopled the earth How many passing-bels hast thou heard for they knowne friends How many sicke beds hast thou visited How many eies hast thou seene closed
How many vaine men hast thou seene that haue gone into the field to seeke death in hope to finde an honour as foolish as themselues How many poore creatures hast thou mulcted with death for thine owne pleasure And canst thou hope that that God will make a by-way and a Posterne for thee alone that thou maiest passe to the next world not by the gates of death not by the bottome of the graue What then doest thou feare O my soule There are but two stages of death The Adiunct the bed and the graue This latter if it haue senslesnesse yet it hath rest The former if it haue paine yet it hath speedinesse and when it lights vpon a faithfull heart meets with many and strong antidotes of comfort The euill that is euer in motion is not fearefull That which both time and eternitie finde standing where it was is worthy of terrour Well may those tremble at death which finde more distresse within than without whose consciences are more sicke and neerer to death than their bodies It was thy Fathers wrath that did so terrifie thy soule O my Sauiour that it put thy body into a bloudy sweat The mention and thought of thy death ended in a Psalme but this began in an agonie Then didst thou sweat out my feares The power of that agonie doth more comfort all thine than the Angels could comfort thee That very voice deserued an eternall separation of horrour from death where thou saidst My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Thou hadst not complained of being left if thou wouldest haue any of thine left destitute of comfort in their parting I know not whom I can feare while I know whom I haue beleeued how can I be discouraged with the sight of my losse when I see so cleere an aduantage The Contrary What discomfort is this to leaue a fraile body to bee ioyned vnto a glorious head To forsake vaine pleasures false honours bootlesse hopes vnsatisfying wealth stormie contentments sinfull men perillous tentations a sea of troubles a gallie of seruitude an euill world and a consuming life for Freedome Rest Happinesse Eternitie And if thou wert sentenced O my soule to liue a thousand yeeres in this body with these infirmities how wouldest thou be wearie not of being only but of complaining Whiles ere the first hundred I should bee a childe ere the second a beast a stone ere the third and therefore should be so farre from finding pleasure in my continuance that I should not haue sense enough left to feele my selfe miserable And when I am once gone what difference is there betwixt the agedst of the first Patriarchs and mee and the childe that did but liue to be borne saue onely in what was and that which was is not And if this body had no weaknesse to make my life tedious yet what a torment is it that while I liue I must sinne Alas my soule euery one of thy knowne sinnes is not a disease but a death What an enemie art thou to thy selfe if thou canst not bee content that one bodily death should excuse thee from many spirituall to cast off thy body that thou maiest be stripped of the ragges yea the fetters of thy sinne and cloathed with the Robes of glorie Yet these termes are too hard Thou shalt not bee cast off O my body rather thou shalt be put to making this change is no lesse happy for thee than for thy partner This very skinne of thine which is now tawnie and wrinkled shall once shine this earth shall bee heauen this dust shall bee glorious These eyes that are now wearie of being witnesses of thy sinnes and miseries shall then neuer be wearie of seeing the beautie of thy Sauiour and thine owne in his These eares that haue beene now tormented with the impious tongues of men shall first heare the voice of the Sonne of God and then the voices of Saints and Angels in their songs of Alleluia And this tongue that now complaines of miseries and feares shall then beare a part in that diuine harmonie The comparisons In the meane time thou shalt but sleepe in this bed of earth hee that hath tried the worst of death hath called it no worse very Heathens haue termed them cousins and it is no vnusuall thing for cousins of bloud to carrie both the same names and features Hast thou wont O my body when the day hath wearied thee to lie downe vnwillingly to thy rest Behold in this sleepe there is more quietnesse more pleasure of visions more certaintie of waking more cheerefulnesse in rising why then art thou loth to thinke of laying off thy ragges and reposing thy selfe Why art thou like a childe vnwilling to goe to bed Hast thou euer seene any bird which when the cage hath beene opened would rather sit still and sing within her grates than flie forth vnto her freedome in the woods Hast thou euer seene any prisoner in loue with his bolts and fetters Did the Chiefe of the Apostles when the Angell of God shined in his Iayle and strooke him on the side and loosed his two chaines and bade him Arise quickly and opened both the woodden and Iron gate say What so soone yet a little sleepe What madnesse had it beene rather to slumber betwixt his two Keepers than to follow the Angell of God into libertie Hast thou euer seene any Mariner that hath saluted the sea with songs and the Hauen with teares What shall I say to this diffidence O my soule that thou art vnwilling to thinke of rest after thy toile of freedome after thy durance of the Hauen after an vnquiet and tempestuous passage How many are there that seeke death and cannot finde it meerely out of the irksomenesse of life Hath it found thee and offered thee better conditions not of immunitie from euils but of possession of more good than thou canst thinke and wouldest thou now flie from happinesse to be rid of it What Is it a name that troubles thee what if men would call sleepe death The Names wouldst thou be afraid to close thine eies what hurt is it then if he that sent the first sleepe vpon man whilest hee made him an helper send this last and soundest sleepe vpon mee whiles he prepares my soule for a glorious Spouse to himselfe It is but a parting which we call death as two friends when they haue lead each other on the way shake hands till they returne from their iourney If either could miscarry there were cause of sorrow now they are more sure of a meeting than of a parture what folly is it not to be content to redeeme the vnspeakable gaine of so deare a friend with a little intermission of enioying him He will returne laden with the riches of heauen and will fetch his old partner to the participation of this glorious wealth Goe then my Soule to this sure and gainefull traffique and leaue my other halfe in an harbour as safe
himselfe a ghest in his owne house an Ape of others and in a word any thing rather than himselfe Of the Flatterer FLatterie is nothing but false friendship fawning hypocrisie dishonest ciuilitie base merchandize of words a plausible discord of the heart and lips The Flatterer is bleare-eyed to ill and cannot see vices and his tongue walkes euer in one tracke of vniust praises and can no more tell how to discommend than to speake true His speeches are full of wondring interiections and all his titles are superlatiue and both of them seldome euer but in presence His base minde is well matched with a mercenarie tongue which is a willing slaue to another mans eare neither regardeth he how true but how pleasing His Art is nothing but delightfull coozenage whose rules are smoothing and garded with periurie whose scope is to make men fooles in teaching them to ouer-value themselues and to tickle his friends to death This man is a Porter of all good tales and mends them in the carriage One of Fames best friends and his owne that helps to furnish her with those rumours that may aduantage himselfe Conscience hath no greater aduersarie for when she is about to play her iust part of accusation he stops her mouth with good termes and wel-neere strangleth her with shifts Like that subtill fish he turnes himselfe into the colour of euery stone for a bootie In himselfe be is nothing but what pleaseth his Great-one whose vertues hee cannot more extoll than imitate his imperfections that he may thinke his worst gracefull Let him say it is hot he wipes his forehead and vnbraceth himselfe if cold he shiuers and calls for a warmer garment When hee walkes with his friend hee sweares to him that no man else is looked at no man talked of and that whomsoeuer he vouchsafes to looke on and nod to is graced enough That he knowes not his owne worth lest hee should be too happy and when hee tells what others say in his praise he interrupts himselfe modestly and dares not speake the rest so his concealement is more insinuating than his speech He hangs vpon the lips which he admireth as if they could let fall nothing but Oracles and findes occasion to cite some approued sentence vnder the name hee honoureth and when ought is nobly spoken both his hands are little enough to blesse him Sometimes euen in absence he extolleth his Patron where he may presume of safe conueyance to his eares and in presence so whispereth his commendation to a common friend that it may not be vnheard where hee meant it Hee hath salues for euery sore to hide them not to heale them complexion for euery face sinne hath not any more artificiall Broker or more impudent Bawd There is no vice that hath not from him his colour his allurement and his best seruice is either to further guiltinesse or smother it If hee grant euill things inexpedient or crimes errours hee hath yeelded much either thy estate giues priuilege of libertie or thy youth or if neither What if it be ill yet it is pleasant Honesty to him is nice singularitie repentance superstitious melancholy grauitie dulnesse and all vertue an innocent conceit of the base-minded In short he is the Moth of liberall mens coats the Eare-wig of the mightie the bane of Courts a friend and a slaue to the trencher and good for nothing but to bee a factor for the Deuill Of the Slothfull HE is a religious man and weares the time in his Cloister and as the cloke of his doing nothing pleads contemplation yet is he no whit the leaner for his thoughts no whit learneder Hee takes no lesse care how to spend time than others how to gaine by the expense and when businesse importunes him is more troubled to fore-thinke what he must doe than another to effect it Summer is out of his fauour for nothing but long daies that make no haste to their euen He loues still to haue the Sunne witnesse of his rising and lies long more for lothnesse to dresse him than will to sleepe and after some streaking and yawning cals for dinner vnwashed which hauing digested with a sleepe in his chaire hee walkes forth to the bench in the Market-place and lookes for Companions whomsoeuer he meets he staies with idle questions and lingring discourse how the daies are lengthned how kindly the weather is how false the clocke how forward the Spring and ends euer with What shall we doe It pleases him no lesse to hinder others than not to worke himselfe When all the people are gone from Church hee is left sleeping in his seat alone He enters bonds and forfeits them by forgetting the day and askes his neighbour when his owne field was fallowed whether the next peece of ground belong not to himselfe His care is either none or too late when Winter is come after some sharpe visitations he lookes on his pile of wood and askes how much was cropped the last Spring Necessitie driues him to euery action and what he cannot auoid he will yet deferre Euery change troubles him although to the better and his dulnesse counterfeits a kinde of contentment When he is warned on a Iury he had rather pay the mulct than appeare All but that which Nature will not permit he doth by a Deputy and counts it troublesome to doe nothing but to doe any thing yet more He is witty in nothing but framing excuses to sit still which if the occasion yeeld not he coineth with ease There is no worke that is not either dangerous or thanklesse and whereof he fore-sees not the inconuenience and gainlesnesse before hee enters which if it be verified in euent his next idlenesse hath found a reason to patronize it He had rather freeze than fetch wood and chuses rather to steale than worke to begge than take paines to steale and in many things to want than begge He is so loth to leaue his neighbours fire that hee is faine to walke home in the darke and if he be not lookt to weares out the night in the chimney corner or if not that lies downe in his clothes to saue two labours Hee eates and praies himselfe asleepe and dreames of no other torment but worke This man is a standing Poole and cannot chuse but gather corruption he is descried amongst a thousand neighbours by a dry and nastie hand that still sauours of the sheet a beard vncut vnkembed an eie and eare yellow with their excretions a coat shaken on ragged vnbrusht by linnen and face striuing whether shall excell in vncleannesse For body he hath a swolne legge a dusky and swinish eie a blowne cheeke a drawling tongue an heauy foot and is nothing but a colder earth molded with standing water To conclude is a man in nothing but in speech and shape Of the Couetous HE is a seruant to himselfe yea to his seruant and doth base homage to that which should be the worst drudge A liuelesse peece of
and all his officious respects turne home to himselfe He can be at once a slaue to command an Intelligencer to informe a Parasite to sooth and flatter a Champion to defend an Executioner to reuenge any thing for an aduantage of fauour He hath proiected a plot to rise and woe be to the friend that stands in his way He still haunteth the Court and his vnquiet spirit haunteth him which hauing fetcht him from the secure peace of his Country-rest sets him new and impossible taskes and after many disappointments incourages him to try the same sea in spight of his shipwracks and promises better successe A small hope giues him heart against great difficulties and drawes on new expense new seruilitie perswading him like foolish boies to shoot away a second shaft that he may finde the first He yeeldeth and now secure of the issue applauds himselfe in that honour which he still affecteth still misseth and for the last of all trials will rather bribe for a troublesome preferment than returne void of a title But now when he findes himselfe desperately crossed and at once spoiled both of aduancement and hope both of fruition and possibilitie all his desire is turned into rage his thirst is now onely of reuenge his tongue sounds of nothing but detraction and slander Now the place he sought for is base his riuall vnworthy his aduersary iniurious officers corrupt Court infectious and how well is he that may bee his owne man his owne master that may liue safely in a meane distance at pleasure free from staruing free from burning But if his designes speed well ere he be warme in that seat his minde is possessed of an higher What hee hath is but a degree to what he would haue now he scorneth what he formerly aspired to his successe doth not giue him so much contentment as prouocation neither can he be at rest so long as he hath one either to ouer-looke or to match or to emulate him When his Country-friend comes to visit him he carries him vp to the aâ—â—full Presence and now in his sight crowding neerer to the Chaire of State desires to be lookt on desires to be spoken to by the greatest and studies how to offer an occasion lest he should seeme vnknowne vnregarded and if any gesture of the least grace fall happily vpon him he lookes backe vpon his friend lest he should carelesly let it passe without a note and what hee wanteth in sense hee supplies in History His disposition is neuer but shamefully vnthankfull for vnlesse he haue all he hath nothing It must be a large draught whereof he will not say that those few drops doe not slake but inflame him so still he thinkes himselfe the worse for small fauours His wit so contriues the likely plots of his promotion as if he would steale it away without Gods knowledge besides his will neither doth he euer looke vp and consult in his fore-casts with the supreme Moderator of all things as one that thinkes honour is ruled by Fortune and that heauen medleth not with the disposing of these earthly lots and therefore it is iust with that wise GOD to defeat his fairest hopes and to bring him to a losse in the hottest of his chace and to cause honour to flie away so much the faster by how much it is more eagerly pursued Finally he is an importunate suter a corrupt client a violent vndertaker a smooth Factor but vntrusty a restlesse master of his owne a Bladder puft vp with the wind of hope and selfe-loue He is in the common body as a Mole in the earth euer vnquietly casting and in one word is nothing but a confused heape of enuy pride couetousnesse Of the Vnthrift HE ranges beyond his pale and liues without compasse His expence is measured not by abilitie but will His pleasures are immoderate and not honest A wanton eye a lickorish tongue a gamesome hand haue impouerisht him The vulgar sort call him bountifull and applaud him while he spends and recompence him with wishes when he giues with pitie when hee wants Neither can it be denied that he raught true liberalitie but ouer-went it No man could haue liued more laudably if when he was at the best he had staied there While he is present none of the wealthier ghests may pay ought to the shot without much vehemency without danger of vnkindnesse Vse hath made it vnpleasant to him not to spend He is in all things more ambitious of the title of good fellowship than of wisdome When he lookes into the wealthy chest of his Father his conceit suggests that it cannot be emptied and while he takes out some deale euery day hee perceiues not any diminution and when the heape is sensibly abated yet still flatters himselfe with enough One hand couzens the other and the belly deceiues both hee doth not so much bestow benefits as scatter them True merit doth not carie them but smoothnesse of adulation His senses are too much his guides and his purueyors and appetite is his steward He is an impotent seruant to his lusts and knowes not to gouerne either his minde or his purse Improuidence is euer the companion of vnthriftinesse This man cannot looke beyond the present and neither thinkes nor cares what shall be much lesse suspects what may be and while he lauishes out his substance in superfluities thinkes he onely knowes what the world is worth and that others ouerprize it He feeles pouertie before he sees it neuer complaines till he be pinched widi wants neuer spares till the bottome when it is too late either to spend or recouer He is euery mans friend saue his owne and then wrongs himselfe most when he courteth himselfe with most kindnesse He vies Time with the slothfull and it is an hard match whether chases away good houres to worse purpose the one by doing nothing or the other by idle pastime Hee hath so dilated himselfe with the beames of prosperitie that he lies open to all dangers and cannot gather vp himselfe on iust warning to auoid a mischiefe Hee were good for an Almner ill for a Steward Finally he is the liuing tombe of his fore-fathers of his posteritie and when he hath swallowed both is more emptie than before he deuoured them Of the Enuious HE feeds on others euils and hath no disease but his neighbours welfare whatsoeuer God doe for him he cannot be happy with company and if he were put to chuse whether he would rather haue equals in a common felicitie or superiours in miserie he would demurre vpon the election His eie casts out too much and neuer returnes home but to make comparisons with anothers good He is an ill prizer of forraine commoditie worse of his owne for that hee rates too high this vnder value You shall haue him euer inquiring into the estates of his equals and betters wherein he is not more desirous to heare all than loth to heate any thing ouer-good and if iust report
remit somewhat and both meet in the midst Thus I haue endeauored to doe with sincere intent of their good rather then my own applause For it had beene easie to haue reached to an higher straine but I durst not whether for the graue Maiesty of the subiect or benefit of the simplest reader You shal still note that I haue laboured to keepe Dauids entire sense with numbers neither lofty nor slubbered which mean is so much more difficult to find as the businesse is more sacred and the liberty lesse Many great wits haue vndertaken this task which yet haue either not effected it or haue smothered it in their priuate deskes and denied it the common light Amongst the rest were those two rare spirits of the Sidnyes to whom Poesie was as naturall as it is affected of others and our worthy friend M. Syluester hath shewed me how happily he hath sometimes turned from his Bartas to the sweet singer of Israel It could not be that in such abundant plenty of Poesie this work should haue past vnattempted would God I might liue to see it perfected either by my own hand or a better In the meane time let me expect your impartiall sentence both concerning the forme and sense Lay aside your loue for a while which too oft blindes iudgement And as it vses to be done in most equall proceedings of iustice shut me out of doores while my verse is discussed yea let me receiue not your censure onely but others by you this once as you loue mee play both the Informer and the Iudge Whether you allow it you shall encourage me or correct you shall amend me Either your starres or your spits Asteriscus Veru that I may vse Origens notes shall bee welcome to my margent It shall be happy for vs if God shall make our poore labours any way seruiceable to his Name and Church To M. Samuel Sotheby EP. VI. A Preface to his Relation of the Russian affaires TRauell perfiteth wisedome and obseruation giues perfection to trauell without which a man may please his eyes not feed his braine and after much earth measured shall returne with a weary body and an empty minde Home is more safe more pleasant but lesse fruitfull of experience But to a mind not working and discursiue all heauens all earths are alike And as the end of trauell is obseruation so the end of obseruation is the enforming of others for what is our knowledge if smothered in our selues so as it is not knowne to more Such secret delight can content none but an enuious nature You haue breathed many and cold ayres gone farre seene much heard more obserued all These two yeares you haue spent in imitation of Nabuchadnezzars seuen conuersing with such creatures as Paul fought with at Ephesus Alas what a face yea what a backe of a Church haue you seene what manners what people Amongst whom ignorant superstition striues with close Atheisme treachery with cruelty one Deuill with another while Truth and Vertue doe not so much as giue any chalenge of resistance Returning once to our England after this experience I imagine you doubted whether you were on earth or in heauen Now then if you will heare me whom you were wont as you haue obserued what you haue seene and written what you haue obserued so publish what you haue written It shall bee a gratefull labour to vs to posterity I am deceiued if the ficklenesse of the Russian state haue not yeelded more memorable matter of history then any other in our age or perhaps many centuries of our predecessors How shall I think but that God sent you thither before these broiles to be the witnesse the register of so famous mutations He loues to haue those iust euils which hee doth in one part of the world knowne to the whole and those euils which men doe in the night of their secrecy brought forth into the Theater of the World that the euill of mens sinne being compared with the euill of his punishment may iustifie his proceedings and condemne theirs Your worke shall thus honor him besides your second seruice in the benefit of the Church For whiles you discourse of the open tyranny of that Russian Nero Iohn Basilius the more secret no lesse bloody plots of Boris the ill successe of a stolne Crowne tho set vpon the head of an harmelesse Sonne the bold attempts and miserable end of a false yet aspiring chalenge the perfidiousnesse of a seruile people vnworthy of better gouernors the miscariage of wicked gouernors vnworthy of better subiects the vniust vsurpations of men iust tho late reuenges of God cruelty rewarded with blood wrong claimes with ouerthrow treachery with bondage the Reader with some secret horror shall draw-in delight and with delight instruction Neither know I any Relation whence hee shall take out a more easie lesson of iustice of loyalty of thankfulnesse But aboue all let the world see and commiserate the hard estate of that worthy and noble Secretary Buchinski Poore gentleman his distresse recals euer to my thoughts Aesops Storke taken amongst the Cranes He now nourishes his haire vnder the displeasure of a forraine Prince At once in durance and banishment He serued an ill master but with an honest heart with cleane hands The masters iniustice doth no more infect a good seruant then the truth of the seruant can iustifie his ill master A bad worke-man may vse a good instrument and oft-times a cleane napkin wipeth a foule mouth It ioyes me yet to thinke that his piety as it euer beld friendship in heauen so now it wins him friends in this our other world Lo euen from our Iland vnexpected deliuerance takes a long flight and blesseth him beyond hope yea rather from heauen by vs. That God whom he serues will bee knowne to those rude and scarce humane Christians for a protector of innocence a fauourer of truth a rewarder of piety The mercy of our gracious King the compassion of an honourable Councellor the loue of a true friend and which wrought all and set all on worke the grace of our good God shall now loose those bonds and giue a glad welcome to his liberty and a willing farewell to his distresse He shall I hope liue to acknowledge this in the meane time I doe for him Those Russian affaires are not more worthy of your records then your loue to this friend is worthy of mine For neither could this large sea drowne or quench it nor time and absence which are wont to breed a lingring consumption of friendship abate the heat of that affection which his kindnesse bred religion nourished Both rarenesse and worth shall commend this true-loue which to say true hath been now long out of fashion Neuer times yeelded more loue but not more subtle For euery man loues himselfe in another loues the estate in the person Hope of aduantage is the loadstone that drawes the iron hearts of men not vertue not desert No age afforded more
god his deuotion can bee but his pleasure whereas the mortified soule hath learned to scorne these friuolous and sinfull ioyes and affects either solid delights or none and had rather be dull for want of mirth then transported with wanton pleasures When the world like an important Minstrell thrusts it selfe into his chamber and offers him musicke vnsought if he vouchsafe it the hearing it is the highest fauour he dare or can yeeld He rewards it not he commends it not Yea hee secretly lothes those harsh and iarring notes and reiects them For he finds a better consort within betwixt God and himselfe when he hath a little tuned his heart with meditation To speake fully the World is like an ill foole in a Play the Christian is a iudicious spectator which thinkes those iests too grosse to be laught at and therefore entertaines that with scorne which others with applause Yet in truth we finne if wee reioyce not there is not more error in false mirth then in vniust heauinesse If worldlings offend that they laugh when they should mourne we shall offend no lesse if we droop in cause of cheerefulnesse Shall we enuy or scorne to see one ioy in red and white drosse another in a vaine title one in a dainty dish another in a iest one in a book another in a friend one in a Kite another in a Dogge whiles wee enioy the God of Heauen and are sorrowfull What dull metall is this we are made of We haue the fountaine of ioy and yet complaine of heauinesse Is there any ioy without God Certainly if ioy be good and all goodnesse bee from him whence should ioy arise but from him And if hee be the author of ioy how are we Christians and reioyce not What do we freeze in the fire and starue at a feast Haue we a good conscience and yet pine and hang down the head When God hath made vs happy doe we make our selues miserable When I aske my heart Dauids question I know not whether I bee more angry or ashamed at the answer Why art thou sad my soule My body my purse my fame my friends or perhaps none of these onely I am sad because I am And what if all these what if more when I come to my better wits Haue I a father an aduocate a comforter a mansion in heauen If both earth and hell conspired to afflict me my sorrow cannot counteruaile the causes of my ioy Now I can challenge all aduersaries and either defie all miseries or bid all crosses yea death it selfe welcome Yet God doth not abridge vs of these earthly solaces which dare weigh with our discontentments and sometimes depresse the balance His greater light doth not extinguish the lesse If God had not thought them blessings hee had not bestowed them and how are they blessings if they delight vs not Bookes friends wine oyle health reputation competencie may giue occasions but not bounds to our reioycings We may not make them Gods riualls but his spokes-men In themselues they are nothing but in God worth our ioy These may be vsed yet so as they may bee absent without distraction Let these goe so God alone be present with vs it is enough He were not God if he were not All-sufficient We haue him I speake boldly Wee haue him in feeling in faith in pledges and earnest yea in possession Why doe we not enioy him why doe we not shake-off that senselesse drowsinesse which makes our liues vnpleasant and leaue-ouer all heauinesse to those that want God to those that either know him not or know him displeased ToM. W.R. Dedic to M. Thomas Burlz EP. IX Consolations of immoderate griefe for the death of friends WHile the streame of sorrow runs full I know how vaine it is to oppose counsell Passions must haue leasure to digest Wisdome doth not more moderate them then time At first it was best to mourne with you and to mitigate your sorrow by bearing part wherein would God my burden could be your ease Euery thing else is lesse when it is diuided And then is best after teares to giue counsell yet in these thoughts I am not a little straited Before you haue digested griefe aduice comes too early too late when you haue digested it Before it was vnseasonable after would be superfluous Before it could not benefit you after it may hurt you by rubbing-vp a skinned sore a-fresh It is as hard to choose the season for counsell as to giue it and that season is after the first digestion of sorrow before the last If my Letters then meet with the best opportunitie they shall please me and profit you If not yet I deserue pardon that I wished so You had but two Iewels which you held precious a Wife and a Sonne One was your selfe diuided the other your selfe multiplyed You haue lost both and well-neere at once The losse of one caused the other and both of them your iust griefe Such losses when they come single afflict vs but when double astonish vs and tho they giue aduantage of respite would almost ouerwhelme the best patient Lo now is the tryall of your manhood yea of your Christianitie You are now in the lists set vpon by two of Gods fierce afflictions show now what patience you haue what fortitude Wherefore haue you gathered and laid vp all this time but for this brunt Now bring forth all your holy store to light and to vse and approue to vs in this difficultie that you haue all this vvhile beene a Christian in earnest I know these euents haue not surprised you on a sudden you haue suspected they might come you haue put-cases if they should come Things that are hazardous may be doubted but certaine things are and must be expected Prouidence abates griefe and discountenances a crosse Or if your affection were so strong that you durst not fore-thinke your losse take it equally but as it falls A wise man and a Christian knowes death so fatall to Nature so ordinarie in euent so gainefull in the issue that I vvonder he can for this either feare or grieue Doth God onely lend vs one another and doe we grudge when he calls for his owne So I haue seene ill debters that borrow vvith prayers keepe vvith thankes repay vvith enmitie We mistake our tenure vve take that for gift vvhich God intends for loane Wee are tenants at will and thinke our selues owners Your vvife and child are dead Well they haue done that for vvhich they came If they could not haue dyed it had been worthy of vvonder not at all that they are dead If this condition vvere proper onely to our families and friends or yet to our climate alone how vnhappie should we seeme to our neighbours to our selues Now it is common let vs mourne that vve are men Lo all Princes and Monarchs daunce vvith vs in the same ring yea what speake I of earth The God of Nature the Sauiour of men hath trod the same
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
nor dishonour to grant not suffering priuate affections to ouer-weigh publique equity or conuenience and better brooking a friends want then an ill precedent and those which he yeeldeth to accept hee loues not to linger in an afflicting hope a present answer shall dispatch the feares or desires of his expecting client His brest is not a cisterne to retaine but as a conduit-pipe to vent the reasonable and honest petitions of his friend Finally he so liues as one that accounts not Princes fauours hereditary as one that wil deserue their perpetuity but doubt their change as one that knowes there is a wide world beside the Court and aboue this world an Heauen EPISTLES THE FOVRTH DECAD BY IOS HALL LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. THE FOVRTH DECAD To Mr WALTER FITzWILLIAMS EP. I. A discourse of the true and lawfull vse of pleasures how we may moderate them how we may enioy them with safety INdeed wherein stands the vse of wisedome if not in tempering our pleasures and sorrowes and so disposing our selues in spight of all occurrents that the world may not blow vpon vs with an vnequall gale neither tearing our sailes nor slackning them Euents will varie if we continue the same it matters not nothing can ouerturne him that hath power ouer himselfe Of these two I confesse it harder to manage prosperity and to auoid hurt from good strong and cold winds do but make vs gather vp our cloake more round more close but to keepe it about vs in a hot Sunne-shine to runne and not sweat to sweat and not faint how difficult it is I see some that auoid pleasures for their danger and which dare not but abandon lawfull delights for feare of sinne who seeme to mee like some ignorant Matallists which cast away the precious Ore because they cannot separate the gold from the drosse or some simple Iew that condemnes the pure streames of Iordan because it falls into the dead sea Why do not these men refuse to eate because meat hath made many gluttons Or how dare they couer themselues that know there is pride in ragges These hard Tutors if not Tyrants to themselues whiles they pretend a mortified strictnesse are iniurious to their owne libertie to the liberalitie of their Maker wherefore hath he created and giuen the choice commodities of this earth if not for vse or why placed he Man in a Paradise not in a Desert How can we more displease a liberall friend then to depart from his delicate feast wilfully hungry They are deceiued that call this holinesse it is the disease of a mind sullen distrustfull impotent There is nothing but euill which is not from heauen and he is none of Gods friends that reiects his gifts for his owne abuse Heare me therefore and true Philosophy There is a nearer way then this and a fairer if you will be a wise Christian tread in it Learne first by a iust suruey to know the due and lawfull bounds of pleasure and then beware either to go beyond a knowne Mere or in the licence of your owne desires to remoue it That God that hath curb'd in the fury of that vnquiet and foaming element and said of old Here shalt thou stay thy proud waues hath done no lesse for the rage of our appetite Behold our limits are not obscure which if wee once passe our inundation is perilous and sinfull No iust delight wanteth either his warrant or his tearmes More plainely be acquainted both with the qualitie of pleasures and the measure Many a soule hath lost it selfe in a lawfull delight through excesse and not fewer haue perished in those whose nature is vicious without respect of immoderation Your care must auoid both The taste of the one is deadly of the other a full carouse and in truth it is easier for a Christian not to taste of that then not to be drunk with this The ill is more easily auoided then the indifferent moderated Pleasure is of a winding and serpentine nature admit the head the body will aske no leaue and sooner may you stop the entrance then stay the proceeding Withall her insinuations are so cunning that you shal not perceiue your excesse till you be sicke of a surfet A little honie is sweet much fulsome For the attaining of this temper then settle in your selfe a right estimation of that wherein you delight resolue euery thing into his first matter and there will bee more danger of contempt then ouer-ioying What are the goodly sumptuous buildings we admire but a little burnt and hardned earth What is the stately wondrous building of this humane bodie whose beauty we doat vpon but the same earth wee tread on better tempred but worse when it wants his guest What are those precious metals whom we worship but veines of earth better coloured What are costly robes but such as are giuen of worms and consumed of moths Then from their beginning looke to their end and see laughter conclude in teares see death in this sweet pot Thy conscience scourges thee with a long smart for a short libertie and for an imperfect delight giues thee perfect torment Alas what an hard peny-worth so little pleasure for so much repentance Enioy it if thou canst but if while the sword hangs ouer thee in an horses haire still threatning his fall and thine thou canst bee securely iocund I wonder but enuie not Now I heare you recall mee and after all my discourse as no vvhit yet wiser inquire by vvhat rule our pleasures shal be iudged immoderate Wee are all friends to our selues and our indulgence will hardly call any fauour too much I send you not tho I might to your bodie to your calling for this tryall while your delights exclude not the presence the fruition of God you are safe the loue of the medicine is no hinderance to the loue of health let all your pleasures haue reference to the highest Good and you cannot exceed You see the Angels sent aboue Gods messages to this earth yet neuer out of their heauen neuer without the vision of their Maker These earthly things cause not distraction if we rest not in them if we can looke thorow them to their giuer The minde that desires them for their owne sakes and suffers it selfe taken vp with their sweetnesse as his maine end is already drunken It is not the vse of pleasure that offends but the affectation How many great Kings haue beene Saints they could not haue beene Kings without choice of earthly delights they could not haue been Saints with earthly affections If God haue mixed you a sweet cup drinke it cheerefully commend the taste and be thankefull but reioyce in it as his Vse pleasures without dotage as in God from God to God you are as free from error as miserie Written to W.F. and dedicated to Mr Robert Jermin EP. II. A discourse of the bloody vse of single combats the iniustice of all pretences of
secrecie haue abridged themselues of dyet cloathing lodging harbour fit for reasonable creatures seeming to haue left off themselues no lesse then companions As if the world were not euery where as if wee could hide our selues from the Diuell as if solitarinesse were priuiledged from Temptations as if we did not more violently affect restrained delights as if these Ieromes did not finde Rome in their heart when they had nothing but rocks and trees in their eye Hence these places of retirednesse founded at first vpon necessity mixt vvith deuotion haue proued infamously vncleane Cels of lust not of pietie This course is preposterous if I were worthy to teach you a better way learne to be an Hermite at home Begin with your owne heart estrange and weane it from the loue not from the vse of the world Christianitie hath taught vs nothing if we haue not learned this distinction It is a great weaknesse not to see but we must be inamoured Elisha saw the secret state of the Syrian Court yet as an enemy The blessed Angels see our earthly affaires but as strangers Moses his bodie was in the Court of Pharaoh amongst the delicate Egyptians his heart was suffering vvith the afflicted Israelites Lot tooke part of the faire medowes of Sodom not of their sinnes Our blessed Sauiour saw the glory of all Kingdomes and contemned them and cannot the vvorld looke vpon vs Christians but wee are bewitched We see the Sunne dayly and warme vs at his beames yet make not an Idol of it doth any man hide his face lest he should adore it All our safety or danger therefore is from within In vaine is the body an Auachoret if the heart be a Ruffian And if that bee retired in affections the body is but a Cipher Lo then the eyes will looke carelesly and strangely on what they see and the tongue will sometimes answer to that was not asked Wee eate and recreate because we must not because we would and when we are pleased wee are suspitious Lawfull delights wee neither refuse nor dote vpon and all contentments goe and come like strangers That all this may be done take vp your heart with better thoughts be sure it will not be empty if heauen haue fore-stalled all the roomes the vvorld is disappointed and either dares not offer or is repulsed Fixe your selfe vpon the glory of that eternitie vvhich abides your after this short pilgrimage You cannot but contemne what you finde in comparison of what you expect Leaue not till you attaine to this that you are willing to liue because you cannot as yet be dissolued Bee but one halfe vpon earth let your better part conuerse aboue whence it is and inioy that whereto it was ordained Thinke how little the World can doe for you and what it doth how deceitfully what stings there are with this Honey what Farewell succeeds this Welcome When this Iael brings you milke in the one hand know she hath a nayle in the other Aske your heart what it is the better what the merier for all those pleasures wherewith it hath befriended you let your owne tryall teach you contempt Thinke how sincere how glorious those ioyes are which abide you elsewhere and a thousand times more certaine though future then the present And let not these thoughts be flying but fixed In vaine doe we meditate if we resolue not when your heart is once thus setled it shall command all things to aduantage The World shall not betray but serue it and that shall bee fulfilled which God promises by his Salomon When the wayes of a man please the Lord he will make his enemies also at peace with him Sir this aduice my pouertie afforded long since to a weake friend I write it not to you any otherwise then as Schollers are wont to say their part to their Masters The world hath long and iustly both noted and honoured you for eminence in wisedome and learning and I aboue the most I am ready with the awe of a Learner to imbrace all precepts from you you shall expect nothing from me but Testimonies of respect and thankfulnesse To Sir GEORGE FLEETWOOD EP. III. Of the remedies of sinne and motiues to auoid it THere is none either more common or more troublesome guest then Sinne. Troublesome both in the solicitation of it and in the remorse Before the act it wearies vs with a wicked importunitie after the act it torments vs with feares and the painfull gnawings of an accusing Conscience Neither is it more irkesome to men then odious to God who indeed neuer hated any thing but it and for it any thing How happy were we if we could be rid of it This must be our desire but cannot bee our hope so long as we carry this body of sinne and death about vs yet which is our comfort it shall not cary vs though we carie it It will dwell with vs but with no command yea with no peace We grudge to giue it house-roome but wee hate to giue it seruice This our Hagar wil abide many strokes ere she be turned out of doores she shall goe at last and the seed of promise shall inherit alone There is no vnquietnesse good but this and in this case quietnesse cannot stand with safety neither did euer warre more truely beget peace then in this strife of the soule Resistance is the way to victorie and that to an eternall peace and happinesse It is a blessed care then how to resist sinne how to auoid it and such as I am glad to teach and learne As there are two grounds of all sinne so of the auoidance of sinne Loue and Feare These if they be placed amisse cause vs to offend if right are the remedies of euill The Loue must be of God Feare of iudgement As he loues much to whom much is forgiuen so he that loues much will not dare to doe that which may need forgiuenesse The heart that hath felt the sweetnesse of Gods mercies will not abide the bitter rellish of sinne This is both a stronger motiue then Feare and more Noble None but a good heart is capable of this grace which who so hath receiued thus powerfully repels tentations Haue I found my God so gracious to me that he hath denied me nothing either in earth or heauen and shall not I so much as deny my owne will for his sake Hath my deare Sauiour bought my soule at such a price and shall he not haue it Was he crucified for my sinnes and shall I by my sinnes crucifie him againe Am I his in so many bonds and shall I serue the Diuell O God! is this the fruit of thy beneficence to me that I should wilfully dishonor thee Was thy blood so little worth that I should tread it vnder my feet Doth this become him that shall be once glorious with thee Hast thou prepared heauen for me and doe I thus prepare my selfe for heauen Shall I thus recompence thy loue in doing that
the ancient Minoei of whom Ierome speaketh while they vrged Circumcision by consequent according to Pauls rule reiected Christ So the Pelagians while they defended a full perfection of our righteousnes in our selues ouerthrew Christs iustification and in effect said I beleeue in Christ and in my selfe So some Vbiquitaries while they hold the possibilitie of conuersion and saluation of reprobates ouerthrow the doctrine of Gods eternall Decree and immutabilitie Poperie comes in this latter ranke and may iustly bee tearmed Heresie by direct consequent though not in their grant yet in necessarie proofe and inference Thus it ouerthrowes the truth of Christs humanitie while it holds his whole humane body locally circumscribed in heauen and at once the same instant wholly present in ten thousand places on earth without circumscription That whole Christ is in the formes of bread with all his dimensions euery part hauing his owne place and figure and yet so as that hee is wholly in euery part of the bread Our iustification while it ascribes it to our owne workes The all-sufficiencie of Christs owne sacrifice whiles they reiterate it dayly by the hands of a Priest Of his satisfaction while they hold a paiment of our vtmost farthings in a deuised Purgatory Of his mediation while they implore others to aide them not onely by their intercession but their merits suing not onely for their prayers but their gifts The value of the Scriptures whiles they hold them insufficient obscure in points essentiall to saluation and binde them to an vncertaine dependance vpon the Church Besides hundreds of this kinde there are Heresies in actions contrary to those fundamentall practices which God requires of his as prohibitions of Scriptures to the Laitie Prescriptions of deuotion in vnknowne tongues Tying the effect of Sacraments and Prayers to the externall worke Adoration of Angels Saints Bread Reliques Crosses Images All vvhich are so many recall vnderminings of the sacred foundation which is no lesse actiue then vocall By this the simplest may see what wee must hold of Papists neither as no Hereticks nor yet so palpable as the worst If any man aske for their conuiction In the simpler sort I grant this excuse faire and tolerable poore soules they cannot be any otherwise informed much lesse perswaded Whiles in truth of heart they hold the maine principles which they know doubtlesse the mercy of God may passe ouer their ignorant weaknesse in what they cannot know For the other I feare not to say that many of their errors are wilfull The light of truth hath shined out of heauen to them and they loue darknesse more then light In this state of the Church he shall speake and hope idly that shall call for a publique and vniuersall euiction How can that be when they pretend to be Iudges in their owne cause Vnlesse they will not be aduersaries to themselues or judge of vs this course is but impossible As the Diuell so Antichrist will not yeeld both shall bee subdued neither will treat of peace what remaines but that the Lord shall consume that wicked man which is now clearely reuealed with the breath of his mouth and abolish him vvith the brightnesse of his comming Euen so Lord Iesus come quickly This briefely is my conceit of Popery which I willingly referre to your cleare and deepe iudgement being not more desirous to teach the ignorant vvhat I know then to learne of you what I should teach and know not The Lord direct all our thoughts to his glory and the behoofe of his Church Written long since to Mr J. W. EP. V. Disswading from separation and shortly oppugning the grounds of that error IN my former Epistle I confesse I touched the late separation with a light hand onely setting down the iniury of it at the best not discussing the grounds in common now your danger drawes me on to this discourse it is not much lesse thanke-worthy to preuent a disease then to cure it you confesse that you doubt I mislike it not doubting is not more the way to error then to satisfaction lay downe first all pride and preiudice and I cannot feare you I neuer yet knew any man of this vvay which hath not bewraide himselfe far gone with ouer-weening and therefore it hath been iust with God to punish their selfe-loue with error an humble spirit is a fit subiect for truth prepare you your heart and let me then answer or rather God for me you doubt whether the notorious sinne of one vnreformed vncensured defile not the whole Congregation so as we may not without sinne communicate therewith and why not the whole Church woe were vs if wee should thus liue in the danger of all men haue we not sinnes enow of our owne but wee must borrow of others Each man shall beare his owne burden is ours so light that we call for more weight and vndertake what God neuer imposed It was enough for him that is God and Man to beare others iniquities it is no taske for vs which shrinke vnder the least of our owne But it is made ours you say though anothers by our toleration and conniuence indeed if we consent to them incourage them imitate or accompany them in the same excesse of ryot yet more the publique person that forbeares a knowne sinne sinneth but if each mans knowne sinne be euery mans what difference is betwixt the root and the branches Adams sinne spred it selfe to vs because we were in him stood or fell in him our case is not such Doe but see how God scorneth that vniust Prouerbe of the Iewes That the fathers haue eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge How much lesse are strangers Is any bond so neere as this of blood Shall not the child smart for the Parent and shall we euen spiritually for others You obiect Achans stealth and Israels punishment an vnlike case and extraordinary for see how direct Gods charge is Be ye ware of the execrable thing lest ye make your selues execrable and in taking of the execrable thing make also the Hoast of Israel execrable and trouble it Now euery man is made a partie by a peculiar iniunction and not onely all Israel is as one man but euery Israelite is a publike person in this act you cannot show the like in euery one no not in any it was a law for the present not intended for perpetuity you may as well challenge the Trumpets of Rams-hornes and seuen dayes walke vnto euery siege Looke else-where the Church of Thyatira suffers the woman Iezabel to teach and deceiue A great sinne Yet to you saith the Spirit the rest of Thyatira as many as haue not this learning I will put vpon you none other burden but that which you haue hold fast He saith not Leaue your Church but Hold fast your owne Looke into the practice of the Prophets ransacke their burdens and see if you find this there yea behold our best patterne the Sonne of God The Iewish
thou mightest neuer taste of it hee would bee in sense for a time as forsaken of his Father that thou mightest be receiued for euer Now bid thy soule returne to her rest and enioyne it Dauids taske Praise the Lord O my soule and What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits I will take the cup of saluation and call vpon the Name of the Lord. And as rauisht from thy selfe with the sweet apprehension of this mercy call all the other creatures to the fellowship of this ioy with that diuine Esay Reioyce O yee heauens for the Lord hath done it shout ye lower parts of the earth burst forth into praises yee mountaines for the Lord hath redeemed Iacob and will bee glorified in Israel And euen now begin that heauenly Song which shall neuer end with those glorified Saints Praise and honour and glory and power be to Him that sitteth vpon the Throne and to the Lambe for euermore Thus our speech of Christs last word is finished His last act accompanied his words our speech must follow it Let it not want your deuout and carefull attention He bowed and gaue vp the ghost The Crosse was a slow death and had more paine than speed whence a second violence must dispatch the crucified their bones must be broken that their hearts might breake Our Sauiour stayes not deaths leisure but willingly and couragiously meets him in the way and like a Champion that scornes to be ouercome yea knowes hee cannot be yeeldeth in the middest of his strength that he might by dying vanquish death Hee bowed and gaue vp Not bowing because he had giuen vp but because he would Hee cryed with a loud voyce saith Matthew Nature was strong he might haue liued but he gaue vp the ghost and would die to shew himselfe Lord of life and death Oh wondrous example hee that gaue life to his enemies gaue vp his owne he giues them to liue that persecute and hate him and himselfe will die the whiles for those that hate him Hee bowed and gaue vp not they they might crowne his head they could not bow it they might vex his spirit not take it away they could not doe that without leaue this they could not doe because they had no leaue Hee alone would bow his head and giue vp his ghost I haue power to lay downe my life Man gaue him not his life man could not bereaue it No man takes it from mee Alas who could The High Priests forces when they came against him armed he said but I am he they flee and fall backward How easie a breath disperst his enemies whom hee might as easily haue bidden the earth yea hell to swallow or fire from heauen to deuoure Who commanded the Deuils and they obeyed could not haue beene attached by men he must giue not onely leaue but power to apprehend himselfe else they had not liued to take him hee is laid hold of Peter fights Put vp saith Christ Thinkest thou that I cannot pray to my Father and hee will giue me more than twelue Legions of Angels What an Army were here more then threescore and twelue thousand Angels and euery Angell able to subdue a world of men he could but would not be rescued he is led by his owne power not by his enemies and stands now before Pilate like the scorne of men crowned robbed scourged with an Ecce homo Yet thou couldst haue no power against me vnlesse it were giuen thee from aboue Behold he himselfe must giue Pilate power against himselfe Quod emittitur voluntarium est quod amâ—â—tur aecessarium Ambr. else he could not be condemned he will be condemned lifted vp nailed yet no death without himselfe Hee shall giue his soule an offering for sinne Esay 53.10 No action that sauours of constraint can be meritorious he would deserue therefore he would suffer and die Hee bowed his head and gaue vp the ghost O gracious and bountifull Sauiour hee might haue kept his soule within his teeth in spight of all the world the weaknesse of God is stronger than men and if he had but spoken the word the heauens and earth should haue vanisht away before him but hee would not Behold when hee saw that impotent man could not take away his soule he gaue it vp and would die that we might liue See here a Sauiour that can contemne his owne life for ours and cares not to be dissolued in himselfe that we might be vnited to his Father Skin for skin saith the Deuill and all that hee hath a man will giue for his life Loe here to proue Sathan a lyer skinne and life and all hath Christ Iesus giuen for vs. Wee are besotted with the earth and make base shifts to liue one with a maimed bodie another with a periured soule a third with a rotten name and how many had rather neglect their soule than their life and will rather renounce and curse God than die It is a shame to tell Many of vs Christians doat vpon life and tremble at death and shew our selues fooles in our excesse of loue cowards in our feare Peter denies Christ thrice and forsweares him Marcellinus twice casts graines of incense into the Idols fire Ecebolius turnes thrice Spira reuolts and despaires Oh let mee liue saith the fearefull soule Whither doest thou reserue thy selfe thou weake and timorous creature or what wouldest thou doe with thy selfe Thou hast not thus learned Christ he died voluntarily for thee thou wilt not be forced to die for him he gaue vp the ghost for thee thou wilt not let others take it from thee for him thou wilt not let him take it for himselfe When I looke backe to the first Christians and compare their zealous contempt of death with our backwardnesse I am at once amazed and ashamed I see there euen women the feebler sex running with their little ones in their armes for the preferment of Martyrdome and ambitiously striuing for the next blow I see holy and tender Virgins chusing rather a sore and shamefull death than honourable Espousals I heare the blessed Martyrs Quod si venire nolucrint ego vim faciam vt dâ—â—orer intreating their tyrants and tormentors for the honour of dying Ignatius amongst the rest fearing lest the beasts will not deuoure him and vowing the first violence to them that he might bee dispatched And what lesse courage was there in our memorable and glorious fore-fathers of the last of this age and doe we their cold and feeble off-spring looke pale at the face of a faire and naturall death abhorre the violent though for Christ Alas how haue we gathered rust with our long peace Our vnwillingnesse is from inconsideration from distrust Looke but vp to Christ Iesus vpon his Crosse and see him bowing his head and breathing out his soule and these feares shall vanish he died and wouldest thou liue hee gaue vp the ghost and wouldest thou keepe it whom wouldest thou follow if not thy
saith to them Depart from me They would not know God when they might now God will not know them when they would Now therefore beloued if thou wouldst not haue God scorne the offer of thy death-bed fit thy soule for him in thy health furnish it with grace iniure it to a sweet conuersation with the God of heauen then mayest thou boldly giue it vp and hee shall as gratiously receiue it yea fetch it by his Angels to his glory Hee gaue vp the ghost We must doe as he did not all with the same successe Giuing vp supposes a receiuing a returning This inmate that we haue in our bosome is sent to lodge here for a time may not dwell here alwayes The â—ight of this tenure is the Lords not ours As hee said of the hatcher It is but lent it must be restored It is ours to keepe his to dispose and require See and consider both our priuilege and charge It is not with vs as with bruit creatures wee haue a liuing ghost to informe vs which yet is not ours and alas what is ours if our soules be not but must be giuen vp to him that gaue it Why doe wee liue as those that tooke no keepe of so glorious a guest as those that should neuer part with it as those that thinke it giuen them to spend not to returne with a reckoning If thou hadst no soule if a mortall one if thine owne if neuer to bee required how couldst thou liue but sensually Oh remember but who thou art what thou hast and whither thou must and thou shalt liue like thy selfe while thou art and giue vp thy ghost confidently when thou shalt cease to be Neither is there here more certainty of our departure than comfort Carry this with thee to thy death-bed and see if it can refresh thee when all the world cannot giue thee one dram of comfort Our spirit is our dearest riches if wee should lose it here were iust cause of griefe Howle and lament if thou thinkest thy soule perisheth it is not forfeited but surrendered How safely doth our soule passe thorow the gates of death without any impeachment while it is in the hand of the Almighty Woe were vs if he did not keepe it while we haue it much more when wee restore it We giue it vp to the same hands that created infused redeemed renewed that doe protect preserue establish and will crowne it I know whom I haue beleeued and am perswaded that hee is able to keepe that which I haue committed to him against that day O secure and happy estate of the godly O blessed exchange of our condition while our soule dwels in our breast how is it subiect to infinite miseries distempered with passions charged with sinne vexed with tentations aboue none of these how should it be otherwise This is our pilgrimage that our home this our wildernesse that our land of promise this our bondage that our kingdome our impotency causeth this our sorrow When our soule is once giuen vp what euill shall reach vnto heauen and wrestle with the Almighty Our lothnesse to giue vp comes from our ignorance and infidelity No man goes vnwillingly to a certaine preferment I desire to bee dissolued saith Paul I haue serued thee I haue beleeued thee and now I come to thee saith Luther The voyce of Saints not of men If thine heart can say thus thou shalt not need to intreat with old Hilariâ—â— Egredere mea anima egredere quid times Goe thy wayes forth my soule goe forth what fearest thou but it shall flie vp alone cheerefully from thee and giue vp it selfe into the armes of God as a faithfull Creator and Redeemer This earth is not the element of thy soule it is not where it should be It shall be no lesse thine when it is more the owners Thinke now seriously of this point Gods Angell is abroad and strikes on all sides we know not which of our turnes shall be the next we are sure we carry deaths enow within vs. If we bee ready our day cannot come too soone Stirre vp thy soule to an heauenly cheerefulnesse like thy Sauiour Know but whither thou art going and thou canst not but with diuine Paul Vt contra Nullam animam recipio quae me â—olente separatur à corpâ—re HieroÌ„ say from our Sauiours mouth euen in this sense It is a more blessed thing to giue than to receiue God cannot abide an vnwilling guest giue vp that spirit to him which he hath giuen thee and he will both receiue what thou giuest and giue it thee againe with that glory and happinesse which can neuer be conceiued and shall neuer bee ended Euen so LORD IESVS come quickly Gloria in excelsis Deo THE IMPRESE OF GOD. IN TWO SERMONS PREACHED AT THE COVRT In the Yeeres 1611. 1612. By IOS HALL SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. THE IMPRESE OF GOD. THE FJRST PART ZACHAR 14.20 In that day shall be written vpon the bridles or bels of the Horses Holinesse vnto the Lord and the pots of the Lords house shall be like the bowles before the Altar IF any man wonder whither this discourse can tend of horses and bels and pots and bowles for the Altar Let him consider that of Tertullian Ratio diuina in medulla est non in superficie These Horses if they be well menaged will proue like those fiery horses of Elias to carry vs vp to our heauen 2 King 2.11 These Bels like those golden bels of Aarons robe Exod. 39.25 These Pots like that Olla pulmenti of the Prophets after Elisha's meale 2 King 4. and these Bowles like that blessed and fruitfull nauell of the CHVRCH Cant. 7.2 S. Paul askes Doth God take care for oxen so may I here Doth God take care for horses Surely to prouide for them not to prophesie of them much lesse of their bels the vnnecessarie ornaments of a necessary creature But hee that forbids vs to learne of the horse that lesson of stubbornnesse by the PSALMIST and checks vs oft by the oxe and asse for their good nature would haue vs learne here vnder this parable of the horse and the bels of the horse and the writing on those bels the estate of our owne peace and sanctification God doth both speake and worke in Parables as that Father saith well Of this then I may truly say as Hierome said of the Booke of IOB Singula verba plena sunt sensibus Suffer your selues with Abrahams Ram to bee perplexed a while in these bryars that you may be prepared for a fit sacrifice to God In that day What day is that All dayes are his who is the Ancient of dayes and yet he sayes Abraham saw my day and reioyced Hee that made all dayes sayes yet againe This is the day which the Lord hath made There is one day of the weeke Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
the condition of our mortalitie are passed ouer It shall be fully when the first things of the world are passed Passed not by abolition but by immutation as that Father said well Not the frame of the world but the corruption of that frame must passe The Spirit of God is not curious he cals those things first which were onely former not in respect of the state which is but that which shall be For those things which were first of all were like their Maker good not capable of destruction Our sinnes tainted the whole creation and brought shame vpon all the frame of heauen and earth That which we did shall be disanulled that which God did shall stand for euer and this dissolution shall be our glory other dissolutions strike teares into our eyes as this day is witnesse it is our sorrow that the first things are passed our offices our pensions our hopes our fauours and which we esteemed most our seruices are gone Let this last dissolution comfort vs against the present Who can grieue to see a Familie dissolued that considers the world must bee dissolued This little world of ours first whereof this day giues vs an image for as our seruice so our life must away and then that great one whose dissolution is represented in these The difference is that whereas this dissolution brings teares to some eies that wipes them away from all For all our teares and sorrow and toile and crying and death are for our sinnes take away corruption and misery goes away with it and till then it will neuer be remoued No man puts new wine into old vessels much lesse will God put the new wine of glory into the old vessels of corruption They are our sinnes which as in particular they haue rob'd vs of our Prince changed our seasons swept away thousands with varieties of deaths so in generall they haue deformed the face of heauen and earth and made all the Creation sigh and groane and still make vs incapable of the perfection of our blessednes for while the first things continue there must needs be teares and sorrow and death Let vs therefore looke vpon heauen and earth as goodly creatures but as blemished as transitory as those which we shall once see more glorious Let vs looke vpon our selues with indignation which haue thus distained them and as those which after some terme of their cottage expired are assured they shall haue a marble palace built for them doe long after the time perfixed them and thinke the dayes and moneths pace slowly away till then so let vs earnestly desire the day of the dissolution of this great house of the world that wee may haue our consummation in the new heauen For so soone as euer the old is past Behold saith God I will make all things new Yea the passage of the one is the renewing of the other As the Snake is renewed not by putting on any new coat but by leauing his slough behind him the gold is purified by leauing his drosse in the fire Therefore hee addes not I will but I doe make all new and because this is a great worke behold a great Agent He that sate vpon the Throne said Behold I make all new A Throne signifies Maiestie and sitting permanence or perpetuity God sayes Heauen is my throne in the Psalme but as Salomons throne of iuory and gold was the best piece of his house So Gods throne is the most glorious heauen the heauen of heauens for you see that tho heauen and earth passe away yet Gods throne remain'd still and hee sitting on it neither sinne nor dissolution may reach to the Empyreall heauen the seat of God Here is a state worthy of the King of Kings All the thrones of earthly Monarchs are but pieces of his foot-stoole And as his throne is maiesticall and permanent so is his residence in it Hee sate in the throne S. Stephen saw him standing as it were ready for his defence and protection S. Iohn sees him sitting as our Creed also runnes in regard of his inalterable glory How brittle the thrones of earthly Princes are and how they doe rather stand than sit in them and how slippery they stand too wee feele this day and lament O Lord establish the throne of thy seruant our King and let his seed endure for euer Let his throne be as the Sunne before thee for euermore and as the Moone a faithfull witnesse in heauen But howsoeuer it be with our earthly Gods of his kingdome there is no end Here is a master for Kings whose glory it is to rise vp from their thrones and throw downe their Crownes at his feet and to worship before his foot-stoole Be wise therefore O ye Kings be learned ye Rulers of the earth serue this Lord in feare and reioyce in him with trembling Yea behold here since wee haue the honour to serue him whom Kings serue a royall Master for vs It was one of our sinnes I feare that wee made our Master our God I meane that we made flesh our arme and placed that confidence in him for our earthly stay which we should haue fixed in heauen Our too much hope hath left vs comfortlesse Oh that we could now make God our Master and trust him so much the more as we haue lesse in earth to trust to There is no seruice to the King of heauen for both his throne is euerlasting and vnchangeable and his promotions certaine and honourable He that sits on the throne hath said it To him that ouercomes will I giue to sit with mee in my throne euen as I ouercame and sit with my Father in his throne Behold yee ambitious spirits how yee may truly rise to more than euer the sonnes of Zebedee desired to aspire to seruing is the way to raigning serue him that sits vpon the Throne and ye shall sit yourselues vpon the Throne with him This is the Agent the act is fit for him I make all things new Euen the very Turkes in their Alcoran can subscribe to that of Tertullian Qui potuit facere potest reficere I feare to wrong the holy Maiesty with my rude comparison It is not so much to God to make a world as for vs to speake He spake the word and it was done There is no change which is not from him He makes new Princes new yeeres new gouernments and will make new heauens new earth new inhabitants how easie then is it for him to make new prouisions for vs If wee bee left destitute yet where is our faith Shall God make vs new bodies when they are gone to dust shall he make new heauens and new earth and shall not he whose the earth is and the fulnesse thereof prouide some new meanes and courses of life for vs while we are vpon earth Is the maintenance of one poore worme more than the renewing of heauen and earth Shall he be able to raise vs when we are not and shall he
your leisure could allow you to walke along with me a while thorow these sweet and flowrie Meades of Vnity and happy conspiration of thoughts And yet I shall not so much bend the residue of my speech to the praise of vnity to what purpose were that waste as to the necessary vindication of it from the vniust challenges of the enemies of peace It is an heauy crime and of all other the most hainous wherewith we are charged by the Romanists That we are fallen off from the Catholick Church that we haue rent the seamlesse coat of Christ yea broken his bones and torne his very body in peeces whereof if we were indeed guilty how vnworthy were we to breathe in this aire how most worthy of the lowest Hell But we call heauen and earth to record how vniustly this calumny is cast vpon vs yea we protest before God and men that the enuie of this so foule a crimination lights most iustly vpon the heads of the accusers May it please you to heare a short Apologue A certaine man inuited to a feast one or two of his friends entertained them bountifully They sate together louingly they are together and were merry one with another In the second course as the custome is the Master offereth them wine sets before them an apple now a worme had somewhat eaten the apple and a spider by chance had falne into the cup The guest sees and balks it The Master vrgeth him Why doe you not eat quoth he why drinke you not I dare not saith the other t' is not safe to doe either seest thou not this vermine in the cup and that in the apple Tush saith the Master what so great matter is this It was I that set this before thee It was I that began to thee in the other Drinke it eat it at least for my sake But suffer me first replies the guest to take out this spider to cut out this worme the wine the apple likes me well enough the spider the worme I cannot away with Away with such ouer-nine and curious companions quoth he againe Fy vpon thee thou vngratefull fellow that dost so little regard my friendship so contemne my cheere and with that in a rage throwes the platters and pots in the very face of his guest and thrust him out of doores all wounded Tell me now I beseech you worthy Auditors whether of these violates the lawes of hospitality I dare say you haue easily applied it before me There was a time when we sate together in a familiar manner with these Romanists and fared well The spider in the cup The worme in the apple what else be they but superstition in their worship rotten and vnwholsome traditions in their faith without these the Religion pleaseth vs well But they will needs importunately thrust these vpon vs and we refusing are therefore scorned spit vpon beaten and cast out Had they but giuen vs leaue to take out this spider this worme we had still eaten and dranke together most gladly They obstinately resisted and prefer'd their owne headstrong will to our good and safety nay they repell vs with reproaches strike vs with their thundering Anathemaes condemne vs to the stakes what should we doe in this case Heare oh heauens and hearken oh earth and thou Almighty God the Maker and Gouernor of them both suffer thy selfe and thy glorious spirits to be called to the testimony of our innocencie We are compelled we are driuen away from the Communion of the Church of Rome They forced vs to goe from them who departed first from themselues We haue willingly departed from the communion of their errors from the Communion of the Church we haue not departed Let them renounce their erroneous doctrine we embrace their Church Let them but cast away their soule-slaying Traditions we will communicate with them in the right of one and the same Church and remaine so for euer But alas I must be forced to complaine and that not without extreme griefe of heart how that it cannot be determined whether those that boast themselues for Catholikes be greater enemies to Truth or to Charity To Truth in that they haue of late forged new errors and forced them vpon the Church To Charity in that they haue not stuck to condemne the aduerse part and to brand them with the black marke of Heresie I will speake if you please more plainly Three manner of waies doe these Romanists offend against Charity First that they will not remit any thing either of their most conuicted opinion or vitious practice no not for peace sake Secondly that for Articles of Christian faith they put vpon the Church certaine opinions of their owne false doubtfull and vncertaine peculiar onely to the schooles which doe no whit touch the foundation of Religion And lastly that if they meet with any faithfull and sound monitors which doe neuer so little gainsay these new Articles they cruelly cast them out of the bosome of the Church and throw them headlong into Hel Away with these Schismaticks Hereticks Acheists Iwis the Protestants haue no Church no faith no saluation Good Lord what fury what frenzy distempers Christians that they should be so impotently malicious against those who professe themselues to be redeemed by the ransome of the same most precious bloud At length At length O yee Christians be wise and acknowledge those whom the God and Father of mercies holds worthy of his armes yea of his bowels Let frantick error bawle what it list we are Christians we are Catholicks the vndiuided members of one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church Let vs meet at this barre if you please Leâ— who will maintaine the plea What is it which maketh a Church What is it which maketh that Church One holy Catholick Apostolick Is it not one holy Catholick Apostolick saith But which is that Is it not the same which was deliuered by Christ and the Apostles to the whole world and was alwaies and euery where approued through all Ages euen vnto our times Wherefore are the Scriptures wherefore the Creeds wherefore were the primitiue Councells but that there might bee certaine markes whereby Catholicks might be vndoubtedly discerned from Hereticks You know the Epilogue of the Athanasian Creed This is the Catholick Faith If we may beleeue Leo the heads of all heresies are quite cut off with this one sword of the Creed How much more then with that two-edged sword of the Scriptures and of the Fathers their Interpreters What then Those that then were Catholicks can they in any age be condemned for Hereticks No Faith is alwaies constant to it selfe and so is the Church that is built vpon that Faith Did we euer deny or make doubt of any Article or clause of that Ancient Diuinity Either then Christ himselfe the Apostles Councells Fathers erred from the Catholick truth or wee yet remaine Catholicks What euer other opinions we meet withall concerning Religion neither make nor marre it Say they be false
owe him all grudge him any thing Away with the mention of outward things all the bloud in our bodies is due to him all the prayers and well-wishes of our soules are due to him How solemnly festiuall should this day be to vs and to our posterities for euer How cheerefully for our peace our religion our deliuerance should wee take vp that acclamation with the people of Rome vsed in the Coronation of Charles the great Carolo Iacobo a Deo coronata Fris l. 5. c. 31. magno pacifico Britannorum Imperatori vita victoria To Charles Iames crowned of God the great and peaceable Emperor of Britaine Life and victory and let God and his people say Amen These were great things indeed that God did for Israel great that he hath done for vs great for the present not certaine for the future They had not no more haue we the blessings of God by entaile or by lease Only at the good will of the Lord and that is during our good behauiour Sin is a forfeiture of all fauours If you doe wickedly you shall perish It was not for nothing that the same word in the originall signifies both sin and punishment These two are inseparable There is nothing but a little priority in time betweene them The Angels did wickedly they perisht by their fall from heauen The old world did wickedly they perisht by waters from heauen The Sodomites did wickedly the perisht by fire from heauen Corah and his company did wickedly they perisht by the earth The Egyptians did wickedly they perisht by the Sea The Canaanites did wickedly they perisht by the sword of Israel The Israelites did wickedly they perisht by pestilence serpents Philistims What should I run my selfe out of breath in this endlesse course of examples There was neuer sin but it had a punishment either in the actor or in the Redeemer There was neuer punishment but was for sinne Heauen should haue no quarrell against vs Hell could haue no power ouer vs but for our sinnes Those are they that haue plagued vs Those are they that threaten vs. But what shall be the iudgement Perishing To whom To you and your King He doth not say If your King doe wickedly you shall perish as sometimes he hath done nor If your King doe wickedly he shall perish although Kings are neither priueleged from sinnes nor from iudgements nor if you doe wickedly you only shall perish but If ye doe wickedly ye and your King shall perish So neere a relation is there betwixt the King and Subiect the sin of the one reacheth to the iudgment of the other and the iudgment of the one is the smart of both The King is the Head the Commons the stomacke if the head be sick the stomacke is affected Dauid sins the people die If the stomacke be sicke the head complaines For the transgression of the people are many Princes What could haue snatcht from our head that sweet Prince of fresh bleeding memory that might iustly haue challenged Othoes name Otho 3. Fris 6. 26. Mirabilia mundi now in the prime of all the worlds expectation but our traiterous wickednesses His Christian modesty vpon his deathbed could charge himselfe no no I haue sins enow of my own to do this But this very accusation did cleere him burden vs. O glorious Prince they are our sins that are guilty of thy death our losse We haue done wickedly thou perishedst A harsh word for thy glorified condition But such a perishing as is incident to Saints for there is a Perire de medio as well as a Perire à facie a perishing from the earth as wel as a perishing froÌ„ God It was a ioiful perishing to thee our sins haue aduaÌ„taged thy soule which is partly therefore happy because we were vnworthy of thee but they haue robbed vs of our happines in thee Oh our treacherous sins that haue offered this violence to that sweet hopeful sacred person And doe they not yet still conspire against him that is yet dearer to vs the root of these godly branches the breath of our nostrils the anointed of God Brethren let me speak it coÌ„fidently As euery sin is a traitor to a mans owne soule so euery wicked man is a traitor to his King yea euery of his crying sins is a false-harted rebel that hides powder pocket dags for the precious life of his Soueraign Any states-man may learn this euen of Machiauel himselfe which I confesse when I read I thought of the Deuill confessing Christ That the giuing of God his due Ossâ—ruanza del culto diuinae cagione della grandezza delle Cofiil dispregio diqâ—a c. Discor l. 1. c. 11. Euagr. l. 3. c. 41. is the cause of the greatnesse of any State and contrarily the neglect of his seruice the cause of ruine and if any prophane Zosimus shall doubt of this point I would but turne him to Euagrius his discourse to this purpose where he shall finde instances of enow particulars What-euer politicke Philosophers haue distinguisht betwixt bonus vir and ciuis I say that as a good man cannot be an ill subiect so a lewd man can no more be a good subiect than euill can be good Let him sooth and sweare what he will his sinnes are so many treasons against the Prince and State for Ruine is from iniquitie saith Ezechiel Alas Ezech. 7.19 what safetie can we be in when such miscreants lurke in our houses iet in our streets when the Country City Court is so full of these spirituall conspiracies Ye that are Magistrates not for Gods sake only but for your Kings sake whose Deputies ye are as he is Gods not for religion only but for very policie as you tender the deare life of our gratious Soueraigne as you regard the sweet peace of this State and Kingdome the welfare of this Church yea as you loue your owne life peace welfare rouze vp your spirits awaken your Christian courage and set your selues heartily against the traitorly sinnes of these times which threaten the bane of all these Cleanse ye these Augean stables of our drunken Tauernes of our prophane Stages and of those blinde Vaults of professed filthinesse Whose steps goe downe to the chambers of death yea to the deepe of hell Pro. 27.7.9.18 And ye my holy brethren the messengers of God if there be any sonnes of Thunder amongst you if euer you ratled from heauen the terrible iudgements of God against sinners now doe it for contrary to the naturall the deepe winter of iniquitie is most seasonable for this spirituall thunder Be heard aboue be seene beneath Out-face sin out-preach it out-liue it Wee are starres in the right hand of God Reu. 8.11 let vs be like any starres saue the Moone that hath blots in her face or the starre Worme-wood whose fall made bitter waters or Saint Iudes planets that wander in irregularities Iude 13. Cum imperio docetur
the one hand a poore conscionable Christian drouping vnder the remorse for his sinne austerely checking his wanton appetite and curbing his rebellious desires wearing out his daies in a rough penitentiall seuerity cooling his infrequent pleasures with sighs and sawcing them with teares on the other hand ruffling Gallants made all of pleasure and Iouiall delights bathing themselues in a sea of all sensuall satieties denying their pampered nature nothing vnder heauen not wine in bowles not strange flesh and beastly dalliance not vnnaturall titillations not violent filthinesse that feast without feare and drinke without measure and sweare without feeling and liue without God their bodies are vigorous their coffers full their state prosperous their hearts cheerefull O how thou blessest such men Lo these thou saist these are the dearlings of heauen and earth Sic ô ficiuvat vinere Whiles those other sullen mopish creatures are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 off-scouring and recrements of the world Thou foole giue me thy hand let mee lead thee with Dauid into the sanctuary of God Now what seest thou The end the end of these men is not peace Surely ô God thou hast set them in slippery places and castest them downe into desolation how suddenly are they perished and horribly consumed Woe is mee they doe but dance a Galliard ouer the mouth of hell that seemes now couered ouer with the greene sods of pleasure The higher they leape the more desperate is their lighting Oh wofull wofull condition of those godlesse men yea those Epicurean Pockets whose belly is their God whose heauen is their pleasure whose cursed iollity is but a feeding vp to an eternall slaughter the day is comming wherein euery minute of their sinfull vnsatisfying ioyes shall be answered with a thousand thousand millions of yeeres frying in that vnquenchable fire And when those damned Ghosts shall forth of their incessant flames see the glorious remuneration of the penitent and pensiue soules which they haue despised they shall then gnash and yell out that late recantation Wee fooles thought their life madnesse and their end without honour now they are counted among the children of God and the portion is among the Saints our amongst Deuils Iudge not therefore according to appearance Should we iudge according to appearance all would be Gold that glistereth all drosse that glistereth not Hypocrites haue neuer shewed more faire than some Saints foule Saul weepes Ahab walkes softly Tobias and Sanballat will bee building Gods walles Herod heares Iohn gladly Balaam prophesies Christ Iudas preaches him Satan confesses him When euen an Abraham dissembles a Dauid clokes adultery with murder a Salomon giues at least a toleration to idolatry a Peter forsweares his Master brieffly the prime disciple is a Satan Satan an Angell of light For you How gladly are we deceiued in thinking you all such as you seeme None but the Court of Heauen hath a fairer face Prayers Sermons Sacraments geniculation silence attention reuerence applause knees eyes eares mouthes full of God Oh that ye were thus alwaies Oh that this were your worst side But if wee follow you from the Church and finde cursing and bitternesse vnder your tongues licentious disorder in your liues bribery and oppression in your hands If God looke into the windowes of your hearts and finde there be intus vapina we cannot iudge you by the appearance or if we could What comfort were it to you to haue deceiued our charity with the appearance of Saints when the righteous Iudge shall giue you your portion with Hypocrites What euer wee doe he will be sure not to iudge according to the appearance If appearance should bee the rule false religion should be true true false Quaedam falsa probabiliora quibusdam veris is the old word Some falshoods are more likely than some truths Natiue beauty scornes Art Truth is as a matron Error a curtizan The matron cares onely to concile loue by a graue and gracefull modesty the curtizan with philtres and farding Wee haue no hierarchy mounted aboue Kings no pompous ostentation of magnificence no garish processions no gaudy altars no fine images clad with Taffates in summer with veluets in winter no flourishes of vniuersality no rumors of miracles no sumptuous canonizations wee haue nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sincerity of Scriptures simplicity of Sacraments decency of rare ceremonies Christ crucified We are gone if yee goe by appearance Gone alas who can but blush and weepe and bleed to see that Christian soules should after such beames of knowledge suffer themselues to bee thus palpably cozened with the gilded slips of error that after so many yeeres pious gouernment of such an incomparable succession of religious Princes authority should haue cause to complaine of our defection Deare Christians I must be sharpe are we children or fooles that wee should bee better pleased with the glittering tinsel of a painted baby from a Pedlers shop than with the secretly-rich and inualuable Iewell of diuine Truth Haue we thus learned Christ Is this the fruit of so cleere a Gospell of so blessed scepters For Gods sake bee wise and honest and yee cannot be Apostates Shortly for it were easie to bee endlesse If appearance might bee the rule good should bee euill euill good there is no vertue that cannot bee counterfetted no vice that cannot bee blanched wee should haue no such friend as our enemy a flatterer no such enemie as our friend that reproues vs. It were a wonder if yee great ones should not haue some such burs hanging vpon your sleeues As soone shall corne grow without chaffe as greatnesse shall bee free from adulation These seruile spirits shall sooth vp all your purposes and magnifie all your actions and applaud your words and adore your persons Sin what yee will they will not checke you Proiect what you will they will not thwart you say what ye will they will not faile to second you bee what yee will they will not faile to admire you Oh how these men are all for you all yours all you They loue you as the Rauens doe your eyes How deare was Sisera to Iael when she smoothed him vp and gaue him milke in a lordly dish Samson to Dalilah when she lulled him in her lap Christ to Iudas when he kissed him See how he loued him would some foole haue said that had iudged by appearance In the meane time an honest plaine dealing friend is like those sauces which a man praises with teares in his eyes like a chesnut which pricks the fingers but pleases our taste or like some wholsome medicinall potion than distastes and purges vs perhaps makes vs sicke that it may heale vs. Oh let the righteous smite mee for that is a benefit let him reproue mee and it shall bee a precious oyle that shall not breake my head Breake it no it shall heale it when it is mortally wounded by my owne sinne by others assentation Oh how happy were it if we could loue
vnrighteousnesse we must redeeme it out of his hands with the highest ransome What is the price That is the maine thing in buying For Buying is no other than pactio pretij Else-where God proclaimes Hoe euery one that thirsteth come buy wine and milke without money and without price Esay 55. This is a Donation in forme of sale But here must be a price in the hand God will giue mercy and not sell it Hee will sell Truth and not giue it For what will he sell it First for Labour The Heathen Poet could say his gods sold learning for sweat The originall word here vsed is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Compara Get it any way either labore or precio yea labore vt precio This great foreman of Gods shop tells vs we cannot haue it vnder Prou. 2.4 Wee must seeke for her as siluer and search for her as for hid Treasures The veine of Truth lies low it must bee digged and delued for to the very center If Truth could be bought with ease and pleasure many a lazie Christian would bid faire for it who now resolue rather vpon want than toile The slothfull worldling will rather take vp a falshood for Truth than beat his braine to discerne Truth from falshood an error of free-cost is better than an high-rated Veritie Labour for Truth is turn'd ouer for the taske of Church-men no life sauours to these flegmaticke Spirits but that of the Lillies Neque laborant neque nent They neither labour nor spin This dull resolution is vnworthy of a Christian yea of a reasonable soule and if we should take vp no other for the body we should be fed with hunger and cloathed with nakednesse the earth should bee our fether-bed and the skie our Canopie wee should abound with want liue sauagely and die miserably It was the iust Canon of the Apostle He that labours not let him not eat Certainly he can neuer eat of the heauenly Manna of Truth that will not step forth to gather it Heare this yee delicate Courtiers that would heare a Sermon if yee could rise out of your beds that would lend God an houre if yee could spare it from your pleasures the God of heauen scornes to haue his precious Truth so basely vnder-valued if yee bid God lesse than labour for Truth I can giue you no comfort but that ye may goe to hell with ease The markets of Truth as of all other commodities varie It is the rule of Casuists Iustitia pretij non consistit in indiuiduo The Iustice of the Price doth not pitch euer vpon a point Sometimes the price of Truth hath risen it would not be bought but for danger sometimes not vnder losse not vnder disgrace not vnder imprisonment not vnder exile sometimes yet dearer not vnder paine yea sometimes it hath not gone for lesse than bloud It did cost Elias danger Michaiah disgrace Ieremie imprisonment the Disciples losse Iohn and Athanasius exile the holy Confessors paine the holy Martyrs death Euen the highest of these is pretium legitimum if God call for it how euer nature may tax it as rigorous yea such as the franke hearts of faithfull Christians haue bidden at the first word for Truth What doe yee weeping and breaking my heart For I am ready not to be bound only but to die for the name of the Lord Iesus saith S. Paul Act. 21. Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he giue for his life saith Satan but skin and life and all must a man giue for Truth and not thinke it an hard penny-worth Neither count I my life deare vnto me that I may finish my course with ioy saith the chosen vessell to his Ephesians Oh the heroicall spirits of our blessed fore-fathers that stucke not to giue their dearest heart-bloud for but some corollaries of sacred Truth whose burning zeale to Truth consumed them before those fires of Martyrdome and sent vp their pure and glorious soules like Manoahs Angell to heauen in the flame Blessed be God Blessed be his Anointed vnder whose gracious Scepter we haue enioyed daies as much more happy than theirs as their hearts were more feruent than ours We may now buy Truth at a better hand stake but our labour we carrie it with thanks I feare there want not those that would be glad to marre the market It can be onely knowne to heauen what treacheries the malice of hell may be a brewing Had but that Powder once taken nothing had beene abated of the highest price of our Predecessors we had paid for euery dram of Truth as many ounces of bloud as euer it cost the frankest Martyr should the Deuill haue beene suffered to doe his worst we might not haue grudged at this price of Truth Non est delicata in Deum secura confessio qui in me credit debet suum sanguinem fundere saith Ierome Christian profession is no secure or delicate matter he that beleeues must be no niggard of his bloud But why thus deare Not without good reason Monopolies vse to enhance the price Ye can buy Truth at no shop but one In coelo praeparata est Veritas tua Psal 89.2 Thy truth is prepared in heauen And it is a iust Rule of Law Quisque in rebus suis est moderator arbiter Euery man may rate his owne Neither is this only the sole commoditie of God but besides deare to the owner Dilexisti veritatem Thou hast loued Truth saith the Psalmist And it is a true rule in the Cases of Commerce Affectus astimari potest Our loue may be valued in the price Yea O God thy loue to Truth cannot be valued It is thy selfe thou that art Truth it selfe hast said so I am the Way the Truth and the Life We cannot therefore know how much thou louest thy Truth because as thy selfe is infinite so is thy loue to thy selfe What should we hunt for comparisons If all the earth were gold what were it when euen very heauen it selfe is trash to thee in respect of Truth No maruell if thou set it at an high rate It is not more precious to thee than beneficiall to vs. It frees vs Iohn 8.32 It renues vs Iames 1.18 It confirmes vs Prou. 12.19 It sanctifies vs Iohn 17.17 It defends vs Psal 91.4 Shortly it doth all for vs that God doth for God workes by his Almighty word and his Word is Truth Iohn 17. Therefore buy the Truth And if truth be thus precious thus beneficiall how comes it to passe that it is neglected contemned Some passe by it and doe not so much as cheapen it Others cheapen it but bid nothing Others bid something but vnder foot Others bid well but stake it not Others lastly stake downe but reuoke it The first that passe by and cheapen it not are carelesse vnbeleeuers The next that cheapen it and bid nothing are formall Christians The third that bid something but not enough are worldly semi-Christians The fourth that bid well and stake
termes whereof if any be probable some are impossible Oh miserable grounds of Popish faith whereof the best can haue but this praise that perhaps it may be true A Religion that hath bin oft dyed in the bloud of Princes that in some cases teaches and allowes Rebellion against Gods Anointed and both suborneth Treasons and excuses pities honors rewards the Actors A Religion that ouerloades mens consciences with heauy burdens of infinite vnnecessary Traditions far more than euer Moses commented vpon by all the Iewish Masters imposing them with no lesse authoritie and exacting them with more rigor than any of the royall lawes of their Maker A Religion that coozens the vulgar with nothing but shadowes of Holinesse in Pilgrimages Processions Offerings Holy-water Latine Seruices Images Tapers rich Vestures garish Altars Crosses Censings and a thousand such like fit for Children and Fooles robbing them in the meane time of the sound and plaine helps of true pietie and saluation A Religion that cares not by what wilfull falshoods it maintaines a part as Wickliffes blasphemie Luthers aduice from the Deuill Tindals communitie Caluins fained Miracle and blasphemous death Bucers necke broken Bezaes revolt the blasting of Huguenots Englands want of Churches and Christendome Queene ELIzABETHS vnwomanlinesse her Episcopall Iurisdiction her secret fruitfulnesse English Catholikes cast in Beares skins to Doggs Plesses shamefull ouerthrow Garnets Straw the Lutherans obscene night-revels Scories drunken ordination in a Tauerne the Edict of our Gracious King IAMES Anno 87. for the establishment of Poperie our casting the Crusts of our Sacrament to Doggs and ten thousand of this nature maliciously raised and defended against knowledge and conscience for the disgrace of those whom they would haue hated ere knowne A Religion that in the conscience of her owne vntruth goes about to falsifie and depraue all Authors that might giue euidence against her to out-face all ancient truths to foist in Gibeonitish witnesses of their owne forging and leaues nothing vnattempted against Heauen or Earth that might aduantage her faction disable her innocent Aduersarie Loe this is your choice If the zeale of your losse haue made me sharpe yet not malicious not fasle God is my Record I haue not to knowledge charged you with the least vntruth and if I haue wronged accuse mee and if I cleere not my selfe and my challenge let me be branded for a Slanderer In the meane time what spirituall phrensie hath ouertaken you that you can finde no beautie but in this Monster of Errors It is to you and your fellowes that God speakes by his Prophet O yee Heauens be astonied at this be afraid and vtterly confounded saith the Lord for my people hath committed two euils they haue forsaken me the Fountaine of liuing Waters to digge them pits euen broken pits that can hold no water what shall bee the issue Et tu Domine deduces eos in puteum interitus Thou O God shalt bring them downe into the pit of destruction If you will thus wilfully leaue God there I must leaue you But if you had not rather dye returne and saue one returne to God returne to his Truth returne to his Church your bloud be vpon my head if you perish AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER THe Reader may please to take notice that in the former Edition there was added vnto this Discourse a iust Volume of aboue three hundred Contradictions and dissentions of the Romish Doctors vnder the name of The Peace of Rome which because it was but a collection out of Bellarmine and Navar and no otherwise mine but as a Gatherer and Translator I haue here thought good to omit FINIS NO PEACE WITH ROME WHEREIN IS PROVED THAT AS TERMES NOW Stand there can be no Reconciliation of the REFORMED RELIGION with the ROMISH And that the Romanists are in all the fault Written first in Latine by J. H. And now Englished SIC ELEVABITVR FILIVS HOMINIS Io 3. ANCHORA FIDEI LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE TRVE SOVND AND HOLY CHVRCH OF GOD wheresoeuer warfaring vpon Earth I Present vnto thee deare and holy Mother this poore vnworthy token of my loue and loialtie the not so pleasing as true report of thy future broiles How much gladder should I haue beene if thy Spouse had so thought good to haue beene the messenger of thy Peace and securitie But since the great and wise Moderator of all things hath thought a Palme fitter for thee than an Oliue it is for thee to thinke of victory not of rest Thou shalt once triumph in heauen and rest for all but in the meane time here is nothing to bee lookt for but ambushes skirmishes tumults And how cheerefully must thou needs both beare and ouercome all oppositions that art not more sure of the necessitie of thy warfare than of the happinesse of thy successe whilest thou seest thy glorious husband not onely the leader of this field but a most iust and mercifull crowner of thy Conquest Certainly it is as vnpossible for thee to miscarry as to sit still and not fight Behold all the forces of heauen and earth conspire and reioyce to come voluntaries vnto this holy warre of thine and promise thee a most happy issue addresse thy selfe therefore as thou art wont couragiously to this worke of God But remember first to inquire as thou dost of ABEL Spare no teares to thy desperate Sister now thine enemie and calling heauen and earth to witnesse vpon thy knees beseech and intreat her by her owne soule and by the deare bowels of CHRIST by those precious drops of his bloudy sweat by that common price of our eternall redemption that she would at the last returne to her selfe and that good disposition which she hath now too long abandoned that she would forbeare any more as I feare shee hath hitherto wilfully done to fight against God but if shee shall still persist to stop her eares against thee and to harden her selfe in rebellion against her God forget if thou canst who shee once was and flie mercilesly vpon this daughter of Beliall that vaunts her selfe proudly in the glory of her munition Goe smite destroy conquer and reigne as the worthy partner of thine husbands Throne For mee I shall in the meane time be as one of thy rude Trumpets whose noise shall both awaken thy courage vnto this spirituall battell and whose ioyfull gratulations shall after thy rich spoiles applaud thine happy returne in the day of thy victory J. H. THE SVMME OF THE following Sections SECTION I. THe state of the now-Roman Church SECTION II. The commodities and conditions of Peace SECTION III. The obstinate and Peace-hating disposition of Papists SECTION IV. That the Confession of the same Creed is not with them sufficient to Peace SECTION V. The imputation or corruption of the Roman Church and their impossibility of Reconciliation arising from that wilfull fable of the Popes infallibilitie SECTION VI. That the other Opinions
soyle of our owne Vniuersities and Innes of Court nothing is more preiudiciall than speed Perfection is the childe of Time neither was there euer any thing excellent that required not meet leisure but besides how commonly it is seene that those which had wont to swimme onely with bladders sinke when they come first to trust to their owne armes These Lap-wings that goe from vnder the wing of their damme with the shell on their heads runne wilde If Tutors bee neuer so carefull of their early charge much must bee left to their owne disposition which if it leade them not to good not onely the hopes of their youth but the proofe of their age lies bleeding It is true that as the French Lawyers say merrily of the Normans which by a speciall priuilege are reputed of full age at 21. yeares whereas the other French stay for their fiue and twentieth that Malitia supplet atatem so may I say of the younglings of our time that Precocitie of vnderstanding supplieth age statute but as it is commonly seene that those blossomes which ouer-runne the spring and will be looking forth vpon a February-Sunne are nipped soone after with an Aprill frost when they should come to the knitting so is it no lesse ordinary that these rathe-ripe wits preuent their owne perfection and after a vaine wonder of their haste end either in shame or obscuritie And as it thus falls out euen in our Vniuersities the most absolute famous Seminaries of the world where the Tutors eye supplies the Parents so must it needs much more in those free and honourable Innes as they are called for their libertie Colleges for their vse of our English Gentry wherein each one is his owne master in respect of his priuate study and gouernment Where there are many pots boyling there cannot but be much scumme the concourse of a populous citie affords many brokers of villany which liue vpon the spoyles of young hopes whose very acquaintance is destruction How can these nouices that are turned loose into the maine ere they know either coast or compasse auoid these rockes and shelues vpon which both their estates and soules are miserably wracked How commonly doe they learne to roare in stead of pleading and in stead of knowing the lawes learne how to contemne them Wee see and rue this mischiefe and yet I know not how carelesse we are in preuenting it How much more desperate must it then needs be to send forth our children into those places which are professedly infectious whose very goodnes is either impietie or superstitiō If we desired to haue sons poysoned with misbeleefe what could we doe otherwise Or what else doe those Parents which haue bequeathed their children to Antichristianisme Our late iourney into France informed me of some ordinary factors of Rome whose trade is the transporting and placing of our popish nouices beyond the seas one whereof whose name I noted hath bin obserued to carry ouer six seuerall charges in one yeare Are we so foolish to go their way whiles we intend a contrary period Doe we send our sonnes to learne to be chaste in the midst of Sodome The world is wide and open but our ordinary trauell is southward into the iawes of danger for so far hath Satans policie preuailed that those parts which are only thought worth our viewing are most contagious and wil not part with either pleasure or information without some tang of wickednes What can we plead for our confidence but that there is an boushold of righteous Lot in the midst of that impure Citie that there are houses in this Iericho which haue scarlet threds shining in their windowes that in the most corrupted aire of Poperie some well reformed Christians draw their breath and sweeten it with their respiration Blessed be God that hath reared vp the towers of his Sion in the midst of Babylon We must acknowledge not without much gratulation to the Gospell of Christ that in the very hottest climates of opposition it findes many clients but more friends and in those places where authority hath pleased to giue more aire to the truth world haue had many more if the Reformed part had happily continued that correspondence in some circumstances with the Roman Church which the Church of England bath hitherto maintained God is my record how free my heart is both from partialitie and preiudice Mine eies and eares can witnesse with what approofe and applause diuers of the Catholiques Royall as they are tearmed entertained the new-translated Liturgy of our Church as maruelling to see such order and regular deuotion in them whom they were taught to condemne for hereticall Whose allowances I well saw might with a little helpe haue been raised higher from the practise of our Church to some points of our iudgement But if true religion were in those parts yet better attended and our young Traueller could find more abetters and examples of pietie on whom we might relie yet how safe can it bee to trust young eies with the view and censure of truth or falshood in religion especially when truth brings nothing to this barre but extreme simplicity and contrarily falshood a gawdy magnificence and proud maiesty of pompous ceremonies wherewith the hearts of children and foolts are easily taken That Curtizan of Rome according to the manner of that profession sets out her selfe to sale in the most tempting fashion here want no colours no perfumes no wanton dresses whereas the poore Spouse of Christ can onely say of her selfe I am blacke but comely When on the one side they shall see such rich shrines garish Altars stately Processions when they shall see a Pope adored of Emperors Cardinals preferd to Kings Confessors made Saints little children made Angels in a word nothing not outwardly glorious on the other side a seruice without welt or gard whose maiestie is all in the heart none in the face how easily may they incline to the conceit of that Parisian dame who seeing the procession of S. Genoueisue goe by the streets could say O que belle c. How fine a religion is ours in comparison of the Hugenoes Whereto must be added that supposing they doe not carry with them but rather go to fetch the language of the place some long time needs be spent ere they can receiue any helpe to their deuotion whiles in the meane season their vnthriuing intermission is assailed with a thousand suggestions And who sees not that this lucrumcessans as the Ciuilians terme it offers an open aduantage to a busie aduersarie SECT VI. IN a word it hath beene the old praise of early rising that it makes a man healthfull holy and rich whereof the first respects the body the second the soule the third the estate all fals out contrary in an early trauell For health The wise prouidence of God hath so contriued his earth and vs that he hath fitted our bodies to our clime and the natiue sustenance of the place vnto
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
of iudgement that he prepare himselfe by examination Q. Whereof must a man examine himselfe A. Whether hee find in himselfe first Competent knowledge secondly A true though weake Faith thirdly Vnfained repentance for his sinnes fourthly Charity and readinesse to forgiue fiftly An hungring desire to this Sacrament fixtly A thankfull heart for Christ and it Q. What is Prayer A. A calling vpon God through Christ for a supply of all our wants and praising him for all his blessing FINIS Contemplations VPON THE PRINCIPALL PASSAGES OF THE Holy Storie The first Volume IN FOVRE BOOKES By I.H. D.D. LONDON Printed for THO PAVIER MILES FLESHER and Iohn Haviland 1625. TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTIE PRINCE HENRY PRINCE OF WALES HIS HIGHNESSES VNWORTHY Seruant dedicates all his labours and wishes all Happinesse MOst Gracious Prince THis worke of mine which if my hopes and desires faile mee not time may hereafter make great I haue presumed both to dedicate in whole to your Highnesse and to parcell out in seueralls vnto subordinate hands It is no maruell if Bookes haue this freedome when we our selues can and ought to be all yours while we are our owne and others vnder you I dare say these Meditations how rude soeuer they may fall from my Pen in regard of their subiect are fit for a Prince Here your Highnesse shall see how the great patterne of Princes the KING of HEAVEN hath euer ruled the World how his Substitutes earthly Kings haue ruled it vnder him and with what successe either of glorie or ruine Both your Peace and Warre shall finde here holy and great examples And if Historie and obseruation be the best Councellors of your youth what storie can bee so wise and faithfull as that which God hath written for Men wherein you see both what hath beene done and what should be VVhat obseruation so worthy as that which is both raised from God and directed to him If the proprietie which your Highnesse iustly hath in the VVorke and Author may draw your Princely eyes and heart the rather to these holy Speculations your Seruant shall bee happier in this fauour then in all your outward bountie as one to whom your spirituall progresse deserues to bee dearer then his owne life and whose daily suit is that God would guide your steps aright in this slippery Age and continue to reioyce all good hearts in the view of your gratious proceedings Your Highnesses humbly deuoted Seruant IOS HALL Contemplations THE FIRST BOOKE The Creation of the World Man Paradise Cain and Abel The Deluge BY IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER LONDON Printed for THOMAS PAVIER MILES FLESHER and John Haviland 1624. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THOMAS EARLE OF EXCETER ONE OF HIS MAIESTIES MOST Honorable Priuy Councell All Grace and Happinesse RIght Honorable I Knew J could not bestow my thoughts better then vpon Gods owne Historie so full of edification and delight which I haue in such sort indeuoured to doe that J shall giue occasion to my Reader of some Meditations which perhaps hee would haue missed Euery helpe in this kinde deserues to be precious J present the first part to your Honour wherein you shall see the World both made and smothered againe Man in the glory of his Creation and the shame of his fall Paradise at once made and lost The first Man killing his seede the second his brother Jf in these I shall giue light to the thoughts of any Reader let him with mee giue the praise to him from whom that light shone forth to me To whose grace and protection I humbly commend your Lordship as Your Honours vnfainedly deuoted in all obseruance and dutie IOS HALL Contemplations THE FIRST BOOKE The Creation WHAT can I see O God in thy creation but miracles of wonders Thou madest somthing of nothing and of that something all things Thou vvhich wast without a beginning gauest a beginning to Time and to the World in time It is the praise of vs men if vvhen we haue Matter wee can giue fashion thou gauest a being to the Matter without forme thou gauest a forme to that Matter and a glory to that Forme If wee can but finish a slight and vnperfect Matter according to a former patterne it is the height of our skill but to begin that which neuer was whereof there was no example whereto there was no inclination wherein there was no possibilitie of that which it should be is proper only to such power as thine the infinite power of an infinite Creator with vs not so much as a thought can arise without some Matter but here with thee all Matter arises from nothing How easie is it for thee to repaire all out of something which couldest thus fetch all out of nothing wherein can wee now distrust thee that hast proued thy selfe thus Omnipotent Behold to haue made the least Clod of nothing is more aboue vvonder then to multiply a World but now the Matter doth not more praise thy power then the Forme thy wisdome what beauty is here vvhat order what order in working vvhat beauty in the worke Thou mightest haue made all the World perfect in an instant but thou wouldest not That Will which caused thee to create is reason enough why thou didst thus create How should we deliberate in our actions which are so subiect to imperfection since it pleased thine infinite perfection not out of neede to take leasure Neither did thy wisdome herein proceede in time onely but in degrees At first thou madest nothing absolute first thou madest things which should haue being vvithout Life then those which should haue life and being lastly those which haue Being Life Reason So we our selues in the ordinary course of generation first liue the life of Vegetation then of Sense of Reason afterwards That instant wherein the Heauen and the Earth were created in their rude Matter there was neither Day nor Light but presently thou madest both Light and Day Whiles we haue this example of thine how vainely do we hope to be perfect at once It is well for vs if through many degrees vvee can rise to our consummation But alas vvhat was the very Heauen it selfe without Light how confused how formlesse like to a goodly Body vvithout a Soule like a soule without thee Thou art Light and in thee is no darknesse Oh how incomprehensibly glorious is the light that is in thee since one glimpse of this created light gaue so liuely a glory to all thy workmanship This euen the brute Creatures can behold That not the very Angels That shâ—nes forth onely to the other supreme World of immortalitie this to the basest part of thy creation There is one cause of our darknesse on earth and of the vtter darknesse in Hell the restraint of thy light Shine thou O God into the vast corners of my soule and in thy light I shall see light But whence O God was that first light the Sunne was not made till the fourth
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
happy It is the third Heauen alone where thou O blessed Trinity enioyest thy selfe and thy glorified spirits enioy thee It is the manifestation of thy glorious presence that makes Heauen to be it selfe This is the priuiledge of thy Children that they here seeing thee which art inuisible by the eye of faith haue already begunne that heauen which the perfect sight of thee shall make perfect aboue Let my soule then let these heauens alone till it may see as it is seen That wee may descend to this lowest and meanest Region of Heauen wherewith our senses are more acquainted What maruels doe euer â—â—ere meet with vs There are thy Clouds thy bottles of raine Vessels as thinne as 〈◊〉 liquor which is contained in them there they hang and moue though weighty with their burden How they are vpheld and why they fall here and now we know not and wonder These thou makest one while as some Aerie Seas to hold water another while as some Aerie Furnaces whence thou scatterest thy sudden fires vnto all the parts of the Earth astonishing the World with the fearfull noyse of that eruption out of the midst of water thou fetchest fire and hard stones out of the midst of thin vapours another while as some steele-glasses wherein the Sunne lookes and shewes his face in the variety of those colours which he hath not There are thy streames of light blazing and falling Starres fires darred vp and downe in many formes hollow openings and as it were Gulfes in the skie bright circles about the Moone and other Planets Snowes Haile In all which it is enough to admire thine hand though we cannot search out thine action There are thy subtill Windes which we heare and feele yet neither can see their substance nor know their causes whence and whither they passe and what they are thou knowest There are thy Fowles of all shapes colours notes natures whilst I compare these with the inhabitants of that other heauen I finde those Starres and spirits like one another These Meteors and fowles in as many varieties as there are seuerall creatures Why is this Is it because Man for whose sake these are made delights in change thou in constancie Or is it that in these thou mayest shew thine owne skill and their imperfection There is no variety in that which is perfect because there is but one perfection and so much shall we grow nearer to perfectnesse by how much wee draw nearer to vnity and vniformitie From thence if wee goe downe to the great deepe the Wombe of moisture the Well of fountaines the great Pond of the world wee know not whether to wonder at the Element it selfe or the ghests which it containes How doth that sea of thine roare and fome and swell as if it would swallow vp the earth Thou stayest the rage of it by an insensible violence and by a naturall miracle confinest his wanes vvhy it moues and why it stayes it is to vs equally wonderfull what liuing Mountaines such are thy Whales rowle vp and downe in those fearfull billowes for greatnesse of number hugenesse of quantitie strangenesse of shapes varietie of fashions neither aire nor earth can compare vvith the vvaters I say nothing of thy hid treasures which thy vvisedome hath reposed in the bowels of the earth and sea How secretly and how basely are they laid vp secretly that we might not seeke them basely that vve might not ouer-esteeme them I need not digge so low as these metals mineries quarries vvhich yeeld riches enough of obseruation to the soule How many millions of vvonders doth the very face of the earth offer me Which of these Herbs Flowres Trees Leaues Seeds Fruits is there what Beast what Worme vvherein we may not see the footsteps of a Deity Wherein wee may not reade infinitenesse of power of skill and must be forced to confesse that hee vvhich made the Angels and Starres of heauen made also the vermine on the earth O God the heart of man is too strait to admire enough euen that vvhich he treads vpon What shall wee say to thee the Maker of all these O Lord how vvonderfull are thy vvorkes in all the world In wisedome hast thou made them all And in all these thou spakest and they were done Thy vvill is thy word and thy word is thy deed Our tongue and hand and heart are different all are one in thee which are simply one and infinite Here needed no helpes no instruments whâ—t could be present with the Eternall what needed or vvhat could be added to the infinite Thine hand is not shortned thy word is still equally effectuall say thou the word and my soule shall be made new againe say thou the word and my body shall be repaired from his dust For all things obey thee O Lord why doe I not yeeld to the word of thy councell since I must yeeld as all thy creatures to the word of thy command Of Man BVT O God what a little Lord hast thou made ouer this great World The least corne of sand is not so small to the whole Earth as Man is to the Heauen vvhen I see the Heauens the Sunne Moone and Starres O God what is man who would thinke thou shouldst make all these Creatures for one and that one vvell neere the least of all Yet none but he can see what thou hast done none but he can admire and adore thee in what he seeth how had he need to do nothing but this since he alone must do it Certainly the price and vertue of things consist not in the quantity one diamond is more worth then many Qâ—arries of stone one Loadstone hath more vertue then Mountaines of earth It is lawfull for vs to praise thee in our selues All thy creation hath not more wonder in it then one of vs other Creatures thou madest by a simple command Man not without a diuine consultation others at once Man thou didst first forme then inspire others in seuerall shapes like to none but themselues Man after thine owne Image others with qualities fit for seruice Man for dominion Man had his name from thee They had their names from Man How should we be consecrated to thee aboue all others since thou hast bestowed more cost on vs then others What shall I admire first Thy prouidence in the time of our Creation Or thy power and wisedom in the act First thou madest the great house of the World and furnishedst it then thou broughtest in thy Tenant to possesse it The bare vvalls had been too good for vs but thy loue vvas aboue our desert Thou that madest ready the Earth for vs before we were hast by the same mercy prepared a place in heauen for vs whiles wee are on earth The stage was first fully prepared then was Man brought forth thither as an Actor or Spectator that he might neither be idle nor discontent behold thou hadst addressed an earth for vse an Heauen for contemplation after thou hadst drawne
of my soule by repenting by beleeuing so shall I eate and in despite of Adam liue for euer The one Tree was for confirmation the other for tryall one shewed him what life he should haue the other what knowledge he should not desire to haue Alas he that knew all other things knew not this one thing that hee knew enough how Diuine a thing is knowledge whereof euen Innocencie it selfe is ambitious Satan knew what he did If this bait had been gold or honour or pleasure Man had contemned it vvho can hope to auoid error when euen mans perfection is mistaken He lookt for speculatiue knowledge hee should haue looked for experimentall he thought it had been good to know euill Good vvas large enough to haue perfected his knowledge and therein his blessednesse All that God made was good and the Maker of them much more good they good in their kindes he good in himselfe It would not content him to know God and his creatures his curiositie affected to know that which God neuer made euill of sinne and euill of death vvhich indeed himselfe made by desiring to know them now we know vvell euill enough and smart vvith knowing it How deare hath this lesson cost vs that in some cases it is better to be ignorant and yet doe the sonnes of Eue inherit this saucy appetite of their Grand-mother How many thousand soules miscarie with the presumptuous affectation of forbidden knowledge O God thou hast reuealed more then wee can know enough to make vs happy teach me a sober knowledge and a contented ignorance Paradise vvas made for Man yet there I see the Serpent What maruell is it if my corruption find the serpent in my Closet in my Table in my bed vvhen our holy Parents found him in the midst of Paradise No sooner he is entred but hee tempteth he can no more be idle then harmlesse I doe not see him at any other Tree hee knew there was no danger in the rest I see him at the Tree forbidden How true a Serpent is hee in euery point In his insinuation to the place in his choice of the Tree in his assault of the Woman in his plausiblenesse of speech to auoid terror in his question to moue doubt in his reply to worke distrust in his protestation of safety in his suggestion to enuie and discontent in his promise of gaine And if he were so cunning at the first what shall we thinke of him now after so many thousand yeares experience Onely thou O God and these Angels that see thy face are wiser then he I doe not aske why when he left his goodnesse thou didst not bereaue him of his skill Still thou wouldest haue him an Angell though an euill one And thou knowest how to ordaine his craft to thine owne glory I doe not desire thee to abate of his subtilty but to make me wise Let mee begge it without presumption make me wiser then Adam euen thine Image which he bore made him not through his owne weaknesse wise enough to obey thee thou offeredst him all Fruits and restrainedst but one Satan offered him but one and restrained not the rest when hee chose rather to be at Satans feeding then thine it was iust with thee to turne him out of thy gates with a curse why shouldest thou feed a Rebell at thine owne boord And yet we transgresse daily and thou shuttest not heauen against vs how is it that wee finde more mercy then our fore-father His strength is worthy of seuerity our weaknesse finds pity That God from whose face he fled in the Garden now makes him with shame to flie out of the Garden those Angels that should haue kept him now keepe the gates of Paradise against him It is not so easie to recouer happinesse as to keepe it or leese it Yea the same cause that draue Man from Paradise hath also withdrawne Paradise from the vvorld That fierie sword did not defend it against those vvaters vvherewith the sinnes of men drowned the glory of that place neither now doe I care to seeke vvhere that Paradise vvas vvhich vve lost I know vvhere that Paradise is vvhich vve must care to seeke and hope to finde As man was the Image of God so was that earthly Paradise an Image of Heauen both the Images are defaced both the first Patternes are eternall Adam was in the first and stayed not In the second is the second Adam which said This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise There was that chosen Vessell and heard and saw what could not be expressed by how much the third Heauen exceeds the richest Earth so much doth that Paradise whereto wee aspire exceed that which we haue lost Of CAIN and ABEL LOoke now O my soule vpon the two first Brethren perhaps Twins and wonder at their contrary dispositions and estates If the priuiledges of Nature had beene worth any thing the first borne Child should not haue beene a Reprobate Now that we may ascribe all to free Grace the elder is a Muderer the yonger a Saint though goodnesse may be repayred in our selues yet it cannot bee propagated to ours Now might Adam see the Image of himselfe in Cain for after his owne Image begot he him Adam slue his Posteritie Cain his Brother we are too like one another in that wherein wee are vnlike to God Euen the clearest graine sends forth that chaffe from which it was fanned ere the sowing yet is this Cain a possession the same Eue that mistooke the fruit of the Garden mistooke also the fruit of her owne body her hope deceiued her in both so many good names are ill bestowed and our comfortable expectations in earthly things doe not seldome disappoint vs. Doubtlesse their education was holy For Adam though in Paradise hee could not be innocent yet was a good man out of Paradise his sinne and fall now made him circumspect and since hee saw that his act had bereaued them of that Image of God which he once had for them he could not but labor by all holy endeuours to repaire it in them that so his care might make amends for his trespasse How plaine is it that euen good breeding cannot alter destinie That which is crooked can none make straight who would thinke that Brethren and but two Brethren should not loue each other Dispersed loue growes weak and fewnesse of obiects vseth to vnite affections If but two Brothers be left aliue of many they think that the loue of all the rest should suruiue in them and now the beames of their affection are so much the hotter because they reflect mutually in a right line vpon each other yet behold here are but two Brothers in a World and one is the Butcher of the other Who can wonder at dissentions amongst thousands of brethren when he sees so deadly opposition betwixt two the first roots of brotherhood who can hope to liue plausibly securely amongst so many Cains when he sees one
What relation hath wood to water or that which hath no sauour to the redresse of bitternesse Yet here is no more possibilitie of failing then proportion to the successe All things are subiect to the command of their Maker He that made all of nothing can make euery thing of any There is so much power in euery creature as he will please to giue It is the praise of Omnipotencie to worke by improbabilities Elisha with Salt Moses with wood shall sweeten the bitter waters Let no man despise the meanes when he knowes the Author God taught his people by actions as well as words This entrance shewed them their whole iourney wherein they should taste of much bitternesse but at last through the mercy God sweetned with comfort Or did it not represent themselues rather in the iourney in the fountaines of whose hearts were the bitter waters of manifold corruptions yet their vnsauourie soules are sweetned by the graces of his Spirit O blessed Sauiour the wood of thy Crosse that is the application of thy sufferings is enough to sweeten a whole Sea of bitternesse I care not how vnpleasant a potion I finde in this Wildernesse if the power and benefit of thy precious death may season it to my soule Of the Quayles and Manna THe thirst of Israel is well quenched for besides the change of the waters of Marah their station is changed to Elim where were twelue Fountaines for their twelue Tribes and now they complaine as fast of hunger Contentation is a rare blessing because it arises either from a fruition of all comforts or a not desiring of some which we haue not Now wee are neuer so bare as not to haue some benefits neuer so full as not to want something yea as not to be full of wants God hath much ado with vs either we lacke health or quietnesse or children or vvealth or company or ourselues in all these It is a vvonder these men found not fault with the want of sweet to their Quailes or with their old cloathes or their solitarie way Nature is moderate in her desires but conceit is vnsatiable Yet who can deny hunger to be a sore vexation Before they were forbidden sowre bread but now what leauen is to sowre as want When meanes hold out it is easie to be content Whiles their dough and other eates lasted vvhiles they vvere gathering of the Dates of Elim vve heare no newes of them Who cannot pray for his dayly bread when he hath it in his cup-bord But when our owne prouision failes vs then not to distrust the prouision of God is a noble tryall of faith They should haue said He that stopt the mouth of the Sea that it could not deuoure vs can as easily stop the mouth of our stomacks It was no easier matter to kill the first-borne of Aegypt by his immediate hand then to preserue vs He that commanded the Sea to stand still and guard vs can as easily command the earth to nourish vs He that made the Rod a Serpent can as well make these stones bread He that brought armies of Frogs and Caterpillers to Aegypt can as well bring vvhole drifts of birds and beasts to the desart He that sweetened the waters vvith Wood can aswell refresh our bodies vvith the fruits of the earth Why doe we not wait on him whom vve haue found so powerfull Now they set the mercy and loue of God vpon a wrong laste vvhiles they measure it onely by their present sense Nature is iocâ—â—d and cheerefull vvhiles it prospereth let God vvithdraw his hand no sight no trust Those can praise him vvith Timbrels for a present fauour that cannot depend vpon him in the vvant of meanes for a future We all are neuer vveary of receiuing soone weary of attending The other mutiny vvas of some few male-contents perhaps those strangers which fought their owne protection vnder the vving of Israel this of the whole troope Not that none were free Caleb Ioshua Moses Aaron Miriam were not yet tainted vsually God measures the state of any Church or Country by the most the greater part caries both the name and censure Sinnes are so much greater as they are more vniuersall so farre is euill from being extenuated by the multitude of the guilty that nothing can more aggrauate it With men commonnesse may plead for fauour vvith God at pleads for iudgement Many hands draw the Cable with more violence then few The leprosie of the whole body is more loathsome then that of a part But vvhat doe these mutiners say Oh that wee had dyed by the hand of the Lord And whose hand vvas this O ye fond Israelites if yee must perish by famine God caried you forth God restrained his creatures from you and vvhile you are ready to dye this ye say On that we had dyed by the hand of the Lord It is the folly of men that in immediate iudgements they can see Gods hand not in those whose second causes are sensible whereas God holds himselfe equally interessed in all challenging that there is no euill in the City but from him It is but one hand and many instruments that God strikes vs with The water may not lose the name though it come by chanels and pipes from the spring It is our faithlesnesse that in visible meanes we see not him that is inuisible And when would they haue vvisht to die When wee sate by the flesh-pots of Aegypt Alas what good vvould their flesh pots haue done them in their death If they might sustaine their life yet what could they auaile them in dying For if they were vnpleasant what comfort was it to see them If pleasant what comfort to part from them Our greatest pleasures are but paines in their losse Euery minde affects that which is like it selfe Carnall minds are for the flesh-pots of Aegypt though bought with seruitude spirituall are for the presence of God though redeemed with famine and would rather die in Gods presence then liue without him in the sight of delicate of full dishes They loued their liues well enough I heard how they shrieked when they were in danger of the Aegyptians yet now they say Oh that we had dyed Not Oh that wee might liue by the flesh-pots but Oh that wee had dyed Although life be naturally sweet yet a little discontentment makes vs weary It is a base cowardlinesse so soone as euer we are called from the garison to the field to thinke of running away Then is our fortitude worthy of praise when we can endure to be miserable But what can no flesh-pots serue but those of Aegypt I am deceiued if that Land affoorded them any flesh-pots saue their owne Their Landlords of Aegypt held it abomination to eate of their dishes or to kill that which they did eate In those times then they did eate of their owne and why not now They had droues of cattell in the Wildernesse vvhy did they not take of them Surely if they would haue
touched of the purest Israelite Here the hem of his garment is touched by the woman that had the flux of blood yea his very face was touched with the lips of Iudas There the very earth vvas prohibited them on which he descended Here his very body and blood is profered to our touch and taste Oh the maruellous kindnesse of our God! How vnthankfull are we if we doe not acknowledge this mercy aboue his ancient people They were his owne yet strangers in comparison of our libertie It is our shame and sinne if in these meanes of intirenesse we be no better acquainted with God then they which in their greatest familiaritie vvere commanded aloofe God was euer wonderfull in his workes and fearfull in his iudgements but hee was neuer so terrible in the execution of his will as now in the promulgation of it Here was nothing but a maiesticall terrour in the eyes in the eares of the Israelites as if God meant to shew them by this how fearfull he could be Here was the lightning darted in their eyes the thunders roaring in their eares the Trumpet of God drowning the thunder claps the voice of God out-speaking the Trumpet of the Angell The Cloud enwrapping the smoake ascending the fire flaming the Mount trembling Moses climbing and quaking palenesse and death in the face of Israel vprore in the elements and all the glory of heauen turned into terrour In the destruction of the first World there were clouds without fire In the destruction of Sodom there was fire raining without clouds but here was fire smoake clouds thunder earthquakes and whatsoeuer might worke more astonishment then euer was in any vengeance inflicted And if the Law vvere thus giuen how shall it be required If such were the Proclamation of Gods Statutes what shall the Sessions bee I see and tremble at the resemblance The Trumpet of the Angell called vnto the one The voice of an Archangell the Trumpet of God shall summon vs to the other To the one Moses that climbed vp that Hill and alone saw it sayes God came with ten thousands of his Saints In the other thousand thousands shall minister to him and ten thousand thousands shal stand before him In the one Mount Sinai onely was on a flame all the World shall be so in the other In the one there was fire smoake thunder and lightning In the other a fiery streame shall issue from him wherewith the heauens shall be dissolued and the Elements shall melt away vvith a noise Oh God how powerfull art thou to inflict vengeance vpon sinners who didst thus forbid sinne and if thou vvert so terrible a Law-giuer vvhat a Iudge shalt thou appeare What shall become of the breakers of so fierie a Law Oh vvhere shall those appeare that are guilty of the transgressing that law vvhose very deliuery vvas little lesse then death If our God should exact his Law but in the same rigour wherein he gaue it sinne could not quite the cost But now the fire vvherein it was deliuered was but terrifying the fire wherein it shall bee required is consuming Happy are those that are from vnder the terrours of that Law which was giuen in fire and in fire shall be required God would haue Israel see that they had not to do with some impotent Commander that is faine to publish his Lawes without noyse in dead paper which can more easily enioyne then punish or descry then execute and therefore before hee giues them a Law he shewes them that he can command Heauen Earth Fire Ayre in reuenge of the breach of the Law That they could not but thinke it deadly to displease such a Law-giuer or violate such dreadfull statutes that they might see all the Elements examples of that obedience which they should yeeld vnto their Maker This fire wherein the Law was giuen is still in it and will neuer out Hence are those terrours which it flashes in euery conscience that hath felt remorse of sinne Euery mans heart is a Sinai and resembles to him both heauen and hell The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law That they might see he could finde out their closest sinnes hee deliuers his Law in the light of fire from out of the smoake That they might see what is due to their sinnes they see fire aboue to represent the fire that should be below them That they might know he could waken their securitie the Thunder and louder voice of GOD speakes to their hearts That they might see what their hearts should doe the Earth quakes vnder them That they might see they could not shift their appearance the Angels call them together Oh royall Law and mighty Law-giuer How could they think of hauing any other God that had such proofes of this How could they think of making any resemblance of him whom they saw could not be seene and whom they saw in not being seene infinite How could they thinke of daring to profane his Name vvhom they heard to name himselfe with that voice Iehoua How could they thinke of standing vvith him for a day whom they saw to command that heauen vvhich makes and measures day How could they thinke of disobeying his Deputies whom they saw so able to reuenge How could they thinke of killing when they were halfe dead with the feare of him that could kill both body and soule How could they think of the flames of lust that saw such fires of vengeance How could they thinke of stealing from others that saw whose the heauen and the earth was to dispose of at his pleasure How could they thinke of speaking falsely that heard God speake in so fearfull a tone How could they thinke of coueting others goods that saw how vveake and vncertaine right they had to their owne Yea to vs vvas this Law so deliuered to vs in them neither had there beene such state in the promulgation of it if God had not intended it for Eternity We men that so feare the breach of humane Lawes for some small mulcts of forfeiture how should vvee feare thee O Lord that canst cast body and soule into hell Of the Golden Calfe IT was not much aboue a moneth since Israel made their couenant with God since they trembled to heare him say Thou shalt haue no other Gods but me since they saw Moses part from them and climbe vp the Hill to God and now they say Make vs Gods we know not what is become of this Moses Oh ye mad Israelites haue ye so soon forgotten that fire and thunder which you heard and saw Is that smoake vanished out of your minde as soone as out of your sight Could your hearts cease to tremble with the earth Can yee in the very sight of Sinai call for other Gods And for Moses was it not for your sakes that he thrust himselfe into the midst of that smoake and fire which ye feared to see afar off Was he not now gone after so many sudden
honor cannot be innocent Well might Ioshua haue proceeded to the execution of him whom God and his owne mouth accused but as one that thought no euidence could be too strong in a case that was capitall he sends to see whether there was as much truth in the confession as there was falshood in the stealth Magistrates and Iudges must pace slowly and sure in the punishment of offenders Presumptions are not ground enough for the sentence of death no not in some cases the confessions of the guilty It is no warrant for the Law to wrong a man that he hath before wronged himselfe There is lesse ill in sparing an offender then in punishing the innocent Who would not haue expected since the confession of Achan was ingenuous and his pillage still found entire that his life should haue beene pardoned But here was Confesse and die he had beene too long sicke of this disease to be recouered Had his confession beene speedy and free it had saued him How dangerous it is to suffer sin to lye fretting into the soule which if it were washt off betimes with our repentance could not kill vs. In mortall offences the course of humane iustice is not stayd by our penitence It is well for our soules that we haue repented but the lawes of men take not notice of our sorrow I know not whether the death or the teares of a malefactor be a better sight The censures of the Church are wip't off with weeping not the penalties of lawes Neither is Achan alone called forth to death but all his family all his substance The actor alone doth not smart with sacriledge all that concernes him is enwrapped in the iudgement Those that defile their hands with holy goods are enemies to their owne flesh and blood Gods first reuenges are so much the more fearefull because they must be exemplary Of the Gibeonites THe newes of Israels victory had flowne ouer all the Mountaines Valleys of Canaan and yet those Heathenish Kings and people are mustered together against them They might haue seene themselues in Iericho and Ai and haue well perceiued it was not an arme of flesh that they must resist yet they gather their forces and say Tush we shall speed better It is madnesse in a man not to be warned but to run vpon the point of those iudgments wherewith he sees others miscary and not to beleeue till he cannot recouer Our assent is purchased too late when we haue ouerstayed preuention and trust to that experience which wee cannot liue to redeeme Onely the Hiuites are wiser then their fellowes and will rather yeeld liue Their intelligence was not diuerse from the rest all had equally heard of the miraculous conduct and successe of Israel but their resolution was diuerse As Rahab saued her Family in the midst of Iericho so these foure cities preserued themselues in the midst of Canaan and both of them by beleeuing what God would doe The efficacy of Gods maruellous workes is not in the acts themselues but in our apprehension some are ouer come with those motiues which others haue contemned for weake Had these Gibeonites ioyned with the forces of all their neighbours they had perished in their common slaughter If they had not gone away by themselues death had met them It may haue more pleasure it cannot haue so much safety to follow the multitude If examples may lead vs the greatest part shuts out God vpon earth and is excluded from God else where Some few poore â—iuites yeeld to the Church of God and escape the condemnation of the world It is very like their neighbors flouted at this base submission of the Gibeonites and out of their termes of honour scorned to beg life of an enemy whiles they were out of the compasse of mercy but when the bodies of these proud Iebusites and Perizzites lay strewed vpon the earth and the Gibeonites suruiued whether was more worthy of scorne and insultation If the Gibeonites had stayed till Israel had besieged their Cities their yeeldance had been fruitlesse now they make an early peace and are preserued There is no wisdome in staying till a iudgement come home to vs the only way to auoid it is to meet it halfe way There is the same remedy of warre and of danger To prouoke an enemy in his owne borders is the best stay of inuasion and to sollicit God betimes in a manifest danger is the best antidote for death I commend their wisdome in seeking peace I doe not commend their falshood in the manner of seeking it who can looke for any better of Pagans But as the faith of Rahab is so rewarded that her lye is not punished so the fraud of these Gibeonites is not an equal match of their beliefe since the name of the Lord God of Israel brought them to this suit of peace Nothing is found fitter to deceiue Gods people then a counterfeit copy of age Here are old sacks old bottles old shooes old garments old bread The Israelites that had worne one suit forty yeares seemed new clad in comparison of them It is no new policie that Satan would beguile vs with a vaine colour of antiquity clothing falshood in rags Errors are neuer the elder for their patching Corruption can doe the same that time would doe we may make age as well as suffer it These Gibeonites did teare their bottles and shooes and clothes and made them naught that they might seeme old so doe the false patrons of new errors If we be caught with this Gibeonitish stratagem it is a signe we haue not consulted with God The sentence of death was gone out against all the inhabitants of Canaan These Hiuites acknowledge the truth and iudgements of God and yet seeke to escape by a league with Israel The generall denunciations of the vengeance of God enwrap all sinners Yet may we not despaire of mercy If the secret counsell of the Almightie had not designed these men to life Ioshua could not haue beene deceiued with their league In the generality there is no hope Let vs come in old rags of our vilenesse to the true Ioshua and make our truce with him we may liue yea we shall liue Some of the Israelites suspect the fraud and notwithstanding all their old garments and prouisions can say It may be thou dwellest amongst vs. If Ioshua had continued this doubt the Gibeonites had torne their bottles in vaine In cases and persons vnknowne it is safe not to be too credulous Charity it selfe will allow suspition where wee haue seene no cause to trust If these Hiuites had not put on new faces with their old clothes they had surely changed countenance when they heard this argument of the Israelites It may bee thou dwellest amongst vs how then can I make a league with thee They had perhaps hoped their submission would not haue been refused wheresoeuer they had dwelt but lest their neighbourhood might be a preiudice they come disguised
not trust to my friendship and hospitality But what doe these weake feares these idle fancies of ciuility If Sisera be in league with vs yet is he not at defiance with God Is he not a Tyrant to Israel Is it for nothing that God hath brought him into my Tent May I not now find meanes to repay vnto Israel all their kindnes to my Grand-father Iethro Doth not God offer mee this day the honour to be the Rescuer of his people Hath God forbidden me strike and shall I hold my hand No Sisera sleepe now thy last and take here this fatall reward of all thy cruelty and oppression He that put this instinct into her heart did put also strength into her hand He that guided Sisera to her Tent guided the naile thorow his temples which hath made a speedy way for his soule thorow those parts and now hath fastned his eare so close to the earth as if the body had been listening what was become of the soule There lyes now the great terror of Israel at the foote of a woman He that brought so many hundred thousands into the Field hath not now one Page left either to auert his death or to accompany it or bewaile it He that had vaunted of his yron chariots is slaine by one naile of yron wanting onely this one point of his infelicity that he knowes not by whose hand he perished GIDEONS Calling THe iudgements of God still the further they goe the forer they are the bondage of Israel vnder Iabin was great but it was freedome in comparison of the yoke of the Midianites During the former tyranny Deborah was permitted to iudge Israel vnder a Palme-tree Vnder this not so much as priuate habitations will be allowed to Israel Then the seat of iudgement was in sight of the Sun now their very dwellings must be secret vnder the earth They that reiected the protection of God are glad to seeke to the mountaines for shelter and as they had sauagely abused themselues so they are faine to creepe into dens and caues of the rocks like wilde creatures for safegard God had sowen spirituall seede amongst them and they suffered their heathenish neighbors to pull it vp by the rootes and now no sooner can they sowe their materiall seede but Midianites and Amalckites are ready by force to destroy it As they inwardly dealt with God so God deales outwardly by them Their eyes may tell them what their souls haue done yet that God whose mercy is aboue the worst of our sinnes sends first his Prophet with a message of reproofe and then this Angell with a message of deliuerance The Israelites had smarted enough with their seruitude yet God sends them a sharpe rebuke It is a good signe wheÌ„ God chides vs his round reprehensions are euer gracious fore-runners of mercy whereas his silent conniuence at the wicked argues deepe and secret displeasure The Prophet made way for the Angell reproofe for deliuerance humiliation for comfort Gideon was threshing Wheat by the Wine-presse Yet Israel hath both Wheat and Wine for all the incursions of their enemies The worst estate out of hell hath either some comfort or at least some mittigation in spight of all the malice of the world God makes secret prouision for his owne How should it be but hee that ownes the earth and all creatures should reserue euer a sufficiency from forrainers such the wicked are for his houshold In the worst of the Medianitish tyranny Gideons field barne are priueledged as his fleece was afterwards from the showre Why did Gideon thrâ—sh his corne To hide it Not from his neighbours but his enemies his Granary might easily be more close then his barne As then Israelites threshed out their come to hide it from the Midianites but now Midianites thresh out come to hide it from the Israelites These rurall Tyrants of our time doe not more lay vp come then curses he that withdraweth come the people will curse him yea God will curse him with them and for them What shifts nature will make to liue Oh that we could be so carefull to lay vp spirituall food for our soules out of the reach of those spirituall Midianites we could not but liue in despight of all aduersaries The Angels that haue euer God in their face and in their thoughts haue him also in the mouthes The Lord is with thee But this which appeared vnto Gideon was the Angell of the Couenant the Lord of Angels Whiles he was with Gideon he might well fall The Lord is with thee He that sent the comforter was also the true Comforter of his Church he well knew how to lay a sure ground of consolation and that the onely remedy of sorrow and beginning of true ioy is The presence of God The griefe of the Apostles for the expected losse of their Master could neuer be cured by any receit but this of the same Angel Behold I am with you to the end of the World What is our glory but the fruition of Gods presence The punishment of the damned is a separation from the beatificall face of God needs must therefore his absence in this life be a great torment to a good heart and no crosse can be equiualent to this beginning of heauen in the Elect The Lord is with thee Who can complaine either of solitarinesse or opposition that hath God with him With him not onely as a witnesse but as a party Euen wicked men and diuels cannot exclude God not the barres of hell can shut him out He is with them perforce but to iudge to punish them yea God will be euer with them to their cost but to protect comfort saue he is with none but his Whiles he calls Gideon valiant he makes him so How could he be but valiant that had God with him The godlesse man may be carelesse but cannot be other then cowardly It pleases God to acknowledge his own graces in men that he may interchange his owne glory with their comfort how much more should we confesse the graces of one another An enuious nature is preiudiciall to God he is a strange man in whom there is not some visible good yea in the Diuels themselues we may easily note some commendable parts of knowledge strength agility Let God haue his owne in the worst creature yea let the worst creature haue that praise which God would put vpon it Gideon cannot passe ouer this salutation as some fashionable complement but layes hold on that part which was most important the tenure of all his comfort and as not regarding the praise of his valour inquires after that which should be the ground of his valour the presence of God God had spoken particularly to him he expostulates for all It had beene possible God should be present with him not with the rest as hee promised to haue been with Moses not Israel and yet when God sayes The Lord is with thee he answeres Alasse Lord if the Lord be with
vs to affect that perpetuity in our succession which is denied vs in our persons Our very bodies would emulate the eternity of the soule And if God haue built any of vs an house on earth as well as prepared vs an House in heauen it must be confessed a fauour worth our thankfulnesse but as the perpetuity of our earthly houses is vncertaine so let vs not rest our hearts vpon that but make sure of the House which is eternall in the heauens Doubtlesse the goodnesse of the Daughter added to the Fathers sorrow Shee was not more louing then religious neither is shee lesse willing to be the Lords then her fathers and as prouoking her Father to that which he thought piety though to her owne wrong she saies If thou hast opened thy mouth vnto the Lord doe with me as thou hast promised Many a daughter would haue disswaded her Father with teares haue wisht rather her fathers impiety then her owne preiudice Shee sues for the smart of her Fathers vow How obsequious should children be to the will of their carefull Parents euen in their finall disposition in the world when they see this holy maid willing to abandon the world vpon the rash vow of a Father They are the liuing goods of their Parents and must therefore wait vpon the bestowing of their owners They mistake themselues which thinke they are their own If this maid had vowed her selfe to God without her Father it had been in his power to abrogate it but now that he vowed her to God without her selfe it stands in force But what shall we say to those children whom their Parents vow and care cannot make so much as honest that will be no other then godlesse in spight of their Baptisme and education What but that they are giuen their Parents for a curse and shall one day find what it is to be rebellious All her desire is that she may haue leaue to bewaile that which she must be forced to keepe Virginity If she had not held it an affliction there had been no cause to bewayle it it had been no thanke to vndergoe it if she had not knowne it to be a crosse Teares are no argument impatience we may morne for that we repine not to beare How comes that to be a meritorious vertue vnder the Gospell which was but a punishment vnder the Law The daughters of Israel had been too lauish of their teares if virginity had been absolutely good What iniury should it haue been to lament that spirituall preferment which they should rather haue emulated While Iepthaes daughter was two moneths in the mountaines shee might haue had good opportunity to escape her fathers vow but as one whom her obedience tyed as close to her Father as his vow tyed him to God she returnes to take vp that burden which shee had bewailed to forsee If we be truly dutifull to our Father in heauen we would not slip our neckes out of the yoke though we might nor flie from his commands though the dore were open SAMSON conceiued OF extraordinary persons the very birth and conception is extraordinary God beginnes his wonders betimes in those whom he will make wonderfull There was neuer any of those which were miraculously conceiued whose liues were not notable singular The presages of the wombe and the cradle are commonly answered in the life It is not the vse of God to cast away strange beginnings If Manoahs wife had not been barren the Angell had not been sent to her Afflictions haue this aduantage that they occasion God to shew that mercy to vs whereof the prosperous are vncapable It would not beseeme a mother to be so indulgent to an healthfull child as to a sicke It was to the woman that the Angell appeared not to the husband whether for that the reproch of barrennesse lay vpon her more heauily then on the father or for that the birth of the child should cost her more deare then her husband or lastly for that the difficultie of this newes was more in her conception then in his generation As Satan layes his batteries euer to the weakest so contrarily God addresseth his comforts to those hearts that haue most need As at the first because Eue had most reason to be deiected for that her sin had drawn man into the Transgression therefore the Cordiall of God most respecteth her The seede of the Woman shall breake the Serpents head As a Pysitian first tells the state of the disease with his symptomes and then prescribes so doth the Angell of God first tell the wife of Manoah her complaint then her remedy Thou art barren Al our afflictiōs are more noted of that God which sends them then of the Patient that suffers them how can it be but lesse possible to indure any thing that he knowes not than that he inflicteth not He saith to one Thou art sicke to another Thou art poore to a third Thou art defamed Thou art oppressed to another That All-seeing eye takes notice from heauen of euery mans condition no lesse then if he should send an Angell to tell vs he knew it His knowledge compared with his mercy is the iust comfort of al our sufferings O God we are many times miserable and feele it not Thou knowest euen those sorrowes which we might haue Thou knowest what thou hast done doe what thou wilt Thou art barren Not that the Angell would vpbraid the poore woman with her affliction but therefore he names her paine that the mention of her cure might be so much more welcome Comfort shal come vnseasonably to that heart which is not apprehensiue of his owne sorrow We must first know our euils ere we can quit them It is the iust method of euery true Angell of God first to let vs see that whereof either we doe or should complaine and then to apply comforts Like as a good Physician first pulls down the body and then raises it with cordialls If we cannot abide to heare of our faults we are not capeable of amendment If the Angell had first said Thou shalt conceiue and not premised Thou art barren I doubt whether she had conceiued faith in her soule of that infant which her body should conceiue Now his knowledge of her present estate makes way for the assurance of the future Thus euer it pleases our good God to leaue a pawne of his fidelity with vs that we should not distrust him in what he will doe when wee finde him faithfull in that which we see done It is good reason that he which giues the sonne to the barren mother should dispose of him and diet him both in the wombe first and after in the world The mother must first be a Nazarite that her sonne may be so Whiles she was barren shee might drinke what shee would but now that she shall conceiue a Samson her choyce must be limited There is an holy austerity that euer followes the speciall calling of God The worldling
no leisure to sinne The idle hath neither leisure nor power to auoide sinne Exercise is not more wholsome for the bodie than for the Soule the remission whereof breeds matter of disease in bothe The water that hath beene heated soonest freezeth the most actilie spirit soonest tyreth with slackning The Earth stande still and is all dregges the Heauens euer moue and are pure We haue no reason to complaine of the assiduitie of worke the toyle of action is answered by the benefit If wee did lesse we should suffer more Satan like an idle companion if hee finde vs busie flyes backe and sees it no time to entertayne vaine purposes with vs We cannot please him better than by casting away our worke to hold that with him wee cannot yeeld so farre and be guiltlesse Euen Dauids eyes haue no sooner the sleepe rubbed â—ut of them than they roue to wanton prospects Hee walkes vpon his roofe and sees Bathsheba washing her selfe inquires after her sends for her sollicits her to vncleanenesse The same spirit that shut vp his eyes in on vnseasonable sleepe opens them vpon an intising obiect whiles sinne hath such a Solliciter it cannot want either meanes or opportunitie I cannot thinke Bathsheba could bee so immodest as to wash her selfe openly especially from her naturall vncleannesse Lust is quick-sighted Dauid hath espied her where shee could espye no beholder His eyes recoyle vpon his heart and haue smitten him with sinfull desire There can be no safetie to that Soule where the senses are let loose Hee can neuer keepe his couenant with God that makes not a couenant with his eyes It is an idle presumption to thinke the outward man may bee free whiles the inward is safe He is more than a man whose heart is not led by his eyes hee is no regenerate man whose eyes are not restrained by his heart Oh Bathsheba how wert thou washed from thine vncleannesse when thou yeeldedst to goe into an adulterous bed neuer wert thou so foule as now when thou wert new washed The worst of Nature is cleanlinesse to the best of sinne thou hadst beene cleane if thou hadst not washed yet for thee I know how to plead infirmitie of sexe and the importunitie of a King But what shall I say for thee O thou royall Prophet and Propheticall King of Israel where shall I finde ought to extenuate that crime for which God himselfe hath noted thee Did not thine holy Profession teach thee to abhorre such a sinne more than death Was not thy Iustice woont to punish this sinne with no lesse than death Did not thy very calling call thee to a protection and preseruation of Iustice of Chastitie in thy subiects Didst thou want store of Wiues of thine owne wert thou restrayned from taking more Was there no beautie in Israel but in a Subiects Marriage-bed Wert thou ouercome by the vehement sollicitations of an Adulteresse Wert thou not the Tempter the Prosecutor of this vncleanenesse I should accuse thee deeply if thou hadst not accused thy selfe Nothing wanted to greaten thy sinne or our wonder and feare O God whither doe wee goe if thou stay vs not Who euer amongst the millions of thy Seruants could finde himselfe furnished with stronger preseruatiues against sinne Against whom could such a sinne finde lesse pretence of preuayling Oh keepe thou vs that presumptuous sinnes preuayle not ouer vs So only shall wee bee free from great offences The Suites of Kings are Imperatiue Ambition did now proue a Bawd to Lust Bathsheba yeeldeth to offend God to dishonour her Husband to clog and wound her owne Soule to abuse her bodie Dishonestie growes bold when it is countenanced with greatnesse Eminent persons had need be carefull of their demaunds they sinne by authoritie that are solicited by the mightie Had Bathsheba beene mindfull of her Matrimoniall fidelitie perhaps Dauid had beene soone checked in his inordinate desire her facilitie furthers the sinne The first motioner of euill is most faultie but as in quarrels so in offences the second blow which is the consent makes the fray Good Ioseph was moued to folly by his great and beautifull Mistris this fire fell vpon wet Tinder and therefore soone went out Sinne is not acted alone if but one partie be wise both escape It is no excuse to say I was tempted though by the great though by the holy and learned Almost all sinners are misse-led by that transformed Angell of light The action is that wee must regard not the person Let the mouer bee neuer so glorious if he stirre vs to euill he must be entertained with defiance The God that knowes how to rayse good out of euill blesses an adulterous copulation with that increase which he denyes to the chast imbracements of honest Wedlocke Bathsheba hath conceiued by Dauid and now at once conceiues a sorrow and care how to smother the shame of her Conception He that did the fact must hide it Oh Dauid where is thy Repentance Where is thy tendernesse and compunction of heart Where are those holy Meditations which had woont to take vp thy Soule Alas in steed of clearing thy sinne thou labourest to cloke it and spendest those thoughts in the concealing of thy wickednesse which thou shouldest rather haue bestowed in preuenting it The best of Gods Children may not onely bee drenched in the waues of sinne but lye in them for the time and perhaps sinke twice to the bottome what Hypocrite could haue done worse than studie how to couer the face of his sinne from the eyes of men whiles hee regarded not the sting of sinne in his Soule As there are some Acts wherein the Hypocrite is a Saint so there are some wherein the greatest Saint vpon Earth may bee an Hypocrite Saul did thus goe about to colour his sinne and is cursed The Vessels of Mercie and Wrath are not euer distinguishable by their actions Hee makes the difference that will haue mercie on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth It is rare and hard to commit a single sinne Dauid hath abused the Wife of Vriah now hee would abuse his person in causing him to father a false seede That worthy Hittite is sent for from the Wars and now after some cunning and farre fetcht Questions is dismissed to his house not without a present of fauour Dauid could not but imagine that the beautie of his Bathsheba must needs bee attractiue enough to an Husband whom long absence in Warres had with-held all that while from so pleasing a Bed neyther could hee thinke that since that face and those brests had power to allure himselfe to an vnlawfull lust it could be possible that Vriah should not bee inuited by them to an allowed and warrantable fruition That Dauids heart might now the rather strike him in comparing the chaste resolutions of his Seruant with his owne light incontinence good Vriah sleepes at the doore of the Kings Palace making choice of a stonie Pillow vnder the Canopie of Heauen rather
out the ringleader of this hatefull insurrection and will at once serue for his hangman and gallowes by one of those spreading armes snatching him away to speedy execution Absalom was comely and hee knew it well enough His haire was no small peece of his beauty nor matter of his pride It was his wont to cut it once a yeere not for that it was too long but too heauy his heart could haue borne it longer if his necke had not complained And now the iustice of God hath platted an halter of those locks Those tresses had formerly hanged loosely disheueld on his shoulders now he hangs by theÌ„ He had wont to weigh his haire and was proud to find it so heauy now his haire poyseth the weight of his body and makes his burden his torment It is no maruell if his owne haire turn'd traitor to him who durst rise vp against his father That part which is misused by man to sinne is commonly imployed by God to reuenge The reuenge that it worketh for God makes amends for the offence whereto it is drawne against God The very beast whereon Absalom sat as weary to beare so vnnaturall a burden resignes ouer his lode to the tree of Iustice There hangs Absalom betweene heauen and earth as one that was hated and abandoned both of earth and heauen As if God meant to prescribe this punishment for Traytors Absalom Achitophel and Iudas dye all one death So let them perish that dare lift vp their hand against Gods anointed The honest souldier sees Absalom hanging in the Oke and dares not touch him his hands were held with the charge of Dauid Beware that none touch the yong man Absalom Ioab vpon that intelligenceâ— sees him and smites him with no lesse then three darts What the souldier forbore in obedience the Captaine doth in zeale not fearing to preferre his Soueraignes safety to his command and more tendering the life of a King and peace of his Countrey then the weake affection of a father I dare not sit Iudge betwixt this zeale and that obedience betwixt the Captaine and the Souldier the one was a good subiect the other a good Patriot the one loued the King the other loued Dauid and out of loue disobeyed the one meant as well as the other sped As if God meant to fulfill the charge of his Anointed without any blame of his subiects it pleased him to execute that immediate reuenge vpon the rebell which would haue dispatcht him without hand or dart only the Mule and the Oke conspired to this execution but that death would haue required more leasure then it was safe for Israel to giue and still life would giue hope of rescue to cut off all feares Ioab lends the Oke three darts to helpe forward so needfull a worke of iustice All Israel did not afford so firme a friend to Absalom as Ioab had beene who but Ioab had suborned the witty widow of Tekoah to sue for the recalling of Absalom from his three yeeres exile Who but he went to fetch him from Geshur to Ierusalem Who but he fetcht him from his house at Ierusalem whereto he had beene two yeeres confined to the face to the lips of Dauid Yet now he that was his sollicitor for the Kings fauor is his executioner against the Kings charge With honest hearts all respects either of blood or friendship cease in the case of Treason well hath Ioab forgotten himselfe to be friend to him who had forgotten himselfe to bee a sonne Euen ciuilly the King is our common father our Country our common mother Nature hath no priuate relations which should not gladly giue place to these He is neither father nor sonne nor brother nor friend that conspires against the common parent Well doth he who spake parables for his masters sonne now speake darts to his Kings enemy and pierces that heart which was false to so good a father Those darts are seconded by Ioabs followers each man tries his weapon vpon so faire a marke One death is not enough for Absalom he is at once hanged shot mangled stoned Iustly was he lift vp to the Oke who had lift vp himselfe against his father and soueraigne Iustly is hee pierced with darts who had pierced his fathers heart with so many sorrowes Iustly is he mangled who hath dismembred and diuided all Israel Iustly is he stoned who had not only cursed but pursued his owne parent Now Ioab sounds the retrait and cals off his eager troupes from execution howeuer he knew what his rebellious Countrymen had deserued in following an Absalom Wise Commanders know how to put a difference betwixt the heads of a faction and the misguided multitude and can pity the one whiles they take reuenge on the other So did Absalom esteeme himselfe that hee thought it would bee a wrong to the world to want the memoriall of so goodly a person God had denied him sons How iust it was that he should want a sonne who had robd his father of a sonne who would haue robd himselfe of a father his father of a Kingdome It had beene pity so poysonous a plant should haue beene fruitfull His pride shall supply nature hee reares vp a stately pillar in the Kings dale and cals it by his owne name that hee might liue in dead stones who could not suruiue in liuing issue and now behold this curious pile ends in a rude heape which speakes no language but the shame of that carkasse which it couers Heare this ye glorious fooles that care not to perpetuate any memory of your selues to the world but of ill-deseruing greatnesse the best of this affectation is vanity the worst infamy and dishonour whereas the memoriall of the iust shall be blessed and if his humility shâ—ll refuse an Epitaph and chose to hide himselfe vnder the bare earth God himselfe shall ingraue his name vpon the pillar of eternity There now lies Absalom in the pit vnder a thousand graue-stones in euery of which is written his euerlâ—sting reproach well might this heape ouer-liue that pillar for when that ceased to be a pillar it began to bee an heape neither will it cease to bee a monument of Absaloms shame whiles there are stones to bee found vpon earth Euen at this day very Pagans and Pilgrimes that passe that way cast each man a stone vnto that heape and are wont to say in a solemne execration Cursed bee the paricide Absalom and cursed bee all vniust persecutors of their parents for euer Fasten your eyes vpon this wofull spectacle O all yee rebellious and vngracious children which rise vp against the loynes and thighes from which yee fell and know that it is the least part of your punishment that your carkasses rot in the earth and your name in ignominie these doe but shadow out those eternall sufferings of your soules for your foule and vnnaturall disobedience Absalom is sped who shall report it to his father Surely Ioab was not so much afraid of
sinnes to informe our brethren How rife is this Dumbe Deuill euerywhere whiles hee stops the mouthes of Christians from these vsefull and necessarie duties For what end hath man those two priuiledges aboue his fellow creatures Reason and Speech but that as by the one he may conceiue of the great workes of his Maker which the rest cannot so by the other hee may expresse what hee conceiues to the honor of the Creator both of them and himselfe And why are all other creatures said to praise God and bidden to praise him but because they doe it by the apprehension by the expression of man If the heauens declare the glory of God how doe they it but to the eies and by the tongue of that man for whom they were made It is no small honor whereof the enuious spirit shall rob his Maker if he 〈◊〉 close vp the mouth of his onely rationall and vocall creature and turne the best of his workemanship into a dumbe Idoll that hath a mouth and speakes not Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Praise is not more necessary then complaint praise of God then complaint of ourselues whether to God or men The onely amends we can make to God what we haue not had the grace to auoid sinne is to confesse the sinne wee haue not auoided This is the sponge that wipes out all the blots and blurs of our liues If wee confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and iust to forgiue vs our sins and to cleanse vs from all vnrighteousnesse That cunning man-slayer knowes there is no way to purge the sicke soule but vpward by casting out the vicious humor wherewith it is clogged and therefore holds the lips close that the heart may not dis-burden it selfe by so wholesome euacuation When I kept silence my bones consumed For day and night thy band O Lord was heauy vpon me my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer O let me confesse against my selfe my wickednesse vnto thee that thou maist forgiue the punishment of my sinne We haue a tongue for God when wee praise him for our selues when wee pray and confesse for our brethren when we speake the truth for their information which if we hold backe in vnrighteousnesse we yeeld vnto that dumbe Deuill where doe we not see that accursed spirit Hee is on the Bench when the mute or partiall Iudge speakes not for truth and innocence He is in the pulpit when the Prophets of God smother or halue or adulterate the message of their master Hee is at the barre when irreligious Iurors dare lend an oath to feare to hope to gaine Hee is in the market when godlesse chapmen for their peny sell the truth and their soule He is in the common conuersation of men when the tongue belies the heart flatters the guilty balketh reproofes euen in the foulest crimes O thou who only art stronger then that strong one cast him out of the hearts and mouthes of men It is time for thee Lord to worke for they haue destroyed thy Law That it might well appeare this impediment was not naturall so soone as the man is freed from the spirit his tongue is free to his speech The effects of spirits as they are wrought so they cease at once If the Sonne of God doe but remoue our spirituall possession we shall presently breake forth into the praise of God into the confession of our vilenesse into the profession of truth But what strange variety do I see in the spectators of this miracle some wondring others censuring a third sort tempting a fourth applauding There was neuer man or action but was subiect to variety of constructions What man could bee so holy as he that was God What act could bee more worthy then the dispossession of an euill spirit yet this man this act passeth these differences of interpretation What can we doe to vndergoe but one opinion If we giue almes and fast some will magnifie our charity and deuotion others will taxe our hypocrisie If wee giue not some will condemne our hard-heartednesse others will allow our care of iustice if wee preach plainly to some it will sauour of a carelesse slubbering to others of a mortified sincerity Elaborately some will tax our affectation others will applaud our diligence in dressing the delicate viands of God What maruell is it if it bee thus with our imperfection when it fared not otherwise with him that was purity and righteousnesse it selfe The austere fore-runner of Christ came neither eating nor drinking they say He hath a Deuill The sonne of man came eating and drinking they say This man is a glutton a friend of Publicans and sinners and here one of his holy acts caries away at once wonder censure doubt celebration There is no way safe for a man but to square his actions by the right rule of iustice of charitie and then let the world haue leaue to spend their glosses at pleasure It was an heroicall resolution of the chosen vessell I passe very little to be iudged of you or of mans day I maruell not if the people maruelled for here were foure wonders in one The blinde saw the deafe heard the dumbe spake the demoniacke is deliuered Wonder was due to so rare and powerfull a worke and if not this nothing We can cast away admiration vpon the poore deuices or actiuities of men how much more vpon the extraordinary workes of omnipotency Who so knowes the frame of Heauen and earth shall not much be affected with the imperfect effects of fraile humanity but shall with no lesse rauishment of soule acknowledge the miraculous workes of the same Almighty hand Neither is the spirituall eiection worthy of any meaner intertainment Raritie and difficultie are wont to cause wonder There are many things which haue wonder in their worth and leese it in their frequence there are some which haue it in their strangenesse and leese it in their facilitie Both meet in this To see men haunted yea possessed with a dumbe Deuill is so frequent that it is a iust wonder to finde a man free but to finde the dumbe spirit cast out of a man and to heare him praising God confessing his sinnes teaching others the sweet experiments of mercy deserues iust admiration If the Cynick sought in the market for a man amongst men well may we seeke amongst men for a conuert Neither is the difficulty lesse then the rarenesse The strong man hath the possession all passages are blockt vp all helpes barred by the trechery of our nature If any soule be rescued from these spirituall wickednesses it is the praise of him that doth wonders alone But whom doe I see wondring The multiude The vnlearned beholders follow that act with wonder which the learned Scribes entertaine with obloquy God hath reuealed those things to babes which he hath hid from the wise and prudent With what scorne did those great Rabbins speake of these sonnes of the earth This
only Thrice doth hee stretch himselfe vpon the dead body as if he could wish to infuse of his owne life into the childe and so often cals to his God for the restitution of that soule What can Elijah aske to be denyed The Lord heard the voice of his Prophet the soule of the child came into him againe and he reuiued What miracle is impossible to faithfull prayers There cannot bee more difference betwixt Elijahs deuotion and ours then betwixt supernaturall and ordinary acts If he therefore obtained miraculous fauours by his prayers do we doubt of those which are within the sphere of nature and vse What could we want if wee did not slacke to ply heauen with our prayers Certainly Elijah had not beene premonished of this sudden sicknesse and death of the child He who knew the remote affaires of the world might not know what God would doe within his owne roofe The greatest Prophet must content himselfe with so much of Gods counsell as he will please to reueale and he will sometimes reueale the greater secrets and conceale the lesse to make good both his owne liberty and mans humiliation So much more vnexpected as the stroke was so much more welcome is the cure How ioyfully doth the man of God take the reuiued child into his armes and present him to his mother How doth his heart leape within him at this proofe of Gods fauour to him mercy to the widow power to the childe What life and ioy did now show it selfe in the face of that amazed mother when she saw againe the eyes of her sonne fixed vpon hers when shee felt his flesh warme his motions vitall Now she can say to Elijah By this I know that thou art a man of God and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth Did she not til now know this Had she not said before What haue I to doe with thee O thou man of God Were not her cruse and her barrel sufficient proofes of his diuine commission Doubtlesse what her meale and oyle had assured her of the death of her sonne made her to doubt and now the reuiuing did re-ascertaine Euen the strongest faith sometimes sluggereth and needeth new acts of heauenly supportation the end of miracles is confirmation of truth It seemes had this widowes sonne continued dead her beleefe had beene buried in his graue notwithstanding her meale and her oile her soule had languished The mercy of God is faine to prouide new helpes for our infirmities and graciously condescends to our owne termes that hee may worke out our faith and saluation ELIJAH with the Baalites THree yeares and an halfe did Israel lie gasping vnder a patrhing drought and miserable famine No creature was so odious to them as Elijah to whom they ascribed all their misery Me thinkes I heare how they railed on and cursed the Prophet How much enuy must the seruants of God vndergoe for their masters Nothing but the tongue was Elijahs the hand was Gods the Prophet did but say what God would doe I doe not see them fall out with their sins that had deserued the iudgement but with the messenger that denounced it Baal had no fewer seruants then if there had beene both raine and plenty Elijah safely spends this storme vnder the lee of Sarepta Some three yeares hath he lien close in that obscure corner and liued vpon the barrell and cruse which he had multiplied At last God cals him forth Goe shew thy selfe to Ahab and I will send raine vpon the earth no raine must fall till Elijah were seen of Ahab Hee caried away the clouds with him he must bring them againe The King the people of Israel shall bee witnesses that God will make good the word the oath of his Prophet Should the raine haue falne in Elijahs absence who could haue knowne it was by his procurement God holds the credit of his messengers precious and neglects nothing that may grace them in the eyes of the world Not the necessity of seuen thousand religious Israelites could cracke the word of one Elijah There is nothing wherin God is more tender then in approuing the veracity of himselfe in his ministers Lewd Ahab hath an holy Steward As his name was so was hee a seruant of God whiles his Master was a slaue to Baal Hee that reserued seuen thousand in the Kingdome of Israel hath reserued an Obadiah in the Court of Israel and by him hath reserued them Neither is it likely there had been so many free hearts in the countrey if Religion had not beene secretly backed in the Court It is a great happinesse when God giues fauour and honour to the Vertuous Elijah did not lie more close in Sarepta then Obadiah did in the Court Hee could not haue done so much seruice to the Church if he had not beene as secret as good Policy and religion doe as well together as they doe ill asunder The Doue without the Serpent is easily caught the serpent without the Doue stings deadly Religion without policy is too simple to be safe Policy without religion is too subtile to be good Their match makes themselues secure and many happy Oh degenerated estate of Israel any thing was now lawfull there sauing piety It is well if Gods Prophets can find an hole to hide their heads in They must needes bee hard driuen when fifty of them are faine to croud together into one caue There they had both shade and repast Good Obadiah hazards his owne life to preserue theirs and spends himselfe in that extream dearth vpon their necessary diet Bread and water was more now then other whiles wine and delicates Whether shall we wonder more at the mercy of God in reseruing an hundred Prophets or in thus sustaining them being reserued When did God euer leaue his Israel vnfurnished of some Prophets When did he leaue his Prophets vnprouided of some Obadiah How worthy art thou O Lord to be trusted with thine owne charge whiles there are men vpon earth or birds in the aire or Angels in heauen thy messengers cannot want prouision Goodnesse caries away trust where it cannot haue imitation Ahab diuides with Obadiah the suruey of the whole land They two set their owne eyes on work for the search of water of pasture to preserue the horses and mules aliue Oh the poore and vaine cares of Ahab He casts to kill the Prophet to saue the cattle he neuer seekes to saue his owne soule to destroy Idolatry he takes thought for grasse none for mercy Carnall hearts are euer either groueling on the earth or delving into it no more regarding God or their soules then if they either were not or were worthlesse Elijah heares of the progresse and offers himselfe to the view of them both Here was wisdome in this courage First hee presents himselfe to Obadiah ere he will bee seene of Ahab that Ahab might vpon the report of so discreet an informer digest the expectation of his meeting Then he takes
then thy fathers and thou shalt liue to honour him Toile and sorrow haue lulled the Prophet asleepe vnder his Iuniper tree that wholesome shade was well chosen for his repose whiles death was called for the cozen of death comes vnbidden The Angell of God waits on him in that hard lodging no wildernesse is too solitarie for the attendance of those blessed spirits As hee is guarded so is hee awaked by that Messenger of God and stirred vp from his rest to his repast whiles hee slept his breakfast is made ready for him by those spirituall hands There was a cake baked on the coales and a cruse of water at his head Oh the neuer-ceasing care and prouidence of the Almigâ—tie not to bee barred by any place by any condition when meanes are wanting to to vs when we are wanting to our selues when to God euen then doth hee follow vs with his mercy and cast fauours vpon vs beyond against expectation What varietie of purueyance doth he make for his seruant One while the Rauens then the Sareptan now the Angell shall be his Cator none of them without a miracle Those other prouided for him waking this sleeping O God the eye of thy prouidence is not dimmer the hand of thy power is not shorter onely teach thou vs to serue thee to trust thee Needs must the Prophet eate and drinke and sleepe with much comfort whiles hee saw that hee had such a guardian attendant purueiour and now the second time is he raised by that happy touch to his meale and his way Arise and eate because the iourney is too great for thee What needed hee to trauell further sith that diuine power could as well protect him in the Wildernesse as in Horeb What needed hee to eate since hee that meant to sustaine him forty dayes with one meale might as well haue sustained him without it God is a most free Agent neither will be tied to the termes of humane regularities It is enough that hee knowes and approues the reasons of his owne choice and commands once in forty dayes and nights shall Elijah eate to teach vs what God can doe with little meanes and but once to teach vs what hee can doe without meanes Once shall the Prophet eate Man liues by bread and but once Man liues not by bread onely but by euery word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Moses Elijah our Sauiour fasted each of them forty daies and forty nights the three great fasters met gloriously in Tabor I finde not where God euer honoured any man for feasting It is abstinence not fulnesse that makes a man capable of heauenly visions of diuine glory The iourney was not of it selfe so long the Prophet tooke those wayes those houres which his heart gaue him In the very same Mount where Moses first saw God shall Elijah see him one and the same caue as is very probable was the receptacle to both It could not bee but a great confirmation of Elijah to renue the sight of those sensible monuments of Gods fauour and protection to his faithfull predecessor Moses came to see God in the Bush of Horeb God came to finde Elijah in the Caue of Horeb What doest thou here Elijah The place was directed by a prouidence not by a command Hee is hid sure enough from Iezebel hee cannot bee hid from the all-seeing eye of God Whither shall I goe from thy Spirit or Whither shall I fly from thy presence If I ascend vp into Heauen thou art there if I make my bed in Hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the vttermost parts of the Sea euen there shall thine hand finde me and thy right hand shall hold mee Twice hath God propounded the same question to Eljiah Once in the heart once in the mouth of the Caue Twice doth the Prophet answer in the same words Had the first answer satisfied the question had not beene re-demanded Now that sullen answer which Elijah gaue in the darknesse of the Caue is challenged into the Light not without an awfull preface The Lord first passeth by him with the terrible demonstrations of his power A great strong wind rent the Mountaines and brake the Rocks in pieces That tearing blast was from God God was not in it So was hee in it as in his other extraordinarie workes not so in it as by it to impart himselfe to Elijah it was the vshier not the cariage of God After the winde came an Earthquake more fearfull then it That did but moue the aire this the earth that beat vpon some prominences of earth this shooke it from the Center After the earth-quake came a fire more fearfull them either The other affected the eare the feeling but this lets in horrour into the Soule by the eye the quickest and most apprehensiue of the senses Elijah shall see Gods mighty power in the earth aire fire before hee heare him in the soft voice all these are but boistrous harbingers of a meeke and still word In that God was Behold in that gentle and mild breath there was omnipotency there was but powerfulnesse in those fierce representations There is not alwaies the greatest efficacie where is the greatest noise God loues to make way for himselfe by terrour but he conuayes himselfe to vs in sweetnesse It is happy for vs if after the gusts and flashes of the Law wee haue heard the soft voice of Euangelicall mercy In this very mount with the same horror God had deliuered his Law to Moses and Israel It is no maruell if Elijah wrap his face in his Mantle His obedience drawes him forth to the mouth of the Caue his feare still hides his head Had there not beene much courage in the Prophets faith hee had not stood out these affrightfull fore-runners of the diuine presence though with his face couered The very Angels doe no lesse before that all-glorious Maiestie then vaile themselues with their wings Farre be it from vs once to thinke of that infinite and omnipotent Deitie without an humble awfulnesse Feare changes not the tenour of Elijahs answer Hee hath not left one word behinde him in the Caue I haue beene very iealous for the Lord God of Hosts because the children of Israel haue forsaken thy Couenant throwne downe thine Altars and slaine thy Prophets with the sword and I euen I onely am left and they seeke my life to take it away I heare not a direct answer from the Prophet to the demand of God then hee had said I runne away from the threats of Iezebel and here I hide my head from her malicious pursuit His guiltinesse would not let him speake out all Hee had rather say I haue beene iealous for the Lord God of Hosts then I was fearfull of Iezebel Wee are all willing to make the best of our owne case but what hee wants of his owne accusation hee spends vpon the complaint of Israel Neither doth he more bemone
of his seruice The euening praises the day and the chiefe grace of the theater is in the last Scene Be faithfull to the death and I will giue thee a Crowne of life That Elijah should be translated and what day he should be translated God would haue no secret The sonnes of the Prophets at Bethel at Iericho both know it and aske Elisha if he knew it not Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy Master from thy head this day and hee answered Yea I know it hold yee your peace How familiarly do these Prophets inter-know one another How kindly do they communicate their visions Seldome euer was any knowledge giuen to keep but to impart The grace of this rich Iewell is lost in concealement The remouall of an Elijah is so important a businesse that it is not fit to be done without noise Many shall haue their share in his losse he must be missed on the sudden it was meet therefore that the world should know his rapture should be diuine and glorious I doe not finde where the day of any naturall death is notified to so many by how much more wonder there was in this Assumption by so much more shall it bee fore-reuealed It is enough for ordinarie occurrents to bee knowne in their euent supernaturall things haue need of premonition that mens hearts may bee both prepared for their receit and confirmed in their certainty Thrice was Elisha intreated thrice hath hee denied to stay behinde his now-departing Master on whom both his eyes and his thoughts are so fixed that hee cannot giue allowance so much as to the interpellation of a question of his fellow-Prophets Together therefore are this wonderfull paire comne to the last stage of their separation the bankes of Iordan Those that were not admitted to bee attendants of the iourney yet will not bee debarred from being spectators of so maruellous an issue Fifty men of the sonnes of the Prophets went and stood to view afarre off I maruell there were no more How could any sonne of the Prophets stay within the Colledge walls that day when hee knew what was meant to Elijah Perhaps though they knew that to bee the Prophets last day yet they might thinke his disparition should bee sudden and insensible besides they found how much hee affected secrecie in this intended departure yet the fifty Prophets of Iericho will make proofe of their eyes and with much intention assay who shall haue the last sight of Elijah Miracles are not purposed to silence and obscuritie God will not worke wonders without witnesses since hee doth them on purpose to winne glory to his name his end were frustrate without their notice Euen so O Sauiour when thou hadst raised thy selfe from the dead thou wouldest bee seene of more then fiue hundred brethren at once and when thou wouldest raise vp thy glorified bodie from earth into Heauen thou didst not ascend from some close valley but from the Mount of Oliues not in the night not alone but in the cleare day in the view of many eyes which were so fixed vpon that point of thine heauen that they could scarce bee remoued by the checke of Angels Iordan must be crossed by Elijah in his way to heauen There must be a meet parallel betwixt the two great Prophets that shal meet Christ vpon Tabor Moses and Elias Both receiued visions on Horeb to both God appeared there in fire and other formes of terrour both were sent to Kings one to Pharaoh the other to Ahab Both prepared miraculous Tables the one of Quailes and Manna in the Desert the other of Meale and Oyle in Sarepta Both opened heauen the one for that nourishing dew the other for those refreshing showres Both reuenged Idolatries with the sword the one vpon the worshippers of the golden Calfe the other vpon the foure hundred Baalites Both quenched the drought of Israel the one out of the Rocke the other out of the Cloud Both diuided the waters the one of the Red Sea the other of Iordan Both of them are forewarned of their departure Both must be fetcht away beyond Iordan The body of Elijah is translated the body of Moses is hid What Moses doth by his Rod Elijah doth by his Mantle with that hee smites the Waters and they as fearing the diuine power which wrought with the Prophet runne away from him and stand on heapes leauing their dry channell for the passage of those awfull feet It is not long since he mulcted them with a generall exsiccation now he onely bids them stand aside and giue way to his last walke that he might with dry feet mount vp into the celestiall chariot The waters doe not now first obey him they know that Mantle of old which hath oft giuen lawes to their falling rising standing they are past ouer and now when Elijah finds himselfe treading on his last earth hee profers a munificent boone to his faithfull seruant Aske what I shall doe for thee before I am taken from thee I doe not heare him say Aske of me when I am gone In my glorified condition I shall bee more able to bestead thee but aske before I goe Wee haue a communion with the Saints departed not a commerce when they are inabled to doe more for vs they are lesse apt to be sollicited by vs It is safe suing where we are sure that we are heard Had not Elijah receiued a peculiar instinct for this profer he had not been thus liberall It were presumption to be bountifull on anothers cost without leaue of the owner The mercy of our good God allowes his fauourites not onely to receiue but to giue not onely to receiue for themselues but to conuey blessings to others What can that man want that is befriended of the faithfull Elisha needs not goe farre to seeke for a suit It was in his heart in his mouth Let a double portion of thy spirit be vpon me Euery Prophet must be a sonne to Elijah but Elisha would be his heire and craues the happy right of his primogeniture the double share to his brethren It was not wealth nor safety nor ease nor honour that Elisha cares for the world lies open before him hee may take his choice the rest he contemneth nothing will serue him but a large measure of his masters spirit No carnall thought was guilty of this sacred ambition Affectation of eminence was too base a conceit to fall into that man of God He saw that the times needed strong conuictions he saw that hee could not otherwise weild the succession to such a Master therefore he sues for a double portion of spirit the spirit of prophesie to foreknow the spirit of power to worke We cannot bee too couetous too ambitious of spirituall gifts such especially as may inable vs to win most aduantage to God in our vocations Our wishes are the true touch-stone of our estate such as we wish to be we are worldly hearts affect earthly things spirituall
his last passage a double portion of his Spirit should be vpon mee I followed him with my eyes in that fire and whirlewind now therefore O God make good thy gracious Word to thy seruant shew some token vpon mee for good make this the first proofe of the miraculous power wherewith thou shalt indue me Let Iordan giue the same way to me that it gaue to my master Immediately the streame as acknowledging the same Mantle though in another hand diuides it selfe yeelds passage to the successor of Elijah The fifty sonnes of the Prophets hauing bin a farre off witnesses of these admirable euents doe well see that Elijah though translated in body hath yet left his Spirit behinde him they meet Elisha and bow themselues to the ground before him It was not the outside of Elijah which they had wont to stoope vnto with so much veneration it was his Spirit which since they now finde in another subiect they entertaine with equall reuerence No enuy no emulation raiseth vp their stomacks against Elijahs seruant but where they see eminent graces they are willingly prostrate Those that are truely gracious doe no lesse reioyce in the riches of others gifts then humbly vnder-value their own These men were trained vp in the schooles of the Prophets Elisha at the plough and cart yet now they stand not vpon termes of their worth and his meannesse but meekely fall downe before him whom God will honour It is not to be regarded who the man is but whom God would make him The more vnlikely the meanes is the more is the glory of the workman It is the praise of an holy ingenuitie to magnifie the graces of God where euer it finds them These yong Prophets are no lesse full of zeale then reuerence zeale to Elijah reuerence to Elisha They see Elijah caried vp into the aire they knew this was not the first time of his supernaturall remouall Imagining it therefore possible that the Spirit of God had cast him vpon some remote mountaine or valley they profer the labour of their seruants to seeke him In some things euen professed Seers are blind Could they thinke God would send such a Charet and horses for a lesse voyage then heauen Elisha knowing his master beyond all the sphere of mortalitie forbids them Good will makes them vnmannerly their importunitie vrges him till he is ashamed not his approbation but their vehemence caries at last a condescent Else hee might perhaps haue seemed enuiously vnwilling to fetch backe so admired a Master and loth to forgoe that mantle Some things may be yeelded for the redeeming of our owne vexation and auoidance of others mis-construction which out of true iudgement we see no cause to affect The messengers tyred with three dayes search turne backe as wise as they went some men are best satisfied when they haue wearied themselues in their own waies nothing will teach them wit but disappointments Their painfull errour leades them to a right conceit of Elijahs happier transportation Those that would finde Elijah let them aspire to the heauenly Paradise Let them follow the high steps of his sincere faithfulnesse strong patience vndaunted courage feruent zeale shortly let them walke in the waies of his holy and constant obedience at last God shall send the fiery charet of death to fetch them vp to that heauen of heauens where they shall triumph in euerlasting ioyes ELISHA Healing the Waters Cursing the Children Releeuing the Kings IT is good making vse of a Prophet whiles wee haue him Elisha stayed some-while at Iericho The Citizens resort to him with a common suit Their structure was not more pleasant then their waters vnwholsome and their soile by those corrupt waters They sue to Elisha for the remedie Why had they not all this while made their mone to Elijah Was it that they were more awed with his greater austeritie Or was it that they met not with so fit an opportunitie of his commoration amongst them It was told them what power Elisha had exercised vpon the waters of Iordan and now they ply him for theirs Examples of beneficence easily moue vs to a request and expectation of fauours What ailed the waters of Iericho Surely originally they were not ill affected No men could be foolish as to build a city where neither earth nor water could be vsefull Meere prospect could not cary men to the neglect of health and profit Hiel the Bethelite would neuer haue reedified it with the danger of a curse so lately as in the dayes of Ahab if it had beene of old notorious for so foule an annoyance Not therefore the ancient malediction of Ioshua not the neighbourhood of that noisome lake of Sodome was guilty of this disease of the soyle and waters but the late sinnes of the inhabitants Hee turneth the riuers into a wildernesse and water springs into a dry ground a fruitfull land into barrennesse for the wickednesse of them that dwell therein How oft haue wee seene the same field both full and famishing How oft the same waters both safe and by some irruption or new tincture hurtfull Howsoeuer naturall causes may concurre heauen and earth and ayre and waters follow the temper of our soules of our liues and are therefore indisposed because we are so Iericho began now to make it selfe capable of a better state since it was now become a receptacle of Prophets Elisha is willing to gratifie his hosts it is reason that any place should fare the better for the presence of Diuines The medicine is more strange then the disease Bring mee a new Cruse and put salt therein Why a Cruse why new why Salt in that new Cruse How should Salt make water potable Or if there were any such vertue in it what could a Cruse-full doe to a whole current Or if that measure were sufficient what was the age of the Cruse to the force of the Salt Yet Elisha cals for Salt in a new Cruse God who wrought this by his Prophet is a free agent as hee will not binde his power to meanes so will he by his power binde vnlikely meanes to performe his will Naturall proprieties haue no place in miraculous works No lesse easie is it for God to worke by contrary then subordinate powers The Prophet doth not cast the Salt into the channel but into the spring of the waters If the fountaine bee redressed the streames cannot be faulty as contrarily the puritie and soundnesse of the streame auailes nothing to the redresse of the fountaine Reformation must begin at the well-head of the abuse The order of being is a good guide to the methode of amending Vertue doth not runne backward Had Elisha cast the Salt into the brookes and ditches the remedy must haue striuen against the streame to reach vp to the spring now it is but one labour to cure the fountaine Our heart is a Well of bitter and venomous water our actions are the streames In vaine shall we cleanse our hands
good we refuse It is second folly in vs if we thanke him not The foolish babe cries for his fathers bright knife or gilded pilles The wiser father knowes that they can but hurt him and therefore with-holds them after all his teares The childe thinkes he is vsed but vnkindly Euery wise man and himselfe at more yeeres can say it was vsed but childish folly in desiring it in complaining that he missed it The losse of wealth friends health is sometimes gaine to vs. Thy body thy estate is worse thy soule is better why complainest thou SECT XIV The 4. and last part from their issue NAy it shall not be enough mee thinkes if onely wee be but contented and thankfull if not also chearefull in afflictions if that as we feele their paine so wee looke to their end although indeed this is not more requisite than rarely found as being proper onely to the good heart Euery bird can sing in a cleare heauen in a temperate spring that one as most familiar so is most commended that sings merrie notes in the middest of a showre or the dead of Winter Euery Epicure can enlarge his heart to mirth in the middest of his cups and dalliance onely the three children can sing in the furnace Paul and Silas in the stockes Martyrs at the stake It is from heauen that this ioy comes so contrary to all earthly occasions bred in the faithfull heart through a serious and feeling respect to the issue of what he feeles the quiet and vntroubled fruit of his righteousnesse glorie the crowne after his fight after his minute of paine eternity of ioy He neuer lookt ouer the threshold of heauen that cannot more reioyce that he shall be glorious than mourne in present that he is miserable SECT XV. Of the importunitie and terror of Death YEa this consideration is so powerfull that it alone is able to make a part against the feare or sense of the last and greatest of all terribles Death it selfe which in the conscience of his owne dreadfulnesse iustly laughs at all the vaine humane precepts of Tranquillitie appalling the most resolute and vexing the most cheerefull mindes Neither prophane Lucretius with all his Epicurean rules of confidence nor drunken Anacreon with all his wanton Odes can shift off the importunate and violent horrour of this Aduersarie Seest thou the Chaldean Tyrant beset with the sacred bowles of Ierusalem the late spoiles of Gods Temple and in contempt of their owner carowsing healths to his Queenes Concubines Peeres singing amids his cups triumphant carols of praise to his molten and carued gods Wouldest thou euer suspect that this high courage could be abated or that this sumptuous and presumptuous banquet after so royall and iocond continuance should haue any other conclusion but pleasure Stay but one houre longer and thou shalt see that face that now shines with a ruddie glosse according to the colour of his liquor looke pale and gastly stained with the colours of feare and death and that proud hand which now lifts vp her massie Goblets in defiance of God tremble like a leafe in a storme and those strong knees which neuer stooped to the burden of their laden body now not able to beare vp themselues but loosened with a sudden palsie of feare one knocking against the other and all this for that Death writes him a letter of summons to appeare that night before him and accordingly ere the next Sunne sent two Eunuches for his honorable conueiance into another world Where now are those delicate morsels those deep draughts those merry ditties wherewith the palate and eare so pleased themselues What is now become of all those cheerefull looks loose laughters stately port reuels triumphs of the feasting Court Why doth none of his gallant Nobles reuiue the fainted courage of their Lord with a new cup or with some stirring iest shake him out of this vnseasonable melancholy O death how imperious art thou to carnall mindes aggrauating their miserie not onely by expectation of future paine but by the remembrance of the wonted causes of their ioy and not suffering them to see ought but what may torment them Euen that monster of Cesars that had beene so well acquainted with bloud and neuer had sound better sport than in cutting of throats when now it came to his owne turne how effeminate how desperately cowardous did he shew himselfe to the wonder of all Readers that he which was euer so valiant in killing should be so womanishly heartlesse in dying SECT XVI THere are that feare not so much to be dead as to die The grounds of the feare of death the very act of dissolution frighting them with a tormenting expectation of a short but intolerable painfulnesse Which let if the wisdome of God had not interposed to timorous nature there would haue beene many more Lucreces Cleopatraes Achitophels and good lawes should haue found little opportunitie of execution through the wilfull funerals of malefactors For the soule that comes into the body without any at least sensible pleasure departs not from it without an extremitie of paine which varying according to the manner and meanes of separation yet in all violent deaths especially retaineth a violence not to be auoided hard to be endured And if diseases which are destin'd towards death as their end bee so painfull what must the end and perfection of diseases be Since as diseases are the maladies of the body so death is the malady of diseases There are that feare not so much to die as to be dead If the pang be bitter yet it is but short the comfortlesse state of the dead strikes some that could well resolue for the act of their passage Not the worst of the Heathen Emperours made that moanfull dittie on his death-bed wherein he bewraieth to all memory much feeling pittie of his soule for her doubtfull and impotent condition after her parture How doth Platoes worldling bewaile the misery of the graue besides all respect of paine Woe is mee that I shall lie alone rotting in the silent earth amongst the crawling Wormes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not seeing ought aboue not seene Very not-being is sufficiently abhorred of nature if death had no more to make it fearefull But those that haue liued vnder light enough to shew them the gates of hell after thâ—ir passage thorow the gates of death and haue learned that death is not onely horrible for our not-being here but for being infinitly eternally miserable in a future world nor so much for the dissolution of life as the beginning of torment those cannot without the certaine hope of their immunitie but carnally feare to die and hellishly feare to be dead For if it be such paine to die what is it to be euer dying And if the straining or luxation of one ioynt can so afflict vs what shall the racking of the whole body and the torturing of the soule whose animation alone makes the body