may do himself the more honour shew the excellency of his power by mounting us on a higher Throne drawing the Rays of our Glory to a brighter Lustre Historians every where shew us many brave men as well Heathens as Christians who had no other fault but too much merited of their Country that have been paid with scorn and ingratitude nay with Proscription and afterwards with the consent applause of those very Persecuters have thrown off the Mantles and Coverings of Darkness and Obscurity and like the Sun after an interposition appeared all Glorious 6. God seldom remunerates his Servants here with a temporary felicity Some indeed have been crown'd with Rose-Buds have let no Flower of the Spring pass by them Though Mordecai a Captive was invested with the Royal Robes and rode upon the King's Horse yet others have gone on foot and not a seeming Gourd to refresh them but so as he comforts and keeps vivid the Vitals with his Spirits and Extracts distilled through that glorious Limbeck Paul the Apostle We may be troubled on every side but not distressed perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken God hath Balsom for every Wound a Plaister for every Sore and though he dress it not while it is green and fresh yet he will make his applications before it fester What though God suffer an Executioner to lay violent hands upon thee he cannot go a step beyond death he does but antidate the work of a Disease the difference only is a nefarious hand presently storms the body and a malady takes it in by a longer Siege few drop like a wasted Taper in the Socket but some violent wind puts it out some sharp Disease is the extinguisher and the Conflicts and Colluctations that such have with death adequate the throws of a more hasty Transition So that it matters not whether we die Sicca or humida morte whether we are burnt with a quick fire at the stake or a lingring one of a Fever whether we are thrown into the Tiber or drowned at home with a Dropsie whether starved in a Prison or shrivelled in our Chamber with a Consumption 7. Since God hath a Statute upon our Bodies It being appointed for all men once to die and that we cannot be removed from our Troubles of Life but by death then the shortest way must needs be the best 'T is a poor thrift to put a Save-all into our Farthing Candle to be angry because the thred of nature is broken before she has time to wind off the whole bottom Though the eye of Moses was not dim nor his natural force abated yet when God bade him Go up and die he readily quitted his own command went up to the top of Pisgah and died The Primitive Christians set so great an estimate upon the days of their death that they called them Natales Then they only began their Epocha of living the world was but before in labour with them and death was the Midwife to give them a Nativity 8. Certainly could we but hear the Transports of a refined Soul singing an Obiit to the world preparing her Heavenly Viaticum it would have a strange charm awake our Poppy Souls and infuse into them raptures of joy and exultation unexpressive or if fabricated according to the Model of that Philosopher who would have a Window in the Breast of every man we might see a strange Festivity within him not a Cloud in that Hemisphere What more lovely than the wounds of Sebastian though drawn with a rugged Pencil Those feathered Arrowswinged him for an Heavenly Flight Does not a Martyr amidst his Flames shew like the Sun encircled with Rays of Glory And S. Stephen when brought before the Council appeared not with pallor dejection like a Malefactor that looks half executed before the doom be past but so Seraphical that the Judges saw his face as though it had been the face of an Angel When a Saint hath been mounting a Scaffold have we not been big with conceit by those few Stairs he was ascending a Throne that it was his Jacobs Ladder that railed him up to Heaven 9. He must needs make a boon Voyage that in so little a time is set on the shore of eternity with so few steps is carried from earth to Heaven Let not then any thing startle us though vizarded with loathsomness and deformity nor be terrified though we change life for death with that brave Theban Epaminondas so the Victory may be glorious It is God's care and who would not almost love his Disease for such a Physician many times to use Corrosives to the Body that the Soul may have her Lenitives punish the worser part that the better may be preserved To a mortal man there can be no immortality of evil man himself hath but a short period his life compared to things of the least duration And yet they that acted the most tragical parts no doubt had some Interludes and Recesses It was not long that Joseph lay in prison nor Job on the Dunghil nor Jeremy in the Dungeon Others have put on Mourning for a longer term but they also had a time to shift their Sables Dabit Deus bis quoque sinem 10. It is against the Rules of a Tragedy to have every Scene filled with Blood shed and Slaughter A strange distempered Season if the Heavens should continually be hung with black as strange if we always sate in darkness that the Sun did not sometimes peep through our cloud of Adversity Though it enlighten not the whole Body yet it may guild the Fringes and Borders of it gives us though not a glorious light yet sufficient to keep our dying spark alive But against all partiality it must appear strangely short if compared to the never terminating pains of the Fiends below where the Worm never dieth nor the Fire ever goeth out It is observed by Boetius That a punctum of time and ten thousand years hold better proportion than so many years and that endless thing Eternity Aeternum aeternum quanta haec duratio quanta How much horrour and amazement should the consideration of it bring to them that barter for a present felicity a few transient Glimmerings so much horrour and confusion where they shall spend morientem vitam be always dying and yet never die not one drop of Water shall be cast into the Furnace to slack their Flames not one spark of Fire shall warm these refrigerating Waters and to heighten the wonder contraries shall dwell together without any destructive clashing Lamentable is the cry of the Prophet Esay Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting Burnings 11. Is it not then better to be cast down with sorrow for sin than to be sunk so low that we never rise again to be clouded for a while than over-cast for ever Melior est modica amaritudo in faucibus quà m aeternum tormentum in visceribus It is better
wing'd with Destiny when it choakt Adrian Aristides after he had escaped the furies of men and savager beasts had the thread of his life snagl'd in two by the bite of a Weesel A Gnat or Emmet can as well lay us in the dust as an Elephant 10. An Ear-wig when ransacking the Cells and private chambers of our brain stings us as deadly as a Scorpion A small fish-bone destroyes us as it did once Tarquinius Priscus sooner than a shark or Sword-fish A pin may give Lethale vulnus a fatal wound if sharpn'd with the anger of Heaven as readily as could Ajax speare And this confim'd in the mournful story of Lucia sister to the Emperor Aurelius who innocently sporting with her infant receiv'd a small prick in the breast with her Needle and through that small loop-hole presently death discharg'd it self upon her God out of a little Orifice can give our vitals passage and our souls can as easily sally through Chinks and Crannies of our bodyes as if it had doors and gates to let it forth Add then these casualties from which no one purchases a Patent of exemption to the natural infirmities of our body's which are wounds and bruises and putrified Sores and our foolish propensity of imping those feathers that of themselves are wing'd strong enough to carry us to our long home and we must necessarily conclude our emanation from the prison of the womb to Golgotha the place of execution to be inconsiderable so inconsiderable as to have no continuance 11. Is our time here but of short continuance Then is it high time to trim our lamps Rogus et urna meditanda Set before our dreaming fancies our Pile and Pitcher and every man say to his improvident soul what the Prophet did to King Hezekiah Put thy house in Order for thou shalt surely dye Quamdiù Cras quare non modò finis turpitudinis meae Saith St. August How long will ye resist the holy motions of repentance and cry out to morrow we will purifie our souls with snow-water when before the day cometh they may be drown'd swallow'd up in their own pollutions Let nothing therefore hinder thee to pay thy vowes in due time and not at the vespers of death when thy Malady and busie care to leave a calm and quiet estate to thy hasty successors distract thee in thy accounts to God 12. The womb was our tiring room to put on the habiliments of the flesh The world is our tiring room to deck and apparel our selves with the rich robes of righteousness And we know not how soon the loud Musick of the last Trump will sound us forth to shew to the all discerning eye of Heaven whether we have acted to the life Comoedies of pleasure and sensuality or Tragoedies of sorrow and compunction for sin whether we have chanted wanton layes and amorous ditties or Canticles Hymns and spiritual songs Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum Let us with the Poet conceit every day to be our last and with that Heathen Seneca Efficere mortem sibi familiarem Make death our daily companion so to prepare Ut Moriantur ante nos vitia That our sins give up the Ghost before us For in our last scene they will shift their robes and to our great Consternation all appear drest in their true deformities 13. When this Pursuivant Death hath thus attacht the unregenerate man what hath pride profited him Or what good hath his riches with his vaunting brought him Then if he had the whole world at command he would take up the Devils phrase All this will I give thee to reprieve me but a few days that I might file off my rust burnish my self for Heaven cleer my freckl'd soul of those Morphewes and stains that present her uncomly in the sight of her maker Desine fata deûm flecti sperare precando But alass intreaties avail not any thing ho deprecating fate t is not our importunate whining can alter the decrees of Heaven Think not because when God decreed Hezekiah a present death upon his humble petition he reverst that heavy sentence and commanded the Sun for a sign to go so many degrees back in the Diall of Ahaz therefore that he will do so for us Let us not be deceived by expecting an Injunction from the Chancery of Heaven The Egyptians found it experimentally true that the Goddess of Destiny spared none no not the first born in Pharohs Court therefore they built her no Temple offer'd no Sacrifices to her 14. Non Torquate genus non te facundia non te Restituit pietas It matters not whether we are of the Julian or Claudian family no embellishing of perfections no ornaments of Nature no sanctity of life can priviledge us from the grave for every man hath his appointed time and that a short one and as if that were not enough a miserable one too The Prophets have foretold it the Apostles reveal'd it every day every hours experience confirms to us Man that is born of a woman is but of few days and full of trouble 15. What To be of few days and that full of trouble We should rather have thought that the brevity of mans life had been remunerated with all solace and delight the few steps we tread had been on the fragrant Carpets of roses and violets than instead thereof to find a repletion of sorrow such sorrow as will keep pace with our being though an unbidden guest attend us till we are entombed in our mother Earth 15. Job thought it too hard measure though he let it not go unrepented of sitting in sackcloth and ashes when out of the bitterness of his soul he expostulated with the Almighty Are not my days few Cease then and let me alone that I may take a little comfort This was but a fallacious argument If he had chang'd his note it had been more tunable Are not my sins many Why then is the rod of affliction laid so gently on me Why should the avenger of all things cease from punishing me when I stop not my Career in offending How can I with confidence beg any boon at his hands when I vouchsafe him not a retribution of thanks Our afflictions are no compensations for sins past but sometimes given us as a makebate between us and our indeered amours to divorce us from the gayeties and Utopian felicities of this deceivable world which like the Panther pleases at distance with a perfum'd breath but in their embraces murder us 16. The carefull nurse imbitters her nipples with Worm-wood that the Infant may nauseate the teat and feed on stronger nourishment God deals with his children Antidotes the poyson by sowring the pleasures of this world making our honours and lushious delights pall'd and insipid rubbs off the varnish and shews their deformity that we may no longer be Inamorato 's of them Why then should we wrack and torture our inventions to acquire that which beggers us Build steps and stairs
excressency of Blood for those holy hands that had been so often extended to give comfort to his afflicted people lifted up to his father to reach down mercies from Heaven for his persecuting enemies so Charitably dispos'd to deal Almes to so many Thousands are now fast bound and they who should have guarded him as Prince of Jury not Prisoner in Jerusalem are already voting his destruction in their hasty leading him away to Pontius Pilate the Governor O hard hearted Jewes not only cruel to your Saviour but pittiless to your selves in refusing to be washed in the laver of regeneration spill so much Nepenthe and not cool the tip of your Tongue with one drop make of it no cherishing Cordials to strengthen your enfeebled souls wound this Balsom tree lance this Wing Palm and hang no bottles to gather the distilling liquor but let it fall like a box of rich Spicknard on a parched hearth not to be gather'd up 9. The morning being now come too bright to look upon such black deeds they set the great Judge of Heaven and Earth to receive his Condemnation from men Little hopes to receive the benefit of Clergy when the High Priests and whole Sanhedrim are his Prosecutors Pilate might have sayed the pains of denouncing sentence against him who in his present sufferings represented the truest figure of death O quantum mutatus ab illo Hectore 10. But 't is decreed this Holocaust must be off'red up to attone the incensed Majesty of Heaven Caiaphas the High-Priest prophesieth the same Womens assaults many times batter down mens strongest resolutions Strange then if Pilates wifes Petition carry not a prevailing Sed oportet Christum pati The sentence of Heaven is irrevocable no appealing to a higher Tribunal Her Petition then for this time shall be rejected and though she suffer many things in a dream by reason of him Nevertheless like the neglected Prophesies of the Trojan Cassandra it shall pass but for a dream to cleer a small scruple of Conscience He will not enter the Lists alone with the Jewish Nation and so run into a Premunire against Caesar And now no sooner had Pilate made clean the outside of the Platter the inside still streaked and purpled with the Blood of Christ washed his hands in token of Innocency but they presently cry out for his Crucifying as if nothing could rebate the edge of their craving Appetites unless they carous'd full Draughts of his Blood O miseri quae tanta insania cives 11. They must needs go whom the Devil drives some whose Feet are swiftest to shed Blood are already run to the place of execution and there proclaimed him coming Others thrust him out of the Old and accompany him as far as Golgotha to the New Jerusalem and instead of sable Vestments a decent attire for a departed Friend or the Romans sacred Velles and Infules mention'd by Livy signs of submission and humble demanding of Mercy put on Crimson Robes dyed in the Blood of Christ instead of solemn Dirges ring loud Peals of Acclamation And they that not long before ushered him with Triumph into the Holy City singing Hosanna to the Son of David presently change Note crying Crucifige eum crucifige eum Though he lie weltring in his own Blood yet is he forc'd to try the strength of his bruised Limbs and he that to the admiration of Beholders reanimated the dead and enabled them to take up their Beds and walk must take up his Cross and walk his last Peregrination For Holy Writ informs us that Malefactors among the Jews carried the Cross whereon they were to be crucified to the place of Execution Christ for the first Stage carried his own which afterward with a cruel requital bore him 12. Would not so nefarious a death expiate so small a crime so slenderly proved have fed their meager Appetites even to Satiety but there must be added to it a Ceremonious Mockery Bellerophon like bear the Warrant signed for his own Destruction embrace that Altar on which he presently shall be offered up a Victim Isaac carried his own Funeral Pile to the Mountain where he was to be sacrificed but had a timely Reprieve by an Exchange from Heaven It fared not so with Christ He was so far from escaping that sharp potion the Hand of God had imbittered that before he came to receive his grand Tortures his whole Body was one main Wound without the least Parenthesis of Soundness Never such Indications of Love Cernitur in toto corpore sculptus amor 13. Every where Engravements and Sculptures the indelible Characters of his superabounding Mercies In horribili stat cruce nostra salus And now is this our immolation laid on the Altar of the Cross and that Man should not surfeit to damnation by eating the fruit of Eden Christ climbed that accursed Tree which bears nothing but bitter and deadly Fruit so inexpressive as Cicero undertook not lest he should spill colours to decipher the Tortures of the Cross else would not his exuberant Style have quitted a Subject so abounding with so few words Quid dicam in crucem tollere A bloody Tragedy must needs ensue where the Devil digests the Plot and the High-Priests Scribes and Elders are the chief Actors in it the avenging God letting loose and unmuzzling the whole powers of Hell 14. Certainly those Fiends could not so soon forget the many Affronts put on their Delegates by our Saviour as being thrown out of their possession of Men and glad to be humble Petitioners to have admittance into a Herd of Swine too good a dwelling for such unruly Guests Where we may observe that though they at present could not disgorge their full swollen malice yet to shew how ill they resented this disgraceful expulsion threw a whole Herd of Swine into the bottom of the Sea to provoke the greedy Gadarens to defire our Saviour as the Author of that Loss to depart out of their Coasts No marvel the Prince of Darkness endeavoured to cloud this bright Star of the East proclaimed open War against the Prince of Peace But that his Companions in the flesh what 's more the terrours of his Father should set them in array against him 'T will not then misbecome this man of sorrows in the height of his dolorous passion to break forth into this bitter Complaint to upbraid those unrelenting Passengers with this though too mild exprobation Have ye no regard all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me c. 15. Our Saviour's naked Body hanging now on the Cross modesty for a while bids me draw the Curtain and if you look back you will see greater things than these for we have as yet but walked the round and at a distance taken a slight survey of the out-lines of this great Peice of sorrow but if we make a nearer approach we shall find the inmost and more sensitive parts sending forth deeper
to mount us on the Terrace of a greater misery T is St. Basils Duriorem carcerem praeparamus by enjoying the opulent things of this life we fortifie our prison lay another coat of dirt upon our Souls which hinders the beams of our Creator from irradiating them There is nothing that in our esteem merits the name of good but hath an allay a checquering of sorrow F 1 We know the purest glasses will have their dews their tears hanging on them the brightest felicity its dropping cloud an opacous body of discomfort and pleasures themselves will destroy us before enjoyment if plentifully pour'd out Our souls are so shallow that they will be soon surcharg'd if they come towards us velut agmine facto in too violent a source Pliny reports that Chilon the Philosopher in embracing his Son having a Crown of Laurel bestowed on him at the Olympick games with a surfett of joy presently expir'd So did Marcus Iuventius when the Senate design'd an ample honour for him What pleasure can we expect what trust repose in any thing that is under the Sun Quos faelices Cynthia vidit Vidit miseros abitura dies Miserable Job reads here miserable mans fortune and in the glass of his own infelicity the Devil laying the Scene for his tortures could cleerly see to set us this Elegiack dirge full of misery We have not one appellation in scripture when dissected untwisted by the Rabbins that we find any thing to glory in 2. In Adam we are call'd Red earth which holds complexion with those spurious bratts hatch'd by us our sins they are as red as Scarlet and if the swarthiness of our discolour'd souls gives leave to blush at them then do we keep to our dye too Sometimes we are called Ish but a sound and that properly enough for we come Crying into the world ringing loudest peals of complaints when our voice is inarticulate unexpressive And we may be compar'd to a sound a voice for that is soon sent forth and assoon lost You see then we l ave not our names for nought God will not enoble with a splendid title that which deserves so much embasing 3. Indeed our piesent tribulations are as a thousand witnesses to assert this truth Quocunque aspiciam Quocunque lumina vertan We cannot look upon any thing but what appears with a a clouded face Let us take our rise from our entrance on this stage of life to the shutting up our last Catastrophe and we shall appear Actors in one continued Tragoedy No sooner bolt we out of the womb for we come head-long into the world which shews our giddiness and innate love to it but we find an entertainment so cold that we are fain to warm us with our own tears and our ability so faint so useless to administer relief to our crying necessities that our little Organs are presently sounded to implore a necessary aid our legs too weak to underprop the small burden of our bodyes our hands not strong enough to reach us sustenance and she that landed us in this vale of misery could not keep us from going assoon out of it if the arms of a stranger did not reprieve us from the grave All that time we are led and directed by Tutors and Governors reckon our selves under the rod of persecution differing nothing from a servant though Lord of all 4 And no sooner arrive we to compleat man but emulation boyls within us to such a tumour that we envy and hate those we see move in an higher Orb and think our condition but Heremitical because the seat of our Sovereignty is not built high enough to give us prospect over our Neighbours Under this Torrid Zone of our age in these distempering dog-dayes our desires are so exorbitant affections so disproportionable to the dictates of reason that while wandering through innumerable Labyrinths of care and trouble trusting to the Clue of our own fanatick spinning we lose our selves and seldom attain to that our betraying fancy reach'd at What though we crown our endeavours with a sought for success the felicity of our enjoyment in a just ballance will weigh too light if set against the harrassing of the body and wracking of the spirits in procuring it So that this florid part of our life if compar'd to the other extreams of age appears to you at first with as great a difference as the Sun in its pride to a day of clouds Yet upon a due calculation we have as many Halcyonian dayes under either Polar Star as under the Eccliptick of our youth 5. Having now cut the line sailed through this dangerous passage I shall lead you into a more temperate Climate but there we make no long progression enjoy only some few lucid Intervalls For before we can purifie our blood poyson'd with the sin 's of our youth bring back our straying fancies recompose the distempers of our bodyes settle the Vertigo or giddiness in our brain the Winter Quarter of age approaches disparkling such cold influences that the warmth of our breath hath not vigour enough to thaw the Isicles that hang on those few hairs our many sins could spare us Tum quicquid aetatis retrò est mors tenet Death makes one in this last Scene journeys with us in these latter dayes of our Pilgrimage So that the same may be rehearsed to us though in another sense which St. Paul preach'd to the wanton widdows That we are dead while we live Our tatter'd flesh suppl'd with Salves and Unguents swadl'd and held together with plaisters and trusses like ruinous buildings with Clasps and Cramperns of iron 6 What is it then but labour and sorrow and as the wise-man renders it Days wherein we have no pleasure Though he terms them dayes yet are they overshadowed in which we enjoy but a twy-light the sable Curtain more than half drawn about us our Candle all that while blazing in the socket giving more of ill savour than light So that we are not only a burden to our selves but an offence to others Rarum est faelix idemque senex If we did but curiously scan the distempers incident to each period of our life and what a Symphonie there is in the whole to compleat our sorrow so that though we shift the Scene from our Infant Morn to the Solstice of our age that to our declination 't is rather a malo ad Pejus not to better our condition but present it more disconsolate 7. Good reason have we then being men of like infirmities at this grand Inquest of mans mortality to give in with Job the same verdict though he as our foreman for his experience speaks for us Man that is born of a woman is of few dayes and full of trouble Since a fullness of trouble co-habits with us in these earthly Tabernacles 't is our happiness that our lease is of no longer continuance Seeing here we float upon a Mare Mortuum of misery it may comfort us that we are not
Vinegar mingled with Mirth and Gall was proffered him to drink a favour bestowed on such at their Crucifixion to open the Veins and so accelerate death Christ would not drink lest he should marr the whole Tragedy by failing in the last Scene Good God! if these be the Favours Man deals to Man let me receive my Favours from thine own hands From the first putting on the Swadling Clouts of Flesh he had yielded most acceptable Sacrifices of perfect Obedience to his Father and therefore the horrour of the last three Hours Suffering should not make him sound a cowardly Retreat and so frustrate the Decrees and preordain'd Resolves of the Almighty Perdidit vitam nè perderet obedientiam He would give up his life rather than make forfeiture of his obedience 8. Unless we go beyond nature for a search the fire of the hottest Revenge will expire when it hath the Blood of its Adversary sprinkled on it But their malice rebated not with his death but had a continuation to his Body after his high flying Soul had journied as far as Heaven else would they not have desaced that incomparable piece of Building glorious in it self but more glorious in being the Sphere for this Son of God to move in by thrusting a Spear into his Virgin Side for Blood and Water to stream forth too too precious to be spilt on the Ground of that most accursed Country 9. Timanthes a Grecian Painter when he was to resemble the doleful Sacrifice of Iphigenia drew a sad Ajax a mournful Ulisses but the Face of Agamemnon the Father he veiled with a sable Curtain as not knowing how to decipher so great a sorrow So we may content our selves to have delineated the Bewailings of his Disciples that received the glorious Impress of his Doctrine the inward sighs and bitter Lamentations of his Friends and Kinsfolks But instead of shewing you his wounded soul stabbed with our sins his tortured Body such Throws so unexpressive such pangs so unsufferable something should be interposed betwixt your sight and it lest out of a zeal to draw that to the life we take from the State and Majesty of so true a sorrow 10. As the Fore-runner to the sad Catastrophe of an Heroick Potentate a blazing Comet prodigiously shakes his flaming Beard as if it threatned to fire the lower Region to light him at his Funeral But at so great and terrible a Massacre of him who could bind such Kings in Chains and their Nobles with Links of Iron could the Sun that shone but at his courtesie do less than withdraw his Beams lest it hold the Candle whilst such horrid Assassination was perpetrated on the Son of God Or the Earth his Foot-stool to fall into a Trepidation while it bore such unnatural Inhabitants that Viper like would tear out the Bowels of him who brought Bowels of Mercy and Compassion to their languishing and Bed-ridden Souls Since Christ should be no more preached in the Temple but polluted with Buyers and Sellers rent it self in twain from the top to the bottom the Stones clave asunder and in their inarticulate Oratory bespake their accursed ruine and our insensibility The Allarm so great that the dead who had long slept awaked as if they arose to present him their Tombs Every thing full of prodigy and wonder The great Luminary of Heaven suffers an Eclipse though the Moon not then in conjunction but full to the admiration of Dionysius Aut Deus naturae patitur aut mindi machina dissolvetur All things in that disorder as if nature were distracted and every thing ran back to its first Confusion 11. Thus we see Sun Earth Temple Stones which are the insensible servants of Man by their several unaccustomed Mutations seem to have a quicker resentment of his sufferings than man who alone is concerned without any Corrival By this time devout Joseph hath begged the Body of Jesus and though a rich man ventured to shew his affecion to him living in a decent interment of him dead While his charitable hands are throwing on fragrant Spices and rich scented Odours let us a little look back on that great Attribute of God his Justice that which here occasion'd our attendance on this sad and solemn Obsequy 12. Those Pieces must needs be well limn'd that have the hand and care of the best Artist to figure them Adam is here drawn to the life for he is stiled the Image of his Maker his Soul of no Elementary Substance but the Breath of God And this Epitome of the Creation prelated so high above exacts he but an observance to one single command the Command high and peremptory upon the pains of Death the temptation languid and saint commended by a Serpent 13. That he that is thought to exceed his Successors in wisdom and had the precipitation of the Angels the wrackings of those glorious Vessels as in a mirrour figured to his understanding should by so soon affronting his Maker split that Ark that carried the whole fortune of Mankind and afterwards give the lye to his Omnisciency and essential Ubiquity by shrowding himself in the close Walks of the Garden as it God wanted a Clue to the Maeanders of his own planting or one Tree could repair what the other lost shelter him from the imminent Storms of Heaven or that there were an Opacity in those Glorious Opticks who could see through the dark and disordered Chaos to model and rank things into a beautiful Order and in his Epostulation aggravate this sin by a seeming extenuation The woman whom thou gavest to be with we she gave me of the tree and I did eat As if God had laid the Scene for his Transgression If I had been alone steered my own course I had not thus offended Strengthens this Bill of Indictment drawn up against him and calls for justice to avenge it O Lord how shall we fulfil the whole Law when Adam in his brightest integrity but newly dropt from the hand of his Maker could not observe this poor Particle of it The Spark that flies the Fire that fed it shall be put out If we refuse the allowed Delicacies of Paradise nauseate the Cates of his own planting we shall earn our Bread with the Sweat of our Brows Since we dislike to equal the days of Heaven we shall die like Men die eternal deaths if not expiated by the Crucifixion of the Holy Jesus 14. As our Impieties are transcendent so will his justice be elevated to the same height Our Sacrifices must be adequate to the multiplicity of our Transgressions Could man by exposing his own life to the fatal stroke of death satisfie for his own offences his debt were quickly paid and Heaven with all its Glories purchased at an easie rate But the only wise God well knew that the whole world of flesh though it had as many worlds as this hath Men and all to endure the exquisitest deaths the most ingenious Tormenters could inflict would not take off the
best how to deal with his Patient Emollient Medicines will not remove a Chronical Disease 'T is well if we can save the Body by cutting off one gangreen'd Joynt by letting out a little discolored Blood preserve the rest sanguine sound Sure those Laws of the Romans like Draco's should have been writ in bloody Characters where they invested the Parents with the power of life and death of their Wives and Children Fulvius had not the denomination of cruel in doing execution upon his Son for confederating with Catiline And Titus Manlius was thought rather favourable than a severe Justicer when he went no higher than to make his Son Syllanus a perpetual exile 3. This rigorous piece of Justic and unbiassed affection built Trophies to their name but no way improved the condition of the Patient for it was Physick of a strange nature a sublimate never ripened in Loves Limbeck Our Heavenly Father that fashioned us may impose what Laws his divine wisdom thinketh best but if he wounds his Servants 't is to heal them if he takes away a temporary life 't is to hasten them to an eternal one Magni beneficii est indicium When God seems to disfavour us then are we in highest favour and we make the nearest approaches to him when in the eyes of the world we seem to be at the greatest distance Holy David acknowledged a Cure done upon him by an Heavenly Chastisement It was good for me that I was afflicted The Prison was the best School for Manasses for in that solitude he could have no Divertisement but leisure wholly to contemplate his great Deliverer and figure to himself Ideas of a more Glorious Kingdom Vexatio dabit intellectumi Punishment is Sins Looking-glass there it beholds its ugliness and deformity the Stains and Morphews which make the Soul look squalid 4. When Absolom was under a Cloud and putting his Designment of a Rebellion into the Forge to amass a greater strength he sent an invitation to Joab to embark in the same design but Joab whether in detestation of such unnaturalness or unwilling to hoise Sail till he saw to which point of the Compass the Wind would settle rejected the Summons Absolom sends again and again and still Joab refuses but when he gave command to burn his Corn-Fields and ravage all that Neighbourhood to him he made no dispute but came apace So in our prosperity we draw a partition betwixt God and us will not cloud our thoughts with the contemplation of Judgment and another World let his invitations be never so luscious presented by Prophets Saints and Angels but when he lays waste our Possessions dismantles our Dwellings throws us upon the Dunghil then we look with averseness on out sins the evil Spirits that raised this Tempestâ— then do our visive Beams pierce through Heaven it self and in this foul Weather seek to cast Anchorage in the Arms of our Saviour 5. The Philosopher observes that if we will see the Stars and highest part of the Sphere at Mid-day we must descend to some Cavern or low place in the Earth where we are freest from the light and coruscations of the Horizon we live in So we must be removed from the glaring lustre of the World before we can truly discern Heaven and the radiancy of its Glory The Figure and Global part of the Sun is clearer discerned in a Dish of Water than in his Fiery Chariot The Astronomers best posture is to lie prostrate on the Ground When we are thrown on our Back humbled and brought low then we best behold God's Immensity and our own impotency The Earth that hath endured the Summers Heat and Winters cold cut with the Plow and crumbled with the Harrow is best cultivated to receive her Seed and make a grateful return to her Benefactor Some Fruits are best fermented with nipping Cold and biting Frosts Our stony Hearts are soonest ripened and mellowed by affliction After we have been thrust into the Forge of Persecution we are then malleable easiest to be hammered out God sets his stamp coins us for Glory when melted in the Crusible of Adversity Prosperity like the Sun doth too much harden us Thunder scatters and disparkles ill boding exhalations cleers the Air of all pestilent and malevolent humours God thunders by affliction breaks the racks of sin and scatters those foul Meteors that are engendring in the regions of our Souls Spikenard precious Ointment and sweet Waters savours more that the hand scatters and throws about than when sealed up in their Inclosures of Crystal Spices for pounding and bruising send forth exhalations more redolent How Sun-burnt what Aethiops appear we when blacked with sin But as soon as God hath burnished and like the Diamond cut and pointed us we appear like the King's Daughter all glorious Affliction is the Mercury Water that clears our sallow complexion the best Beauty Spot we can put on 7. Elkanah said to the Mother of Samuel Am not I better to thee than ten sons So it may be said is not affliction better than a thousand pleasures Here every vanity doth way-lay us as Jael did Sisera Turn thou in my Lord till it smite us through the Temples If we saw but this foul Body dissected it would appear like a Mandrake Apple comly to the eye but poisonous in taste or like the glorious Tombs of our Ancestors that enshrine nothing but dirt and putrefaction 'T is not all Comical we act the Scene will presently change like Jonas's Gourd it springs up to day and canopies us from the Sun's intrusions but anon an envious worm withers it Pleasure was never so absolutely enjoyed but that it had some Gall some Worm wood thrown into the Cup. The smoothest face cannot laugh without contracting Wrinkles and the extremity of it bedews our Cheeks with Tears Like a Rainbow it hath half Sun and half Cloud Like a Meteor it gives a glaring light but portends mischief fits us for Plagues and Pestilencies If they were really good and profitable they would improve those that enjoy them but the contrary effect is most apparent 8. When Nebuchadnezzar stalked on the Roof of his stately Palace and there beheld the Majesty of Babylon did he not then begin to wax proud and vaunt the Workmanship of his own Hands Is not this great Babel which I have built But when God had humbled him with Chastisement plumed his Eagle Wings then could he pierce through those Clouds and Vizards that inveloped his understanding see more of his Maker from that lowness of Fortune than when he towered on the Pinnacle of all his Glories When David had his Beams displayed in a Royal Horizon sitting on the House top soon pryed into the Retirements of Uriah's Garden and there fed his eyes with the unlawful love of Bathsheba but when Nathan the Prophet had trumpeted God's Judgments and with a black Pencil drawn a Scheme of his succeeding miseries it soon fetched him down from that height and made him
Meridian of Glory These Suns shall never exhale an ungrateful Cloud to obscure them never be an interposition to eclypse each others light their joys shall not be levened with the least sorrow That clear Sky shall not contract the least spot and which is more time shall never wrinkle them 6. 'T is a conceit of the Poets that in Elysium their Goblets were always full of Nectar and Ambrosia and as they still drank their Cups were replenished to an over-flowing The Saints have better assurance for the Permanency of their Paradisian Bliss Mutabimur in immutabilitatem We shall be changed into an unchangeableness Our Crowns shall continue the same splendor our Robes the same Lillied Purity our Palms the same Verdure and Fragrancy Here we are in a continued fluxibility have Springs and Palls Summers and Winters Droughts and Inundations But in our final Estate there is neither Efforescentia nec canescentia no ebbing or flowing no extinguishing of that Vestal Fire no falling of that Golden Leaf of endless Glory Because our time is here short we cut it into shreds reckon by Minutes Hours and Days But when we have once cast Anchor in the Ocean of Eternity non est heri nec hesternum there shall be no distinction of Days no reckoning Lustres or Olympiads but have one perpetual Pentecost a never ending Jubilee 7. The Arithmeticians are so bold as to tell you they can set down how many Corns of Dust make up the Globe of the Earth They will go a strain beyond that and say they can give a number to as many Grains as shall fill the spacious Concavity betwixt this and the Firmament The Mathematicians take the height and dimension of the remotest Planet put a Girdle about the Heaven it self The Philosophers will tell you of what stuff the Stars and Spheres are made It would not only pose Archimedes but baffle the Angels themselves to draw imaginary Lines about the highest Heaven summ up the Calends of Eternity 8. Here you have a Picture with a Janus Face on the one side the Features shadowed with a black Coal a blubber'd Face dishelved Hairs but he that makes a curious inspection shall find though black yet she 's comly discover a life in that sorrow beauty in that carelesness On the other side there are only some few Lines drawn to shew that something more excellent should there be shadowed Zeuxis being hopeless of pourtraicting a comly Venus limn'd only the back parts leaving the rest to fancy and imagination At best we can draw but in Water-colours those incomprehensible Glories For if Paul a Star of the first Magnitude after he had been caught up into Heaven and viewed the splendid Equipage of that place confessed that he saw things unexpressible and heard things unutterable 't is not for Dust and Ashes to bedribble with a rude Pencil such superexcellent perfections But so much satisfaction we find as to discern a strange disparity betwixt the service and the reward affliction and Glory the one so light and momentany the other so weighty and eâ—â—â—nal that it is but as a dust in the Ballance an Atom to the Earth a drop to the Ocean the one a punctum the other admits not any Philosophical Commensurations 9. Let us then like wise Merchants lay out for that rich Pearl of eternal life There are saith the Prophet that buy much with a little For taking up the Cross of Christ enduring a few temporary outrages we shall sit with him on his Throne arrayed with a blaunched Vesture For if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him Jacob served his Uncle Laban seven years for Rachel and they seemed but as a few days for the love he bare to her If we desire the Espousals of Eternity we must cheerfully undergo a few Medicinal Corrections feed upon Husks since it brings us to the fatted Calf It was an earnest of a strange affection in Agrippina Occidar modò imperet I care not how they dispose of me so that Nero reigns But holy Job looked for a better return of his Imbitterments when he took up that stout resolve Though the Lord should kill me yet will I trusl in him And likewise S. Austin Domine hîc ure hî seca ut in posterum sanes 10. It matters not how soon we get upon this pale Horse since he transmits us into Abraham's Bosom though he sears us with an hot Iron heated in Nebuchadnezzar's Furnace so he marks us for his how soon he imbalms and conduits the Body in the Grave so he serve it up for a refection at the Supper of the Lamb. If he unskrew the Wheels and Gimmers of this Building 't is to give it like a foul Watch a new scowring Though he cut down the Trunck yet care shall be taken of the Root We may dispense with a transplantation when he gathers us from Briars and Brambles plucks us out of a barren soil to set us in a more fertile Land Though our Flower sheds his Beauties hangs down the Head and dies yet the Seed shall still be preserved like China Earth such stay in the Grave shall beget a transparency Though he undress the Soul throw the Body into the Valley of dry Bones and there lodge it for thousands of years yet they shall appear Tanquam somnus unius horae but as the sleep of one hour And though sent to that slate of Dormition such names as have not defiled their Garments shall be registred in his Ephemerides in such indeleble Characters as no Index expurgatorius shall ever blot out and in his good time he will visit the Sepulchres Coemeteries of those dead recal the Souls from their Widdow-hood put unctuous matter into every dry Bone cloath them with Sinews and Flesh and spread such a Covering of Skin upon them as Moses's Face when illustrated would appear but as a darkening Veil and all to meet our Redeemer in the Clouds that he may in this lovely Dress usher us to unspeakable Glories to Heaven the Haven of our endless Rest and Happiness FINIS Books Printed for and sold by William Leach at the Crown in Cornhil near the Stocks-Market THe Sphere of Gentry deduced from the Principles of Nature an Historical and Genealogical Work of Arms and Blazon By Sylvanus Morgan Folio price one pound five shillings Scepsis Scientifica or confessed Ignorance the way to Science c. 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