nothing but beauty brightnesse purity and perfection in them God is not only glorious in Majesty but glorious in holinesse Exod. 15.11 his grace equall to his infinitnesse and his sanctity to his eternity Man may every day be made a Divell yea for his best actions judged to Hell But shall these seek for a Malignant in Heaven or call God Delinquent If frail man who hath in him as much errour as truth as much disobedience as duty and as much guilt as grace can have approbation in his actions shall not Gods works be justified If man can go for an Agent who is so steined shall not God who is such a pure Agent Hadst thou and should not I Application Quid profuit altuâ— Erexisse caput Claud. Audux Japeti genus Horace 1. This serves first to shew that there is one above man to be thought on Man I confesse doth look high but to what end doth he lift up his aspiring head No this daring generation must be tamed for let man be never so great yet he hath his Superior let him plead all his rights yet here is one which doth out-priviledge him for hadst thou and should not I On then that we hear none but mans name and look no higher then mans face that we burrough below and dwell at the sign of the naked man That man which doth come out of the slime-heap is but a potfull of ashes a bottle of dreggs a patched garment of old Adams tatters whose breath is in his nostrills and his daies but a span long which doth walk upon the same miery Earth and refresh his lungs with the same moist air with us who hath not a mouth wider nor teeth sharper then our selves which cannot fast in the day nor see in the night no more then we which wil faint as quickly weep as soon as we which hath as much want of rayment and need of Physitians as we which is soaked with Tempests and frighted with Thunder as well as we which doth feed with us tire with us sleep with us and will ere long be taken off from his leggs lye upon a death-couch be carried out by Bearers and consume to grave-gelly as well as we and yet for a few gay clothes gorgeous building large rentalls masterly looks and menacing threats we do yield all the honour and terrour to man as if we need not look beyond his shoulders or the top of his Bever Oh how is the world Potentate-strooke Grandee-inchanted we are only waiting at mans heels listning to the thunderclaps of his lips fearing his cold irons and strangling gibbets But hath not man his equall Merlto tumet Sabellus Mâ—rtial l. 1. Stripis Archillea faslus Virgil. 3. Aen. yes though man do swell upon the thought of his high deserts and great is the haugh tinesse of this Achillean race yet man doth but stand upon the lower ground he is but an Inferior for wipe thine eies chafe thy temples expostulate with reason awaken conscience and see if man be the object to whom all thy regard and reverence ought to be limited No if thou canst lift up thine eyelids pry into the Heavens and behold afar off that great Tribunal where thy last account must passe thou wilt say thou hast mistaken thy aw misplaced thy dread For let there be never such Tremebundoes below yet this Earth hath not the face of authority which thou oughtest to stoop unto No there is One higher then the highest It is a dangerous thing to fall under mans displeasure but It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the everliving God What are mans fetters to Gods chaines of darknesse mans Executioners to infernall Fiends mans vengeance-corners to Gods tormenting Tophet Fear not them then that can kil the body and cango no further but fear him that can cast both body and Soul into Hell fire Let summoning and sentencing man go and tremble thou at the judging and cursing God Here six thine eye and fasten in thy conscience the Doomsday-nail For what is man to God No God will not endure Man to be his Competitour or Compeere he doth plead here a Superiority above man for hadst thou and should not I But alas what is all this but losse of breath but charming in the ears of deaf Adders dead Pulpit-haunters we may preach our selves speechlesse and our Auditors breathlesse before we shall sermon-up Gods preheminence Where is that effectuall Teacher spirit-lipped Lecturer that hath gotten God the precedency and preferment above man And yet is not this generally known is it not the cry in every Congregation the reverberation of the very walls of the Sanctuary the noise in every ear the principle in every conscience do not wise men hear it and fools understand it do not old men learn it and children confesse it as their known lesson doth not commen reason instruct us that if God be great the greater the greatest he should be made Superiour Supreme if man must have his due must not God have his right Hadst thou and should not I yes else never think of God or speak of God or avouch a God if man must be the Such the Non-such How can we walk with God if we do not consider his power or acquaint ourselves with our God if we be strangers to his perfections or stir up our selves to take hold of our God if we have no feeling of his greatnesse What a Creature is man amongst his fellow-Creatures For oh that dumb nature doth magnifie God and that we are silent in his praises that the Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy work that one day telleth another and one night certifieth another that there is neither speech nor language where their voice is not heard that their line is gone forth throughout all the Earth and their words unto the end of the World yea that Tigers and Unicorns Stones and Rocks Fields and Wildernesses Fire and Hail Snow and Vapours Storms and Tempests Mountains and all Hills Fruitfull Trees and all Cedars creeping things and feathered fowls do in their kind set out God in his excellencies and yet that the fool hath said in his heart there is no God and he that is a little wiser than he even the reasoning Formalist hath not God in all his thoughts that he is not made a Superiour nor used like a God for he hath not an eye to look upon him nor an heart to reach up high enough to him no he is far above out of his sight That people in generall do not think of God out of devotion but conviction not out of pure honour but amazing horrour Oh to such a contemning people who would ever be a Superiour to such an undevout people who would ever be a God Here is a strange Creed and a worse Catechism Is not every Temple a scandall and every Pulpit an infamy to such livers Deserve they Scripturcs or Sacraments the
of the penitent the extasie of the reconciled the Saints Hosannah the Angels Hallelujah By this Noah swam in the Ark Moses was taken out of the Bul-rushes Jonas lived in the belly of the Whale the three Children walked in the fiery furnance Elias was taken up in a fiery Chariot Ordinances Oracles Altars Pulpits the gates of the Grave the gates of Heaven do all depend upon mercy It is the Load-star of the wandring the ransome of Captives the antidote of the tempted the prophet of the living and the ghostly father of the dying there would not be one regenerate Saint upon earth nor one glorified Saint in heaven were it not for mercy Therefore Jonas wouldst thou pluck out mine eye teare out my bowels thou art a man and thou shouldest be mercifull but I am a God and should not I be mercifull Yes if thou continuest the spighting Prophet I must be the sparing God Should not I spare Yes God will be mercifull for his own nature for the nature of mercy and for the nature of men 1. For his owne nature and that because first it is most proper to him for is it not inherent to him Yes the mountains shall depart and the hills shall be removed but my kindnesse shall not depart from thee neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee Isai 54.10 Thou O Lord art a God full of compassion and gracious long-suffering and plenteous in mercy Formaliter de nominans ipsum Aq. Psal 86.15 Yea he is usually called in Scripture Miserator misericors The mercifull and gracious God Mercy being so in God that it is constitutive and formally denominating Him yea he doth not desire to be known so much by his omnipotency majesty or eternity as by his mercy This then as it is most expected from God so it will be most expressed by God because it is most proper to him 2. Secondly It is most honourable to him for is God so exalted in anything as in shewing of mercy no his works of power are nothing like to his workes of mercy the pardoning of one sin and the saving of one soule is more then the framing of the Universe Aug. and the creating of Angels God is to be glorified in mercy Rom. 15.9 a whole quire of Angels sung an Hymn to the honour of mercy therefore except a man would leave the Church without a Chauntry or silence all the praises in heaven God must have liberty to expresse mercy for it is to him the thing most honourable 3. Thirdly It is to him the thing most uniting for what doth draw and gather the multitudes to God but mercy There is mercy with thee therefore shalt thou be feard Psal 130.4 We are astonished at his glory we dread his power we flee from his justice but his mercy doth knit us to him Who would bâ— afraid of a compassionate God No the stretching out of this golden Scepter doth make us approach to him with confidence Deus est appetibilis propter bonitatem Aq. other things might separate us from God but God is appetible in respect of his goodnesse and kindness and favour and mercy Therefore that God might call in Believers and have his Courts througed with professors he doth exhibit mercy because he doth find it is the thing most uniting 2. He is mercifull for the nature of mercy For what is mercy but an efflux of a sweet disposition Condecentia bonitatis Contristants affectus ablatio mali debitae poenae remissio a sympathizing affection a remedying vertue a remitting vertue a prompt vertue which doth but expect a call and it doth present it selfe for he will be gratious unto thee at the voyce of thy cry Isai 30.19 Which doth imbrace when it might strike accept when it might abhor crown when it might crucifie which cannot contemn teares reject the prostrate nor give a repulse to the suppliant which is continually lighting up of Candles that sinners might see their errors and melting of consciences that converts might be new stamped bringing blood out of the wounds of a Redeemer â—â—at not a Captive might be left in prison it would draw men to be frighted with the pit to leap out of hell and to seale heaven Therefore God doth seem to be ravished with the beauty of this divine grace and would shew mercy even for the nature of mercy 3. He is mercifull for the nature of man For what is man in himself but one shut up in Caitiffes hole yes not only in durance under lock and key but ready to perish in the dungeon that cannot pay his Goal-fees much lesse hath money enough to buy his pardon no if God would offer him mercy yet he must not condition with him upon the easiest terms for he hath not an earnest penny to bind the bargain Breve est parvum est minus est Chrys whatsoever he can tender he is ashamed to have it mentioned it is short of the account small in respect of what is demanded yea lesse then the lowest proposition which can be made I am lesse than the least of thy mercies Gen. 32.10 If less than the least then how shall he deposite for the greatest Now how shall this necessitous creature be relieved The bitings of want are sharp and bitter Gravissimi sunt morsus necessitatis Salust At this exigent man is not wholly helplesse though he hath no succour at home yet he he hath a friend abroad Here is an object for pitty a place for divine compassion he cannot depend upon his owne meanes yet he hath something to relie on he shall be relieved out of the Exchequer If he can but cry at the grate there is a listning eare which doth hearken to him God doth expect such a suiter and is ready to satisfie his requests If he can but apprehend wants he hath felt his last of them For wherefore am I rich saith God but to supply the indigent Wherefore have I bounty but to make it a common treasury for the distressed Shall this man then perish No the mercifull God will preserve him He doth see his miseries he doth heare his plaints it is enough that he doth confesse that he doth stand in need of God and doth fly to him for redress he shal not be left without ayd yea there shal be commiseration because there is extremity God will be mercifull because of the nature of man Thus then ye see how Gods inclination is for mercy and the reasons for it how then is Jonah in a distraction he is too bold to inculcate upon the ruining point as if he would put indignation into Gods eye vengeance into his brest swords spears thunderbolts balls of wildsire into his hand Can God consent to such a furious Prophet no saith God neither mine own nature nor the nature of mercy nor the nature of man will suffer me to subscribe to thee therefore
brest lying in the Cradle standing upon thy feet growing up to ripe years and performing the manlike acts of a Penitent He can repeat to thee thy checks thy conflicts thy groans thy protestations thy supplications thy fruitfulnesse thy fervency thy watchfulnesse Oh then if God hath all things under his eye how can repentance be rejected or despised no depend upon thy repentance trust and rest upon it jeopard a soul and venture heaven upon it think thy state is secure thy bliss infallible for God will examine thy repentance to find out all the assurances for thy justification as in his plea for Nineveh he doth urge all the arguments and ratifications for the sparing of it as that it was a City a great City and That great City Should not I spare Nineveh that great City Seventhly This doth shew That no earthly eminency is certaine for God once spared Nineveh that great City but now that great City is wasted Nineveh nunc tota est vastata Hayt de Tartaris l. 12. Funditùs periit Pappus in 3. Jon. Centum annis ad concionem Jonae actâ paenitentiâ paenam sibi denuntiatam evadebat Verum cùm felici rerumsuccessu elata ad vomitum rediret excusso timore Dei Dominum tandem usciscentem experta est Pappus in a Nahum Carthw Hist some say that Mosul is built out of the ruines of it as Tunis is said to be built out of the ruines of Carthage howsoever the old Nineveh is demolished Haiton saith it is wholly decayed Pappus saith it is utterly perished for he saith Repentance at the preaching of Jonah saved it for an hundred years but afterwards being puffed up with happy successe it felt an avenging God Carthwright which lately travelled into those parts saith That he saw but some pieces and broken walls remaining of it and that Almutsal or as we call it Mosul was built upon the same place where it once stood The most judicious Writers hold that after Arbaces had taken it from Sardanapalus it did continue under the Medes in some flourishing condition till the time of Cyaxares the son of Phraartes who began to destroy it and Astyages his son levelled it with the ground O then what stability is there in any earthly greatnesse That great City hath had both her Obit and her Funerall yea there is scarce an urne remaining where we may find her ashes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Tomb-stone upon which we might write her Epitaph What pleasure then in smelling of these Nosegayes or looking with delight upon the brightnesse of these falling stars Why dost put water into a riven vessel That nothing was seen scarce remaining of it Cyril Alex. in Nahum M. Gregory in his description of the Assyrian Monarchy saith That if Ninus which built Nineveh were now alive he should find the City to be so fallen into mine that he would not know it to be Nineveh Cur perforato aquam dolio ingeris Chrys Hom. 77. in Matth. Alba ligustra cadunt Virg. Ecce mundus qui diligitur sugit Greg. this world is crackt and split and can hold nothing in it long the whitest stowers welk and drop It is much we can enter into league or vow familiarity to such a mutable friend Behold the world which is loved doth flee away We do but warme our selves at a blaze borrow our light from a melting Candle travail with a fugitive guides these Musks will lose their sent this juicy meat will turn into dung this keeper of our treasure will prove a Thiefe our best buildings here stand upon a weak pinning our richest Garments are stitched up with a rotten thred our strongest-ships are subject to Leakes how soon will these mists be exhaled these bright days be obscured with dark night these pleasant Comedies be acted out Oh that our hearts could trample upon this earth as well as our feet do that our consciences could renounce the world as well as our profession doth that we could wear St Pauls Crucifix about our necks I am crucified to the world and the world to me How many great families have we seen decay how many great Cities have we found laid in the dust Baldnesse is come upon Gazah Jer. 47.5 How is Sheshach taken the praise of the whole earth Jer. 51.41 What City like to Tyrus yet she destroyed in the midst of the flood Ezech 28.8 Babylon the glory of Kingdoms the beauty of the Chaldees excellency yet she that cryed a Lady sure for ever is now but a poor Madam The hammer of the whole earth is cut asunder and broken Ier. 50.23 Yea Nineveh that was the Crown Imperiall of the whole world hath now lost her Diadem That great City hath not one of her thousand five hundred Towers or one of her splendid Palaces to be seen Oh then why are ye enamoured upon your beautifull Empress do ye dwell here in the inchanted City are ye out of the dint of vengeance do ye feare no judgements what should make you so confident Nineveh's circuit was more large her walls more strong her streets more populous her treasures more abundant and her dominion more ample then yours then may not ye drop as well as Nineveh is fallen Are your sinnes lesse No ye have four sinnes within your walls and yet I will except fraud pride partiality and bribery that shall justifie Neneveh from being the more guilty sinner Four sinnes What are they I know ye are good at asking of questions and apter to sciscitate than to eliminate therfore becaus I have often heard you told of these things and yet I could never see you blush at these things but rather rage not softned with ministeriall zeal but rather hardened therefore I shall not speak where the Lord hath commanded to keep silence Amos 5.13 nor throw abroad his Pearls but where he hath directed me to cast them nor impart his holy things but where he hath enjoyned me to give them Mat. 7.6 If ye command the Prophets saying prophesie not Amos 2.12 and the times be come about that no man must strive nor reprove another for the people are as they which strive with their Priest Hos 4.4 Then why should we reiterate that which we have had preached upon the house-top and made plain upon Tables for fear therefore I should be charged to bring in railing accusation I shall-say onely as Michael did when he contended with the Devill about the body of Moses The Lord rebuke thee But these sins are such that if ye had walls of brass and guards of Anakims they will make every beam of your-houses and every stone in your buildings cry out confusion to you Ye have nothing but conversion to preserve you and I doubt whether ever I shall see Ninevehs repentance amongst you Oh that the Jonah were born that could cry effectually in your streets oh that the Auditors were yet so prepared that they could listen to a message from heaven with Ninevehs ears oh
souldier and he said he desired every way to have been honoured as much for saying Amasia as Sylla was for saving of Athens Thus ye see how a generall misery hath drawn commiseration from all generous spirits and indeed there is no greater act of noblenesse then to detest to be Author of a publique calamity Oh that the insinuation of one Jonah should be more powerfull to incite to mischief then the exigents of sixscore thousand should be to incline to pitty It was the solemn Petition of Moses unto God that he would not kil al the people as one man Numb 14.15 Mercilesse then are their eyes and savage are their bowells which can ruine multitudes It was forbidden by the Law to destroy the whole Nest Deut. 22.6 A few eares might be plucked by the high way side but the sickle must not be put into the standing Corn. Deut. 23.25 Wasts and spoiles are sad spectacles and weeping triumphs Oh therefore let the face of a generality aw you be amated at horrid attempts wherein multitudes are concerned tremble at Massacres Let the sixscore thousand be ever dear in your eyes for God ye see doth look upon Nineveh with pitty even for their Numbers Should not I spare Nineveh that great City wherein are sixscore thousand More 5. Now let us come to the Surplus More More then sixscore thousand From hence observe that God is exact in accompting He calleth all the stars by their names and as Job saith he can reckon up all the springs of the Sea Job 38.16 the hairs of our head are numbred by him yea what is there that he is ignorant of Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand or meteed out the Heavens with a span or comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure or weighed the Mountains in scales or the hills in a balame Esai 40.12 Cannot he tell every drop of water as well as hold the Rivers and Seas in his fist Cannot hee name the extent of the Heavens as well as mete out the Heavens with a spanne cannot hee reckon up all the sands in the world as well as hee hath told them out all dust by dust cannot he expresse the true poise of hills and mountains to a dram and scruple as well as he hath weighed them in scales and ballances Yes though we read of Joseph that He gathered Corn in abundance and left off numbring because it could not be numbred Gen. 41.49 and that there were sacrifices that could not be told or numbred for multitude 1 Kings 8.5 and of times which do contain days without number Jer. 2.32 yet are not all these things perspicuously discerned by God Almighty yes what object is there which can be hidden from his all seeing eye what can surpasse the comprehension of him who is infinite Touching the Almighty we cannot sind him out Job 37 23. He is styled the God of Knowledge 1 Sam. 2.3 Though we cannot sind out Him he can find out us all things about us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Totus oculus Aug. Cognoscit res in causis in seipsis in seipso Aquin. Aug. l. 83. q. q. q. â—6 Res sunt in nobis consusè in Deo distinctè Vasquez Deus intelligendo essentiam Suî intelligit omnes perfections quidditates creabiles Capreol in 1. Sent. distinct 30. a. 1. or concerning us though we be a people of ignorance yet he is a God of knowledge yea Oh the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God Rom. 11.33 Is there such light to be found in the Sun it self no His eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the Sun He is all Eye that is he is perfest in knowledge Job 37.16 He doth know things in their causes in themselves in himself For all things are in God objectively He beholdeth nothing out of himself Things are in us confusedly but in him distinctly yea in us terminatively but in him diffusively and without limitation as Navarret God understanding his own essence with understand all the perjections and quiddities of the Creature Yea Gods being bath in it all the other manners of being eminently There is in God not only apprehendens habitudo an apprehending hal nude but plenitudo in simta qua omnia continet an insinite plenitude by which he doth containe all things as Navarret Originally all things are in the divine essence formally in Gods practical knowledge as the same writer saith Esse divinum sinnes essendi modos enimenter praehabet Aqui. Navarret de Idâ—is Ad cognoscendas creaturas non habet Deus aliquod movens objectum praeter divinam essentiam Nav. de Idaeis God doth not need any intellectuall habits or species to represent things to him for his understanding is so compleat that it is perfected without faculties or exhibiting shadows or patterns Navarret saith That it is an unquestionable ground in Divinity that for God to understand the Creatures he doth need no other moving object but the divine essence Things may be sometimes in us potentially in him alwaies actually in us fallibly in him infallibly Howsoever we do know things by a successive and not by an instantaneous or simultaneous action yet he doth know all things at all times without all meanes and without all measure He knew all the righteous persons that were fit to enter into the Ark he knew all them which did not bow their knees to Baal he knew all the thousands and the surplus of them which were in Nineveh that there were sixscore thousand and more Should not I spare Nineveh that great City wherein are more then sixscore thousand Application First This serves to exhort you to a confident dependance upon God in all extremities For he which did know every particular creature in so great a City Ne gutta pluviae ècilo cadat nisi Dei nutu Valvin in 2. Joel doth he not know every particular accident which doth happen unto us Yes not a drop of rain can sall from heaven upon our heads but by his appointment and with his privity We are in the bosom of God we are in the eye of God he hath a Prospective-glasse by which he doth looke from Heaven to Earth he doth open a as Cement through which he doth see all the agitations that are in the world he needeth no Intelligencer for he is Inspector himselfe He as upon the top of the hill beholdeth all things which are done in the valley he hath Candle light continually in his house and therefore nothing can be acted in darknesse before him he walketh in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks therfore he knoweth the state of every particular Church Illad quod in tempore novum non esse novum apud cum qui condidit tempora Aug ep 5. ad Marcel l 2. That which seemeth new in time is not new with him which created all times Oh then that I hear a sheep bleating as if there were no shepherd to look
was efficacious and acceptable Oh ye Citisens then gather together and see how many Penitents there are amongst you or let the Penitents stand apart and mark what qualifications they have They Penitents are the best Citisens and the best Penitents are the true Ninevites If there be a number amongst you which have Nineveh's art they may have Nineveh's successe they may bury all fears in the ash-heap and shift off all miseries in the sackcloth they may fast away all perills and pray away all judgments God will not turn upon the City with fury if these turn from their evill waies nor stretch out his avenging hand if these forsake the violence of their hands Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce wrath that we perish not These Penitents may send word to heaven that God may forbear smiting for they have smitten themselves with repentance they may convey newes to all their enemies upon earth that they may stay at home for Repentance hath reared them up Walls higher than the clouds which no scaling Ladders can reach and mounted Ordinance for them upon their Towers and Fortresses which will shoot Assaylants to death further then the Spires of their Steeples can be seen yea dispatch away messengers to all plagues and judgments that they are not to come nigh to the City for Repentance hath gotten a Warrant of Remove to carry them out of the Land and to convey them beyond the Seas Do ye thus repent and ye are as safe as Nineveh God will be your Pleader and against all your Adversaries were it Jonah himselfe multiply reasons for your preservation He will draw pitty towards you from the most flinty heart howsoever his own breast shall flow with compassion ye shall be pretious in his eye he will forget nothing that may be an incentive for sparing not the greatnesse of your City nor the multitude of your Persons nor the plenty of your Cattle Should not I spare Nineveh that great City wherein are more then six score thousand persons which cannot discern between the right hand and the left hand and also much cattle I have now shewn you the right way to safety walk in it and ye are gone beyond danger ye are the City to be spared Thus leaving my Motion to your Consciences the Practice of it to your Vertue and the Successe of it to the Blessing of HIM in Heaven I commend you to the Grace of CHRIST and rest The serious Monitour of your Repentance and the earnest Petitioner for your Safety THO. REEVE GODS PLEA FOR NINEVEH JONAH 4.11 And should not I spare Nineveh that great City wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and also much Cattel WE have here God and his Prophet in earnest dispute Jonah is raging and God is reasoning Jonah is full of passion and God full of compassion Jonah had denounced judgment and he would have God to execute the judgement Jonah had retired out of the City and he would have God to raze the City Thus as once Mulciber in Troiam pro Troia stabat Apollo the two Deities could not agree about Troy so God and his Prophet could not here agree about Nineveh Virg. 2. Aenead But quae tanta insania Why so much heat What put the Prophet into such a mood Jonah thy name doth signifie a Dove but is there in thee contrary to nature so much gall Boni viri lachrimabiles Good men should be ready to melt at judgements Prophets should carry about them the softest sympathising bowels But is the Prophet become a Spoiler the Dove a Vultur Shew some reason of thy displeasure lay forth the grounds of thy sad wishes against Nineveh Hath Jonah any motives to prompt him on to such dismall conclusions Yes he was a Prophet and he saw not the event of his Prophesie God had punished him for flying to Tharsis and now he doth shame him for repairing to Nineveh God doth employ a Prophet and he will not justifie his Prophet For saith Jonah I have said Yet forty dayes and Nineveh shall be destroyed the forty dayes are even expiring and Nineveh yet standeth Were Seers wont to be thus deluded No Sagax quondam ventura videre Fatidicus vates The Prophet of old did seem certainly to presage future things Ovid. 5. Met. For who so intimate with God as his Prophet Prophetia est divina inspiratio futura immobili veritate enuntians Prophesie is a divine inspiration foretelling future things with unchangeable truth Cassiod Thomas Aq. saith that propheta dicitur quasi procul fans vel procul videns Aq. 3. p. 7. art 8. A Prophet is said to be one which speaketh or seeth afar off things to come the light of Prophesie is little inferiour to the Angelicall light the Angel is a Spirit above and the Prophet a kind of Spirit beneath But saith Jonah where is my light what shall become of my prediction Shall not I be esteemed a strange Spirit a mad Prophet Yes the Oracles of the Heathen and the most southsaying wizard shall have more reputation than I. It is no marvell God forced me hither and that he was so eager to hale and drive me forth upon such an errand I thought what a comfortable message I should have of it yea I presaged at home how I should be disgraced abroad For was not this my saying when I was yet in my own Country Oh that Nineveh doth maintain her state Jonah 4.2 and I cannot maintain my credit that that continueth a flourishing City and I shall be accounted a foolish Prophet If that doth not lay in ashes I shall lay in ignominy Oh God deface it demolish it let me see it laid wast and let not an after-age be able to tell where it had Turret or Stone or else it shall repent me that ever I entred the City or opened my mouth against the City I am ashamed to be styled Prophet yea I am weary of my being doe what thou wilt with me if thou wilt doe nothing to that if Nineveh doe not see her last day let Jonah see his last day if thou wilt not make an end of that make an end of me Take away my life Jonah 4.3 it is better for me to die then to live Thus we have seen Jonas in his rage and the bitter motions of his disturbed spirit This it is in fermento jacere to lye sowring in the leaven of discontent and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cast darts at hazard into such ravings Plautus Lucian and phrensies do we fall when we are left to our selves and rankle under our exulcerated imaginations we quarrell with Heaven and other mens welfare is our vexation if we be disappointed or fail in our desired drifts we live with no pleasure and would even dye in indignation But saith God to Jonah wouldst thou fain be dead what
Rentalls and Royalties then what is God who is the Possessor of Heaven and Earth Gen. 24.1 If man who is but a shining Gloworme below then what God who is the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 If man who can be beheld without danger then what God who cannot be eyed without expiring Whom no man hath seen nor can see 1 Tim. 1.16 If man who doth carry no slames in his skin then what God who is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 If man who is but a Saint by infusion then what God who is the King of Saints Rev. 15.3 If man whose knowledge doth reach no further then his own heart then what God which can declare unto man what his thought is Amos 4.13 nay who is greater then our heart and knoweth all things 1 Job 3.20 If man who cannot make a Gnat a Spire of Grass not an Hair white or black then what God who is the former of all things Jâ—r 10.16 If man who hath much ado to get a little pompe then what God with whom is the greatness of excellency Exod. 15.7 If man who can hardly for a while keep his own spirit within his own body then what God who is the Lord of the spirits of all flesh Numb 27.6 If man whose power is limited and whose designs may be frustrated then what God who is so great that none can stay his hand Dan. 4.43 If man who is but of yesterday then what God who doth inhabit eternity Isa 57.15 If man who cannot span the compasse of his own body then what God whose right hand spanneth the Heavens Isa 43.12 If man who at most doth but dwell in an Ivory Palace then what God who dwelleth between the Cherubims 2 Sam. 6.2 If man who hath his dayes set and there is a stint for his greatnesse then what God Who liveth for ever and his Dominion is everlasting Dan. 4.34 If man who cannot make a Pillar to quake nor melt a flint then what God who can make the Mountains to quake and cause the hills to meli Nah. 1.13 if man who cannot walk but in a calm and that upon firm land then what God who hath his way in the w irlwind and his path in the mighty waters Nah. 1.3 Esai 43.16 and yet must man be such a man and God be undeified Shouldst thou have freedom and God be abridged Hadst thou and should not I What art thou what is God 1. What art thou the crackt sherd of a ruine the broken bough of a windfall the splintered plank of a shipwrack Adams Ulcer the wrimpled skin stark hand blind eye chap-fallen lip of that old man the lake-diver the furnace-brand Prae omnibus malis homo est pessimum unaquaeque bestia habet unum malum homo omnia Chrysost the brimstone-match of that cursed man Above all evills Man is the worst every beast hath one evill but man all Whatsoever man was at the first creation yet he may be carried now to some Stage as a strange Beast to be shewn as Laerlius saith of Stilpon As ye cannot find a Fish without skales so ye cannot find a man without strange Finns Lacrt. l. 2. c. 12 Aelian var. hist l. 10. panorm l. 1. de rebus gestis Alphonsi Instead of men we are like wild Vultures in the Woods Arislotle that had searched mans intralls nay which by his deep wisdom had dissected him for who could better have done this then that rare Anatomist of Nature Yet what saith he of man but that he was the spoil of time the mockage of fortune and image of inconstancy Stob. Ser. 96. Therefore Plotinus was wise who when Aemilius would have his Picture drawn denied it him Erasin l. 8. apoph intimating that it was in vain to take the Picture of a wretched creature Indeed man is so miserable that Silenus told Midas that the best thing were not to be horn at all the next thing was to die soon Optimum non nâ—sci prâ—â—imum cito aboleri Comaedia vita nostra â—uius ultimus actus in morte Aen. Syl. lib. 3. com Alphonsi Putredo in ortu bestia in vita esca vermium in morte Let man seem to enjoy never so much outward greatnesse yet mans life is but a Comedy whose last act is death Solon that by the Oracle was prononnced to be the wisest man of his age said that man was but rottennesse in birth a beast in his life and worms-meat in death Man art thou not thus canst thou not apprehend it wilt thou not believe it then let me a little further decipher thee skin thee and unskin thee At thy first conception oh that thou couldst see thy self Thou art but a drop of basenesse a spermatick stein thou art gendring many months to get flesh and skin upon thy bones thou suckest unclean blood and dost wsim in a loathsome puddle thou puttest out thy head like a beetle out of a dunghill thou art groaned forth with the half-slaughter of thy Mother thou art plucked out of the womb and dost lye in the eyes of all like an hideous fright there is not an hair of thy head not a tooth in thy mouth thou lookest like raw flesh yea like a prodigious clodder this is thy entrance and when thou art rinsed and perfumed thy navell cut thy skull seamed and by the Midwifes art made fit to receive the Babes kisse thou dost hang upon the brest or art fed with spoon-meat thou art rocked in a Cradle wrapped in swadling-clothes watched and waited upon carried in the arme led by the hand learned to go taught to speak before thou canst give one sensible expression of a reasonable creature And afterwards when by much nurture and education thou hast gotten some rudiments into thee whereby thou mightst declare thy selfe man what manner of man dost thou witnesse thy self to be even at thy ripe age what are thy gests and guises and garbs and modes Thou risest in the morning out of thy bed where thou hast lain so many hours forgotten of thy self thou clothest thy self like one ashamed to be seen without his Vest thou callest the water to wash off thy nights filth thou pickest thy nasty ears thou purgest thy fowl nostrils thou clensest thy polluted teeth and by degrees when thou art compt and terse spunged and powdred every hair set right and every abiliment put on what is thy daies work how dost thou spend pretious time If thou beest for profit thy ranges are known after thou hast called up thy servants to hunt for gain at home thou thy self as one in full quest for lucre abroad art visiting other mens Storehouses searching their Warehouses ransacking their Cellers Thou goest to the Customhouse to try what exporting and importing there hath been thou repairest to the Exchange to examine what Merchant thou canst meet with with whom thou maist truck in Minivers and Tissues Musks and Civets the teeth of Elephants the bones of Whales the stones of
Therefore seeing thou are peccant under a state of grace yea considering thy dayly and infinite failings let not the purest creature face heaven as a worthy for in respect of thy regeneration and election if thou dost lay to heart how much of corrupt nature doth remaine in thee unmortified and feel the running soare of concupisence breaking out continually with putrified matter why shouldst thou be arrogant of thy virtues or make sanctification an ostentation No thy blemish is apparent therefore as holy as thou art yet Who art thou 2. What art thou But what is God Oh his name is eminency his person perfection He is Adonai of Eden as if he were the basis of the whole world He is Jah as if he had nothing but Being in him He is El as if he had all power in him He is Shaddai as if he had all-sufficiency in him Alas how can I describe him or tell the world his ineffable properties He is so bright that he is invisible so past understanding that he is incomprehensible so steady that he is unchangeable so wise that he is omniscient so powerfull that he is omnipotent so boundlesse that he is infinite so endlesse that he is eternall Oh how are mine eyes dazeled in looking upon this Sun how is my soul in a trance Quantò diutiuc considero tanto res obscurior mihi videtur Cic. de nat Deorum Quod ineffabile est silentio adorandum esse Socrat. Eccl. Hist lib. 6. Nomen non habet In rebus divinis multum esse caliginis Nec periculosiùs alicubi erratur nec labori osiùs quaeritur Aug. l 3. de Trinit when it doth fall into these divine raptures Simonides took time to tell Hiero what God was and no time at last was sufficient to draw from him an answer for said he The longer I doe consider upon it the more obscure it doth seem to me Euagrius hearing men make long Orations of God he wished them to forbear for that which is ineffable is to be adored with silence Attalus the Martyr being desired to tell what was Gods name he said he had no name Cato Uticensis said well In divine things there is a great deale of darknesse A man may erre no where more perilously nor search for any thing with more dissiculty God is so great that he wants a known Cause by which he should be demonstrated and a Genus by which he should be defined he is so great that he hath heaven for his Court and Angels for his ministring spirits which is one and yet three one in essence three in existency in no place and yet every where to whom all men are as Grashoppers and the vast Ocean as the drop of a Bucket who can see in the dark and search hearts which every year doth sustein whole nature and every day doth feed a whole world which doth preserve Saints in Dungeons confound Tyrants in their Thrones which doth shake the Universe with earthquakes and amaze the stoutest with Thunder which is tyed to no Law and yet is pure justice which hath no hand yet can do all things which can nourish men without bread and heal men without physick which can take away the spirits from the living and raise the dead which is an universall surveyor and will be an universal Judge which can punish with unquenchable fire and ravish with unspeakable joy whom Heathens confesse Christians believe and Angels adore whose praises not a Quire of Seraphims can chaunt forth whose perfections none but a Trinity it selfe can describe Oh man therefore think upon God and leave thinking upon thy self consider his transcendencies and be appalled at thy insufficiencies thou art but a Minim to the Almighty but a meer nothing to the All All-God Who art thou What is God Howsoever if thou beest great God is greater if liberty doth belong to thee let it not be denyed God for Hadst thou and Should not I Yes God must have a precedency in actings above man 1. Because he is a free Agent the Stoicks indeed did tie their Gods to an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fate that over-ruled them but God is liable to no such destiny Appetitus rei non habitae Aq. his will is not as mans an appetite of a thing not had for he which hath all things what can he desire more for complacency but his will is onely a decree Ordinatio erga rem amatam Idem or purpose concerning a thing beloved He doth will every thing out of affection not necessity He doth love himselfe necessarily but all other things ultroneously In all the good things we doe enjoy we can see nothing but the efflux of favour God doth not regratiate because we cannot ingratiate we should never find God a comfortable Agent if he were not a free Agent we doe not engage God to blesse he is not led along by the chain of our deserts for who hath given unto God first No I have loved you freely there is no promeriting or prompting of kindness And there is nothing that God doth by constraint or violence but his own pleasure is the attractive of all his workings for he doth all things according to the counsaile of his will This is the manner of Gods actings can man equall him no man is carried oftentimes contrary to his own inclination and doth vary from his inward principles the imperate act of the will being contrary to the elicit for how many of mans actions are involuntary that though the will cannot be compelled yet the outward execution is captivated mancipated Yea whereas Man hath many interpositions and oppositions for what a slave is man to objects motions examples and commands yet can God be thus intercepted impeded no Job 23.13 Dan. 4.35 Job 23.13 Isai 46.10 Psal 135.6 Rom. 9.19 he is one in mind and who can turn him he doth whatsoever he will in the armies of heaven and the Inhabitants of the earth and no man can stay him nor say unto him what dost thou What his soul desireth that doth he I will doe whatsoever I will Whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he Who hath resisted his will Thus then ye see the difference betwixt God and man in acting and if man may lord it how much more the Lord Paramount If man which is but an implicated and mixt Agent how much more God who is an extricated and free Agent Hadst thou and should not I 2. Because he is a wise Agent Indeed man doth bear a name for a very prudent creature yea some are so famed up for judgment that they are called Sages but what are these seeing persons to the all-seeing God no this shutter of the flesh doth hinder mans light from shining the form is streightned by the matter but God being wholly immateriall a pure spirit Coarctatur forma per materiam Aq he cannot but transcend man in wisdome Man doth know all things externally for acquisite
God this impery over us is he such a Superiour is his reverence like to this feare his worship like to this prostration his obedience like to this obsequiousnesse no the great God of heaven hath not so much submission or subjection as a petty Commander or an under-Officer For he doth charge and enjoyne send forth his severe Edicts and fiery lawes Deut. 33.2 He doth write out commandements with his own finger and make the visions plain upon Tables threaten plagues denounce judgements even no lesse then the bottomlesse pit the close prison the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone and what doth he get by it People doe withdraw the shoulder turn the back clap with their hands kick with the heel behave them selves proudly make the neckiron and the browbrass see no more than if they lived in Egyptian darknesse heare no more than if they were in a spirit of slumber obey no more than if they were given up to a reprobate sense Oh heare Gods sad complaints How long shall I suffer Mar. 9.19 I have sent my Prophets early and late Jer. 7.13 I looked for grapes but found none Isai 5.4 I am broken with your whorish heart Ezek. 6.9 I am pressed under you as a Cart is pressed with sheaves Amos 2 13. I am weary with repenting Jer. 15.6 So long doth God wait and attend and lo no respect no answering expectation Such an uncommanding God and unprevalent Superiour doe we make of him Now would not man be thus served and shall God No I beseech you consider what the true power of government is what a domination doth belong to a Superiour and as thou stoopest to man submit to God fear him as if thou sawest him throwing Angels out of heaven drowning the old world for disobedience cleaving the earth to swallow up some sending down fire from heaven to consume others smiting some at midnight like the first-born of Egypt some at the sun-rising like the Sodomites some in the midst of their Camps like Achab some upon the princely Throne like Herod or feare him as if thou sawest him driving out the Pegs out of this faire Structure pulling down the poles of this goodly stage sapping the Universe undermining the world nulling the whole Creation clashing the Heavens melting the Elements and turning this whole earth into a Bonfire rifling the Graves raising the dead putting on his Judges Robes stepping into a glorious Tribunal passing sentence upon the quick and the dead Can thy heart but thrill and thy conscience tremble at the thought of such a Superiour Thou thinkest thou canst lay on heavy strokes and speak formidably but stretch out thine arme as farre as thou canst and roare as loud as thou art able yet hast thou an arme like God and canst thou thunder with thy voyce like him Job 40.9 Thou thinkest thy words shall stand and whatsoever is decreed or enjoyned by thee thou wilt make havock but it shall be executed but are thy resolutions as firme and thy mandates as Magisteriall God's No Heaven and Earth shall passe away rather then one tittle of his word shall fail thou thinkest wretched are they that doe not obey thy commands but cursed are they that doe not confirme all the words of Gods law to doe them Deut. 27.26 Oh then let man be no longer the God and God brought under man but let man be cast out and God set up know his power consider his authority apply thy selfe to his will conform thy selfe to his lawes feare the least guilt before such a confounding Judge Let man be never such a man yet there is a Numen above him God here doth enter the lists with man and plead for his superiority he is the most high and must be chiefe For hadst thou and should not I 2. This serves to tie up the murmuring tongue for is God a Superiour and shall we quarrell with him will not man be contested with and shall God must thou be born with and shall not God be forborn Hadst thou and should not I yes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hamith of Hamah Querela cum impatientia Cassiod Oblocutio indebita contra Deum Aquin. Justitiam ferientis accusare Greg. Sibilus latentis odii Hugo Morsus in manum medici Naz. this finding fault with Gods actions is called an obstreperousnesse against the Almighty yea Hamith in the Hebrew doth signifie a man in a tumult This sin is styled a grievance with an impatience and unjust contradicting of God the accusing of a punishing God the hissing of a secret hatred yea the biting of the Physitians hand as if God could not decree any thing unlesse he had obtained our vote or act any thing unlesse he would give us leave to guide his hand But woe be to him that saith to his father Why hast thou begotten me or to his mother Why hast thou thus brought me forth Isa 45.10 What is this but to slide from the foundation in a gust or for the Anchors to come home in a Tempest How unseemly is it that we should bring God to the test summon him into the Court revise his proceedings or take upon us to ventilate winnow skreen every grain that doth drop from his providence Cannot we be out of a state of welfare but we must be out of patience must God doe every thing according to our wilis or is he unjust No He doth not hear us according to our desires but according to our soules health Non audit ad voluntatem sed ad sanitatem Aug. in Ps 21 Electos Dei cernimus pia agere crudelia tolerare Grâ—g Nos te injuste cuâ—pabamus dum ligares dum seâ—a res homines â—onos Arnob. in Ps 50 afflictions may happen and yet man never awhit the more miserable for cannot righteous men suffer and yet be happy Yes we have often seen the elect of God live religiously and yet indure bitter things Oh God we did unjustly blame thee that thou didst bind and out gracious people Therefore we should repine no more at Gods changing of our conditions than at the changing of the weather nor at some humbling us in our pilgrimage than at the catching of a fall in our journey nor at the cutting short of our means than at the clipping of our over grown locks God is our Superiour and we must submit all to his pleasure But how hard a thing is it for God to keep us quiet no we came with a cry into the world and we are froward Creatures all the dayes of our life the wisest men have been subject to these distempers the most vertuous men have been prone to this impatience This was the sinne of the Israelites Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us this day before the Philistines 1 Sam. 4.3 and of Job Wherefore hast thou brought me out of the womb Oh that I had perished and no eye had seen me Job 10.18 and of David Why hast thou forgotten me why go I mourning when
38. â— 5 Totius mundi cordimentum Jeron Cont. Lucif the seasoning of the whole earth g Omnibuâ— memâ—ris pulchrior Iretiosior est Chromant in 6. Mat. the eye of the Church more precious then all other members How have these seeded the world with Believers filled the streets of the new Jerusalem with gorgeous buildings put bright Gems into the Imperiall Crown of Christ Jesus St. Peter at one Sermon converted three thousand St. Paul whole Nations By these the Amasei were brought from their Idolatry in the raign of Justin 2. Zoâ—ar tom 3. and multitude of Moors living in the desart of Eaprapit were converted by Maturianus Victor Vand. Persel lib. 1. How is Bonisacius famous for the conversion of the Germans Vincentius of the Spaniards Palladius and Aydanus of the Scots and amongst our selves Berinus for the conversion of the East Saxons Bed l. 3. c. 7. And Jaruma for the conversation of the west Saxons Bed l. 3. c. 33. O then that thou feest so many pulled out of the pit by the hand of the ministry and preached home to God by the fervency of Teachers that the stones of the spirituall building are hewen at the Pulpit and the Pearl of everlasting life bought at the Temple-Mart and yet that thou hast no opinion of nor no reverence to this Calling that thou canst not smell the persume of the Sanctuary nor see the brightnesse of these stars in the right hand of God that thou hast scarce a foot for a Temple or an eare for a Preacher But oh beloved look with an eye of reverence towards these consecrated walls know the worth of this holy ground account this the place of Gods Throne the beauty of holâ—nesse yea no other then the house of God and gate of Heaven As they said of old Let us go up to the Seer so let us repaire to the Cryer let us hang upon the Ministers lips and suck our fill at these brests consider the eminency and necessity of this calling for thou maist starve in thy Tent if thou dost not step forth to gather this Mannah thou maist be to seek for repentance if thou dost not find it under the Ordinances Nineveh was converted by the preaching of Jonah 2. Not to be too curious in our Counsailers Nineveh doth accept of Jonah for a Prophet though a Stranger by Nation and a man opposite in religion So we should accept of any lawfull Messenger for strange it is that some have itching ears no Teacher will please them they have an heap of Teachers as if they could find nothing but in the heap they run from Pulpit to Pulpit to cheapen Doctrines as Customers go from shop to shop to bartar for Wares It is naught it is naught as if it were worth neither looking on nor bidding price for They hunt Counter for Textmen and like idle schollars they will learn little of the same Masters they must have variety of Paedagogues I am of Paul I am of Apollos I am of Cephas They drink of all waters and scarce any spring hath liquor good enough to relish with them Projecta vilior algd est Virgil Eclog. 2. no the Crystall stream to distempered Palates is baser then dregs or draffe The full despise the Hony-comb and these surfetted hearers nauseat the most Mellifluous Instructours Mannah is but light bread with the Israelites they must have Quailes how many Ornaments of learning and Mirrours of judgement are too meanly endowed for some ripe wits Despectus tibi sum nec quis sum quaeris Alexi Many a rare gifted Divine may say to his Auditor I am thy contempt neither dost thou think me worthy thy asking for The Daughter of Pierias have no greater glory than to despise the Muses and these no greater pride then to avile the worthy Preachers Can any good thing come out of Nazareth Can any inspired thing come from such carnall Teachers alas they may have some learning but they have no piety they may have some gifts but they have not the spirit And why not have they not as much sincerity are they not as often at their knees do they not seek God and desire to speak out of the mouth of God as much as others oh then that Pharaoh is only for his own Inchanters and Achas only for his own Court-Prophets that some men will eat no meat but that which is dressed by their own Cooks nor wear a Vest but that which is made up by their own Stitchers which will hear none nor allow of none but those which agree with them in every Tenet and do not vary from them in the least principle The foolish Galathians were for their own false Apostles and the ripe-witted Corinthians for their artificiall Teachers the great Council the Sanhedrim of the Jewes will not accept of a Messiah from the Apostles no rather whip them for preaching up such an one to them The Stoicks and Epicures will receive no counsell from Saint Paul no rather stick to their infidelity then he shall reason them from their Idols What meaneth this Babler So many men will not be converted but by whom they affect nor saved but by whom they prize and magnifie they will die in their sins if their own Physitians do not cure them yea lie in Hell if their own Key-keepers do not open Heaven-gates unto them they will shed no tears if their own weeping Doctours do not melt them out nor accept of no repentance if their own mortifying Teachers do not stab and pierce their hearts But doth it become men to be thus singular and precise in reformation must they have it in their own way and by their own men No they should be glad to be led into the right way by any Guide and to be called home to God by any Crier A wise Auditor doth hear all willingly Prudens Auditor omnes libenter audit omnia legit non personam non scripturam non doctrinam spernit ob omnibus indifferenter quod sibi deesse videt quaerit non quantum sciat sed quantum ignoret considerat Hugo de Sanct. Vict. in suo Didascal he doth peruse all things he doth despise no mans person writing or Doctrine he doth indifferently seeke from all that which he seeth to be wanting to himself he doth consider not how much he doth know but how much he is ignorant of Oh therefore renounce this limitation of Doctrine or particularising of Teachers be not too strict who shall rectifie thy conscience nor too curious who shall save thy soul listen to the motions of repentance from any Interpreters lips Nineveh is not captious to accept of Jonah for a Prophet 3. Enduring sharp Doctrine for Jonah doth not treat gently with Nineveh but he doth come with thunderclaps of vengeance with a mouth full of menaces Yet forty daies and Nineveh shall be overthrown That tender ear which cannot endure threatnings will hardly hear of reformation The ear is the raster
or else no hopes of conversion for Nineveh turned Penitent because she could endure a threatning Jonah Yet forty daies and Nineveh shall be overthrown 4. Apprehending danger for Jonah doth denounce judgement and Nineveh doth effectually lay it to heart Yet forty daies and Nineveh shall be overthrown So the people of Nineveh believed God Did they believe and shall we give no credit when the Heavens write out our judgements in Capitall letters shall not we read our own fatall condition when the Lord doth roar from on high Jer. 25.30 shall we be deaf below when He smites the Earth with the rod of his Mouth Es 11.4 shall not we see the whipping-Pillar fet up when He hews down men by his Prophets Hos 6.5 shall we say only timetous and suspitious fools stand in aw of the Prophets Axe when he causes a grievous Vision to be declared Es 21.2 shall we turn this grievous Vision into a Panick fear that instead of the stings of dangers and the frights of miseries there is nothing but drinking up scorning like water Job 34.7 making a wide mouth and drawing out the tongue Es 57.4 not saying these Temple-warnings carry sad presages with them but away with all these Pulpit-lightenings the pen of the Scribes is in vain the Prophet is a fool the Spirituall man is mad as if People would drink away the dread of all crime as Medea told Syrus Popasti scelus Victorius lib. 8. var. Iect c. 4. Me pransum unctum neca bunt Plut. in Apâ—ph Aegyptum Does omnes hospitio excipere salvare posse Rhod. lib. 29. c. 21. or would be killed with Gods punishing hand being gorged with delicacies and annointed with carnall delighâ—s as Chabrias told Iphicrates yea as the Aegyptians in respect of the fertility and strength of their Country thought it was able to Feast all the Gods and to keep them safe so against the predictions of ensuing vengeance for sin we think our fruitfull and formidable land is able to sustein us and secure us to perpetuity Vain men we dream rather of dignity then danger of jollity then judgement all the threats of the Temple do not make us look pale all the cries of Jonah do not terrifie us no they daunt but we do not faint they predict but we not believe we are readier to say the land is not able to bear these mens words Amos 7.10 then to think of our own burthens or to lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate Esa 29.21 than to doubt of any snare comming upon our selves Ne te credideris qâ—â—a non facis ista moneri Ovid de Tâ—i. l. el. 15. But thou which art opposite to warninge canst thou say thou wert ever truly admonished No Behold ye despisers and wonder Is there any thing more ominous then this sat heart and spirit of slumber no of all bad things the evill of an obstinate and inflexible mind is worst Malum inflexibilis obstinatae mentis pessimum Bern. ep 125. for then we seek to outface the Prophets to put God himself out of countenance Therefore when misery is approaching put not the evil day afar off when vengeance doth knock at the gate daunce not upon the threshold when God doth hold up his rod think not it shall draw no blood The Lion hath roared who can but fear Amos 3.8 If thou hadst the strength of Sampson do not wrastle with Gods Messengers if thou hadst the puissance of the Anakims do not try masteries with the trained bands of the Sanctuary for the Prophets wait upon Gods person and God will live and die with his life-Guard I will watch over my word they shall know that there hath been a Prophet amongst them Away therefore with all your trusty Politicians and take up these as your confiding men believe the Prophets and ye shall prosper 2 Chron. 20.20 So the men of Nineveh believed God 5. Not delaying repentance For Nineveh was a City of three dayes journey and Jonah had but even as it were entred the City not gone his full circuit and what a new face is there to be instantly discerned Jona's cryes are heard and the City is converted So we should not linger too long in repentance for it is a sad signe when the child doth stick in the wombe Esaus untimely teares made him a perpetuall mourner the foolish Virgings are locked out of the wedding because they knew not their trimming-season How long shall evill thoughts remain within you Jer. 4.14 Wilt thou not be made clean Hibbekah of Hachab when shall it once be Ezek 13.27 Oh sad complaints Protraction in Hebrew doth signifie supplanting for there is nothing doth more undermine our felicity then to be too tardy in necessary duties Hector blamed Rhesus for coming to the siege of Troy Euripides at the end of the ten years War so repentance is a scandall which is expressed with too much prolonging the Pinarii which came late to the feast of Hercules Plut. in q. Rom. were enjoyned fasting so they which do neglect opportunity are left to starve upon their after-services If God doth call and men will not make appearance they come at last rather for stripes then embraces We that will not give God his right without a tediousnesse are like the Areopagites which bad the Matrone of Smyrna demanding present justice for the death of her Son Valer M. l. 8. c. 1. to come and require it after an hundred yeares were past Should we wait upon God and must he attend upon us the Lord upon the servant the Judge upon the Delinquent Must we be so much entreated to be accepted or so often invited to be made happy Are we not ashamed to deserre a patient God do we not tremble to give him so may repulses How oft would I have gathered thee and thou wouldest not If God doth desire affection from us let us send our hearts to him at the first call if he will be pleased to enter Sera satio semper mala est Culumella let us not drive him to too much knocking Late sowa grain doth seldome thrive To day if ye will heare my voyce harden not your hearts He that giveth thee but a day will not suffer thee to prepare thine eare to morrow for then a deafe care and an hardened heart may meet together Plurimum momenti habet celeritas Plut. in Apoph In commendable things Celerity is of the greatest consequence as Julius Caesar was wont to say O that thou which must account for time darest make bold with the next new Moon Must thou not reckon for every week Mamentum non â—eribit de tempore Bein Yes not a moment shall perish Mark then how the shadowes do decline upon the Diall yea consider every dropping of the Hour-glass Let not God stay thy leasure have not a post dayed repentance Rise out of bed at the first cocks crowing put on thy armour
taste not well home-bred Artisants have little employment Alexander liketh not long the Graecian habit Tiberius would wear no silks of his own Country Vitellius would eat no Mullets but such as were fetched from the Carpathian Sea So with us our own Teachers are men of no brain we have scarce a Preacher that can speak sense to this intelligent age this man is too deep and that man is too shallow this mans Arrowes do drop short and that man doth shoot beyond the mark this man hath no lungs and that man is too stridulent I see many a solid Divine cryed down such as learned men admire illiterate men deride We are so choise of our Pulpit-men that I think we would have Samuel raised out of his grave to Prophesie to this Nation or send for some Angel from heaven to be our Pastour and yet if either of these had continued awhile amongst us the one might be sent back to his Sepulchre at Ramath and the other returned to his upper loft We are not like to be Converts for we have none that can teach us the penitentiall art we cavill at our Prophets though we know their delegated power and conspicuous abilities whereas Nineveh was not so scrupulous about her Messenger but doth even accept of a stranger 3. Nineveh doth indure sharp Doctrine for though Jonah cryed Yet forty dayes and Nineveh shall be overthrown yet there was no offence taken but what Prophet without hazard could deliver such a message in our streets no we would be readier to brain the Prophet Innocentissimo viro oâ—ulos esso di jussit quod ei in illis que injustè appetchat obstitit Fulgos l. 9. c. 5. Cromer l. 4. than to lye at his feet and to clip out his tongue than to attend to his cryes as Beniface the 7th plucked out the eyes of Cardinall John because he opposed him in his unjust desires and Boleslaus the second King of Polonia killed Stanislaus Bishop of Cracovia because he severely reprehended him Prophets in these dayes must rather put a Flute in their mouthes then a Trumpet and come with a Paper filled with nothing but joy and glee and blisse rather then with a scrowl written within and without with nothing but lamentation mourning and woe How grim are our looks upon an increpating Teacher how tetricall are we to a challenging Messenger He that doth strike at corruptions had as good go and smite at the holes of Aspes he that doth threaten Malefactors had as good go and wrastle with Bears Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem thou which killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee We must have our praises sung out in the Temple and have the Pulpit for nothing but Panegyricks to be made the Non-pariles of Religion and to have all the Encomiasticks that belong to true virtue attributed to us as the Cities of Achaia sent all the conquering Crowns of Musitians to Nero as to the Prince of Musitians We keep so many Preacher but as so many Limbners or Heraulds Sueton. or Confectioners or Minstrels If they come to be Proposers and Opposers Restrainers and Rebukers to give a sanctuary-gripe or a Pulpit pinch to hold a Razour over our heads or to shake a scourge in our eyes to style us sinners or God a Judge Vae vobis they are fit for nothing then but Clinks and Gibbets Jonah may escape well enough in Nineveh but he would not come off with so much safety here Oh we would live at case in Sion and have our taste remaining in us without stirring we had rather be hung up with the silken halter of flattery then be put in mind of the hangmans Rope and go to destruction laughing then be frayed before hand with the noise of ruine Ye Preachers saith the Age dip your tongues in Oyl supple your doctrines apply gentle plaisters sow pillowes under every arm-hole cut out complying shreds or else ye will want the countenance and preferment of the times beye cautious or else ye are neither acceptable nor secure A resolute Prophet doth stand upon a precipice if he doth discharge his conscience he will not keep his ground How often hath truth here been jayled bondage at the heels of him which here doth denounce vengeance This Land cannot hear a menacing Messenger though the streets of Nineveh could heare Jonah threatning Yet sorty dayes and Nineveh shall be overthrown 4. Nineveh doth apprehend danger for Jonah hath no sooner pronounced the judgement but the people of Nineveh believed God that is they verily thought and resolved that the state of their City was upon the point of destruction at the brink of ruine But we have no such credulous brests nor believing hearts Tell us of dangers no we defie such seditious Preachers such tumultuous Prophets calamity is but your jealousie danger but your discord perill but your peevishnesse We are a righteous people and not to be punished we are a formidable people and not to be frighted they are a scandalous people which accuse us of sin they are an audacious people which terrifie us with judgements we have graces enough to make all the Devills in Hell recoil we have prayers enough to petition away all plagues wee have ships enough to shoot away all enemies from our coasts Knolls in his Turkish Hist we have speares enough as that French King said who went w th 200000. souldiers at his heels against the Turk to uphold the Heavens if they should fall We are quiet and secure after the manner of the Sidonians Judg. 18.7 Our houses are safe from fear Job 21.9 We are at ease from our youth Jer. 48.12 We can dwell in Cities without gates and bars Jer. 49.31 We stretch our selves upon our Couches Amos 6.4 Our walls our Targets our Magazeens our Capitol our Castle of Angels our Martiall blades whose faces are as Lions whose feet are as swift as Roes upon the Mountains our redoubted Captains which can sleep in their armour and rise up harnessed at the sound of the alarum whose musick is the beating of drums and can sing Ha Ha at the blowing of Trumpets men so resolved to fight that they do but expect an enemy and so valiant that one can chase a thousand which are used to marches musters casting up of Banks raising of Forts drawing of lines making of rowling Trenches digging of Mines battering of Walls drayning of ditches drying up Rivers framing Pall sadoes Sconses Redoubts Counterscarps tumbling of Garments in the blood filling places with dead bodies fishing sanning risting sacking Towns and Cities leaving fruitfull places more desolate then the Wildernesse towards Diblath levelling goodly Structures as Shalman destroyed Beth-Arbel yea soaking Lands and Nations with showres of tempests of blood all these shal settle the Land in firm peace look upon the Nation and see if it be not the quick corner of the Earth for living Souls the Worlds gendring place sown with the seed of man her children like the sand
end a long journey that we have travelled which are not gotten out of our old waies The times are bad who shall better them Look upon the faces of all your religious men and single out that praepious person that ye think is able to convert this Age. What Saint is able to purifie this corrupt Nation what Prophet to change this sinfull people into Nineveh no we may be turned from many things but not from our evill waies we are so degenerated and habituated in vitious courses that I am affraid that if Enoch which walked with God were alive again he should not draw us to walk after him if Noah the Preacher of righteousnesse were to preach over his old notes we would mock at him rather then listen to him not a man more would be saved then was but we would leave him to ship himself and his family only in the Ark if Elias were to prophesy to this Age he himself might be carried up in a fiery Chariot but leave Ahab and Ahaz ab to plagues and vengeance If Christ Jesus were once more to take flesh upon him he might sooner be led again to the Crosse then crucify our unmortified lives Oh what balm is there in Gilead for this wound what Jordan to clense this leprosy the most perverse Jews and the most obstinate Scribes and pharises were never hardlier to be converted then we Oh how doth this Figtree cumber the ground if nothing but bearing of fruit will save it it is in gâ—eat hazard to be cut down God is ready to shoot and fight and to bring up his front and main battel against us but where is reformation to latch arrows break in pieces Spears to meet the Vancurriours in their march and to carry an army of Judgements out of the Nation No there may be threshing Mountains beating hills as chaffe shattering gates of brasse cutting asunder bars of iron giving people up as dust to the sword and driven stubble to the bow turning Cities into an heap and Eden into a Wildernesse sweeping away the valiant men and causing the carkasses of the dead to fall as the dung throwing doâ—â—â— golden Candlesticks and bringing a famine of the word upon a Nation that hath been full fed with the Ordinances for there is no Reformation to rescue a perishing Country or to preserve a falling Church Polydamus himself though a Champion stepping into this sinking Cave thinking to upold it with his shoulders Latebram dementis fati sepulchrum haebuit Val. Max. l. 9. c. 12. shall find that to be his Sepulchre which he supposed should have been his shelter Go ye now to my place which is in Shiloh see what I did to it for the wickedness of them that dwelt therin So if we would consult with the rotten bones and bare scalps of judged sinners they would return the same answer Qualem exitum egâ—â—habui tu habebis Philostraâ—â—s that the head of Orpheus did to Cyrus when he consulted with it what should be his last fate What end I had the same thou shalt have For as the one had his head strook off by the Thracian Maenades so had the other by Thomiris We that do renew the sins of other men do but hasten on our own judgements It is strange that the Hyppodamus can cure it self by letting blood in the thigh the Swallow by eating chelidony and the Hart draw out darts by grazing upon dyctamnum and that we cannot have the wit or grace to cure our maladies by repentance What can we expect from obstinacy in sin but inevitable ruine sin at last will wrap us in her fatall Robe as Alcibiades having dreamt that he should dye covered with his harlots garment Justin l. 9. Critius Tisimenus and Bagoas slew her in his lap and destroyed him leaving him nothing but her amorous vest to hide his nakednesse What can we presage from execrable courses but a desperate and if sin be our harbour judgement will be our pursuer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Pompey when he came to the Castle called Evill Government he concluded of nothing but future destruction to himself What monstrous sins have we amongst us to foretell prodigious punishments Our Bibles have brought nothing but a Scripture-language into our mouth and our Pulpits have taught us nothing but a Sanctuary phrase as for our lives we are more wild than when we were barbarous and more irreligious than when we had no Ordinances Is not this Land full of Hacksters Witches Magitians Ruffians Cheaters Forgers Pilferers the Cutpurse-hall of the Earth and the Stews of the whole world as if all Miscreants were met here as at a generall Rendevouz search but our Jailes look but upon our gibbets and we may see what pure Creatures we are If evill waies will make an evill people then how is this Kingdom the Broad way the high rode to destruction Amongst the mildest and most morall people what digressions and excursions are there there is a bad way in the Shop a worse in the Tribunall and worst of all in the Pulpitâ— in the first there is little but fraud and deceit in the second little but corruption and bribery in the third little but schism heresy and flattery And when shal we see Merchant Judge or Priest declining or turning from his evill waies No inveterate sinners are rarely true Penitents These are our usages and we will cleave to them these are our waies and we will walk in them Aesculapius cannot cure this diseased Country Hercules cannot clear this Augean stable To the shame of our Church to the scandal of the Gospell to the braving upon Heaven with Sodoms faces and to the bringing in of a Destroying Angell to lay the whole Nation wast we persist in our courses And how then are we Nineveh no we reform not our feet have their former motions there was never more wicked paths in the land then are now visible Did Nineveh thus no Let us turn every one from his evill way 18. Nineveh was touched with oppression for it is not barely said Let every one turn from his evill way but likewise from the violence of his hands But when shall we make this addition to our sins or look upon oppression as a principall sin No Whoredom Drunkenness Blasphemy Hatred are sins of an evill name but Oppression goes for an argument of wit and sets forth a person onely as a man of the better brain How shall the Merchant live without his Shop-arts or the great man in the Country Lord it without crushing of Tenants or the Judge go to his grave as a well fleshed fatling without feeding liberally upon his by-Incomes For this end the Merchants is for his scant measure wicked ballances and bad of deceitfull weights the Country Lord is for the rough justle thrusting with thigh and shoulder and the Rulers love to say with shame Bring ye The Ninevites hands do ake with their violence but when shall this violence
Havens we can walk then no further than the Sea-shore or to the Lands end and there upon our own cliffes bid adiew to all our neighbour-Nations and proclaime our selves strangers to all the world it were to put an end to the difference between free-trade and Companies trade and to unty one of the strongest twists that ever was in the world namely that of humane and Nationall society for Merchandise is by the Law of Nations as the Civilians hold Did I say by the Law of Nations I might say by the Law of God For wherefore doth the Scripture say That God hath made a path in the Sea and that men may go downe to the Sea in ships and do their businesse in great wateâ—s and that the wise woman is like a Merchans ship that bringeth her food from afar and that the Kingdome of heaven is like unto a Merchant man seeking goodly Pearls If Merchandise by Gods Law were not justifiable and honourable yes this calling is requisite and exquisite it is the Nations Head-servant High-steward sent out to all the earth as to a generall Market and fairstead to buy her provisions and things of the highest price to furnish her and adorn her And what she meeteth withal for her use she transmitteth home nay brings in her own hand to her dear City that the City might be a Spring within her selfe and a Conduit to the whole Country Merchant and Citizen therefore still stand thy ground with reputation for thou maist be looked upon as a person of same Fourthly a City is a place of honour because multitudes live there with an unanimous expression yea many hundred thousands linked like persons of one Tabernacle yea many a family not so combined as a City therefore it is called a Society or a Corporation A City is a communion of men alike in desires Communio quaedam funilium Aristot l. 3. Polit. c. 1. Vinculo quodam societatis in unum coeunt Cognationem quandam natura constitutit I. lorentinus l. 3. co l. 45. sect fin leg Aquil. P. Civitas quasi civium unitas Petrus Giegor l. 1. c. 3. d. 1. Citizens are knit together in a certain bond of society in one Nature there hath constituted a kind of kindred that they should act and agree together like men of the same linage and consanguinity Therefore a City doth signifie no more nor lesse than the unity of Citizens And indeed if it want unity it is but a tumult a wrestling-place a pitched field and not a City the Towers are then undermining and the walls shaking and falling For If a City be divided how shall it stand a miserable thing it is when their tongues are divided and there is strise in the City Psal 55.9 Scornfull men that is turbulent and sactious men bring a City into a snare Prov. 29.8 These are some of the breaches of the city of David Isai 22.9 Breaches indeed that will bring the whole building into ruine for the City is then becoming a City of destruction Isai 19.18 Yea like a Potters vessel that shall be broken in pieces and cannot be made whole again Jer. 19.11 Epidetus said well That discord is the wit-foundring of a City Nun neque ebrius sobrium cocere potest neque sobrius abebrio persuaderi In enchir just like a quarrel between sober and drunken men Athenaeus out of Aristotle telleth a sad story of one Telegoras who being a man of great fame and so dearly beloved of the people that if they could not get a just price for their commodities they were wont to say Athen. l. 8. They would go and freely give them away to Telegoras which they often did a company of rich Citizens which did equall him in estate but not in worth spightfully envied this reputation of his amongst the people and fell into such heart-grudges that upon a time a great fish being to be sold and no man coming up to the price of it it was carried away to Telegoras which the wealthy maligning Citizens seeing they were so enraged at it that they raised up the City into an uproar violently assaulted his house and person and most inhumanely deflowred his Daughters whereupon there grew afterwards such a deadly fewd betwixt the two discontented parties that it could not be quieted till Ligdamis the Ring-leader of the dissention made pure slaves of them all and insulted over them like a true Tyrant and this was the fare of the Naxian Citizens Diodor l. 15. Diodorus doth make a sadder relation concerning the Citizens of Argos who falling into mutuall diffentions and distractions about superiority there was such a wofull face of misery and desolation seen in the City that no man lived in safety for many were tortured to death and others cut their own throats that they might not be tortured yea certaine Orators arising stirred up the people so against the rich men that no man of wealth was secure thirty of them were questioned and tortured and slaughtered at once and after that two thousand and two hundred And afterwards the Orators themselves being ashamed of their bloody practices that they had been instruments and instigators in such diresull passages out of a kind of remorse giving over their wonted pleading and refusing to accuse any more the rage fell upon them and they were murthered and perished with the rest the effects of this dissention were so horrid that by way of detestation it was afterwards called the Scythalism The Palentocia that is Plut. in quest Graecis the bringing in of Usury again what combustions did it raise amongst the Megarensians The Citizens of Constantinople falling into contention in the seventh year of Justinian Euagrius l. 4. c. 13. Niceph. l. 17.10 their popular pledge to raise parties what troubles did there break forth Citizens were banished Houses burnt the Temple of Sancta Sophia defaced and the uproare did not cease till three thousand were slain Plut. Joh. Mag. l. 21. Hist when Carthage was divided into the factions of Hanno and Haniball how soon did it come to be an enslaved City Did not contention quite overthrow the Teutonick Order which for so many yeares had been famous Did not the seditious carriages of John Shimeon and Eleazar destroy Jerusalem faster then the sword of Vespasian or Titus yes discords of Citizens have ever been ominous and divers times fatal The happinesse of a City then is when the waters of Shiloah runne softly when Citizens delight themselves in an abundance of peace when there are no alterations in their meetings nor litigations in their counsails but they are built like a City at unity in it selfe Psal 122.3 Oh this unity doth carry in it an universality of felicity it is the basis and battle ax to a City it feareth no gusts when it doth stand upon this sure pinning nor enemy abroad when there is no enemy within Oh it is a rare thing to see a due crasis in the
Neighbours if they seem to out-top them and count them Giants Monsters of mankind if they have a larger proportion then themselves Why shouldst thou be my superiour why should not I be as great as thou This is with Tarquinius the proud to lop off the heads of the poppies in the Garden till all be brought to the same height or to serve men as that inhuman Hoast Procrustes served his guests who laid them all in one bed and they which were too long for the bed he cut them shorter and they which were too short for it he stretched them out to belonger But is there an equality in other things that people would expect a parity amongst men Are all stars of the same brightnesse all Pearls of the same lustre all Mines of the same richnesse all Fowls of the same swiftnesse all Beasts of the same bignesse all Trees of the same fruitfulnesse No Nature hath her differences and why not the like amongst men Yes before ye can reduce men to an evennesse and an identical greatnesse ye must first bring them all to the same height complexion strength Hecale pauperrima fuit de eâ dixit Plaut tus in â—istellaira St quidem eris ut â—olo nun â—uam Hecase fies humour wit and trade Indeed I know Nature cannot endure to be under or if people could live as some of their familiars do desire get promotions by wishes there would not be a Hecale that is a poor person in the world But this cannot be for there will be diversity of men if there were but two twins living alone upon earth howsoever as the world is now peopled Tu in legione ego in culina Nec toga nes focus est nec tritus cimice lectus Martial lib. 11. Epig. Si hunc sustuleris universum interit Chrys in Ps 148. it is but a stage of severall Actors the Adage saith well Thou a Commander in an Army another a drudge in the Kitchin there is one richly clad and hath his warm fires to beak himselfe at and soft lodging every night and another to whom their is neither coat nor hearth nor well drest bed Human society cannot subsist without a superiority take away a Chiefe and the whole world will go to ruine Were all the parts in Nebuchadnezzars Image alike The body is not one member but many if the whole body were an eye where were the hearing if the whole were hearing where were the smelling 1 Cor. 12. Therefore the Scripture speaketh of Princes of the Assembly Numb 16.2 Ancients of the people Isai 3.14 Such as are set over the Congregation Numb 27.16 Heads of the house of Jacob. Mic. 3.9 Dignities 2 Pet. 2.10 Principalities and Powers Tit. 3.1 Shields of the earth Psal 47.9 Foundations of the earth Psal 82.5 Mountaines of Israel Ezeck 36 1. Men higher then Agag Num. 24.7 Which have the key Isai 22.22 Bear the sword Rom. 13.4 Hold the Scepter Amos 1.5 And excellent Majesty is added to them Dan. 4.36 Therefore content thy selfe with thine own state and condition every one doth not carry a Governour about him nor doth he find a Ruler in his Scabbard nor puffe out himselfe a Magistrate by stout language He is not skinned Prince nor doth bring a Scepter out of his Cradle much less can Crown himself with the principle of equality what Myriads of Dynasts and Despots and Imperiall Creatures would there be if the Doctrine of parity were pure Revelation But in all Ages there have been and to the last age there will be Orders and Degrees yea to the world end we shall see the ignoble and the noble the impotent and the potent the needy and the full the subject and the soveraign the small City and the great City Should not I spare Nineveh a great City 3. This doth exhort every one to be sensible of his greatnesse for oh that God hath made thee great and that he hearth nothing of his own bounty that he hath raised thee and yet thou art silent under such a liberall Benefactor that thou art great onely in thy ostentation or haughtinesse but not in thy thankfulnesse where is thy praise for such preferment thy sacrifice for such greatnesse No the Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his masters Grib but God doth raise up servants which know not their own Master or hath maintained Pensioners that understand not the royall hand of their own gracious Prince Antoninus Caracalla doth vex Cilo Vexavit Cilonem qui eum educaverat Dion Nescire se utrum in numero hominum an Deorum poneret Plut. in Lycurgo who had brought him up So we grieve our Fost r-father Lycurgus that was so good that Apollo knew not whether he should put him into the number of men or Gods and which had given such singular laws to his Lacedemonians and done so many good offices for them yet his last reward was to have stones cast at him and after one of his eyes struck out to be banished the Country So we recompence God rather with injuries and indignities for his favours than with any commemoration of his mercies Bless the Lord O my soul saith David and forget not all his benefits Psal 103.2 A high duty and very few there are amongst us that are officious in it we receive many blessings out of his hands but he doth receive very few blessings out of our lips instead of not forgetting all his benefits there is scarce one that doth stand upon record or is engraven into our thankful souls no we are so far from singing a Benedictus that the blessing is no sooner handed but we are ready to sing a Valedictus How us this Land embroydered with mercies Blessings are the chekerwork of heaven but are there any carved pillars amongst us where these favours are cut out and graphically pourtrayed God many Temples in this Nation but few of them are consecrated Te Deum is not sung in them God doth not seem to inhabit the praises of Israel We leave God so soon as our turns are served as Diomedes left Callirhoe so soon as shee had saved him from the fury of her father Lycas Sabel l.c. 7.2 who was wont to sacrifice all his strange guests upon the Altar of Mars Pro gratiarum actione nihil aliud scripsit Caesari quam Mihi nihil Macrob. Saturn l. 2. c. 4. Augustus paid all the debts of a decayed Senator unasked but he returned him no other thanks but this unthankful rescript To me nothing so let God disburse never so much to us or for us yet we suppress all his bounty we cast up all the sums in naked empty Ciphers To us nothing But oh beloved doth man for favours meet with no better requitall Yes the Abideni having their City taken by slaves they upon a certain time being drunk a woman leaping over the wall and acquainting them with the accident to the honour of the woman they set up an Image with her
picture in it because by her meanes they recovered their City again Athen. l. 13. c. 11. Pyrrhias redeeming an old man out of the hands of Pirates and he telling him where he might find a great deale of gold covered over with pitch he getting the treasure and growing infinitely rich upon it offered a Bullock to testifie his thankfulnesse Nemo bene merito bovem immolavit praeter Pyrrhiam Plut in quaest Graecanicis Diodor. Sic l. 20. for the old mans kindnesse insomuch that it went for a Proverb That no man was more thankfull then Pyrrhias Demetrius Polyorcetes freeing the Sicyonians from the yoke of Prolemy they took it so thankfully that they called their chief City after his name Demetrias and kept an annuall feast as long as the City stood to commemorate such a deliverance These and thousand the like examples might be produced to declare how apprehensive people are of mens favours but where is there the like gratitude expressed towards God Let him pleasure us in never so many things yet he doth get neither pillar nor bullock nor any thing called after his name as noble hearts as we seem to have to others we are base towards our God we think it inhumanity to forget courtesies but here we forget blessings man can heare of his Civilities but not God of his respects Here all obligations and engagements dye with the participation of the favours as if we had neither sight speech nor affection so that we are strict Courtiers but very formall Christians we are mens very humble servants and thrice bounden but we are Gods very insolent servants and scarce one twisted oh what are the ties and bands of blessings We do not render again according to the benefits done unto us 2 Chron. 32.25 Ingratitude is branded upon our brows brests eyes ears lips and lives where is there promotion and devotion favour and zeal met together No oh ye great men ye are the great dis-esteemers and disparagers of mercies a non-magnifying and unglorifying generation Ye cannot see favours at Noontide nor speak of mercies when every corner of your houses is a Pulpit where ye have domesticall Chaplains to preach out unto you Gods blessings Why are ye thus blind and deaf would ye weep for the want of blessings and do they congeal you with their warmth is it your high ambition to be great and doth greatnesse dwarf you by raising you many Cubits above your brethren 〈◊〉 constrain not Heaven to defy you as if ye were detestations Force not God to cry out Hear oh Heavens and hearken oh Earth as if ye were Monsters Set your eyes therefore if it be possible right in your heads and seek up mercies turn the keyes in those rusty lips of yours that that bed-rid duty of thankfulnesse may walk sorth and sing hymnes to the honour of blessings if ye be great know who hath given you these dimensions if ye be great be not too great for your Maker Cogitâ— quo cultu transieris Histriam quibus nunc utaris vestibus Eâ—asm in vitâ Chrys as Chrysoâ—lom said to Gaynas the Arian Captain Bethink thy self in what poor attire thou diost once posse through Histria and how richly thou art now apparelled So consider ye the simple weed perhaps that was once upon your backs and how God hath given you change of apparell Had ye alwaies such shops such Counting-houses such wardrobes such cupbords of plate such chains such jewels such habitations such honours have ye forgotten your beginnings can ye not tell how many pieces ye were worth when ye were first sworn Freemen or ye sealed the first leaf to have a standplace for trading oh swollen cheeks staring eyes infatuated brains look backward search out your selves to the first year and quarter nay the first change of the Moon when your prosperity crept out of the nest and first cast the shell from her spoonfeathered head and set down every penny that ye have received out of Gods privy purle remember how many thousand pounds ye are indebted to Gods blessing Ye are ignorant men to imagine that the Original of your welfare began at your selves yea arrogant and Mad men to think that your own prudence or diligence hath advanced you Ireturned and saw under the Sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battell to the strong nor bread to the wise nor riches to men of understanding Eccles 9.11 are ye high ye are lifted up are ye great ye are made great Consider therefore what a small stock ye had once to begin with and how God hath conveyed unto you hidden Treasure what Minums ye were once in the world and what Grandees ye are now become and let every man of you like a person rapt and transported with a traunce and exstasy that ye are made Heavens Favourites say with David Who am Ioh Lord God and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto 2 Sam. 7.18 Oh if ye will not confesse the kindnesse of your Creditour he may well call back what he hath lent you if ye will not acknowledge what webs ye have spun out of his providence he may justly recocover his Weoll and his Flax Let them be fired out of their estates or shipwracked in their means or turn Bankrupt in trading who so long as they abound know not the benefit of fulnesse or so long as they are advanced see not who hath advanced them Oh therefore if your mouths be satisfied with good things know who it is that hath given you such a taste of bounty if ye have treasures by the heap consider who it is that hath filled your coffers if ye be great blesse the Author of your greatnesse When ye eat in plenty and are satisfied praise the name of the Lord your God which hath done wonderfully with you Joel 2.28 say with David All that we enjoy commeth of thine hand and all is thine own 1 Chron. 29.16 I know it is an hard thing to fetch praise out of preferment or gratitude out of greatnesse to get a rich man to speak or a great man to magnify but know your duty lay to heart the office of prosperity and see Gods Image stamped upon your coin and him written Founder upon the groundsells pillars tarasses roofs and lanthorns of your houses oh therefore perfume an estate with devotion make Gods providence the crest of your escutcheon If ye flourish upon earth look up to heaven if your boughs be laden with fruit let God taste the first ripe apples of the tree if ye be rich celebrate divine favour if ye be mighty remember your best Friend if ye be great be not unthankfull why should Gods eye be fixed upon thee why should his rain fall upon thy ground why shouldst thou see the Rivers and floods and brooks of honey and butter why should he take thee by the hand why should he lift up thy head is there no reason for thy weal then there
liberty be so much tendered how much more life Oh there is not a more crimson sinne then when blood toucheth blood Hos 4.2 That is That there is no end in blood-shed when blood is powred out as dust and flesh as dung Zeph. 2.17 When widows are increased like the sands of the Sea Jer. 15.8 When a Land is soaked with blood Isai 34.7 Oh that men to men should be such Tigers and Furies as if it were a mirth to open the Conduits of life to gush forth till the last drop and to water fields with tempests of blood What dreadfull examples of cruelty do we meet withall in ages Pericles as Plut. reporteth exterminating the Calcidenses and Estienses The French after the defeat at Thermopylae as Pausanias saith destroying the Callienses to a man plucking the Children from their Mothers brests and killing them tearing in pieces the marriagable virgins so that happy were they which could get a Frenchmans sword to dye upon without further torture Totila as Gregorius Turon reporteth flaying quick Herculanus the Bishop of Perusium and cutting off the heads of all the Citizens Sylla slaying twelve thousand in one City of Preneste Attila 30000 at the sacking of Rome Abderamen an hundred thousand at one battell in Gallicia Marius so busie in killing his Country-men that he wished himselfe the onely Roman to be left alone Hanibal so eager in destroying Flaminius and his Souldiers that he felt not an earth quake which happened in the time of the battel Don Pedro the cruell making Spain in his time a Charnel house full of nothing but dead mens bones Mahomet the great causing the streets and Temples of Constantinople to swim with blood Selim the Turk killing the Persians so with without mercy that he built a Tower barely of their dead heads Oh these men if it were in their power how would they exanimate nature dispeople the earth and leave the world a wildernesse Wounds are their feats of activity blood their cordiall crying groans their musick gastly faces their looking-glasses shivered bones the reliques of their puissance and dead carkasses the emblems of their glorious triumphs But wo and alass to such harsh Encomiasticks I which never slew man nor have yet seen a man slain do account such praises which have blood for the ground of the ditty but sad honours These things may be famous amongst Pagans but they are but dolefull accidents amongst Christians For we which are commanded so keepe the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace and to be courteous and tender-hearted one towards another and to love one another with a pure heart fervently are so unsainted that if we speak with the tongue of men and Angels and have not charity we are but as the sounding brass and the tinkling Cymballs doubtlesse the thought of these things should make us oftentimes either to sheath up the sword in affection or to go to War in tears Whence come Wars whence come contentions are they not from hence even from the lusts that are in your members And are lusts justifiable pleaders at Gods Throne Is there a judge is the reckoning hastening on will blood be one of the most criminall guilts at that Tribunal then how ought we to skreen and riddle our soules concerning the steyn of blood-shed He which hath slayn his brother how shall he shew his face before that Father he which hath a bloody hand how shall he lift it up with innocency at the white Throne How will the lives of men go at an high rate at that day when here God doth prize the chiefe Treasures of a City to be these Persons Wherein are Persons Should not I spare Nineveh that great City wherein are Persons Sixscore thousand 4. Now let us come to the quantity of the Treasures Sixscore thousand So many there were in the minority of yeares how many then were there of riper age From hence observe That a great blessing to a Citty is to abound in people Numerosa multitudo isocrates Civitas est societas ex multis viciniis constans Pet. Greg. Stante Coronâ Ovid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eâ—rip in Phrixo for a true City is a numerous multitude yea an happy City is a society consisting of many neighbourhoods When a Crown of living souls seemeth to stand together and a whole Country is met in a Ring for Cities are a confluence of men and not desolate wildernesses That as it is said Who can tell the dust of Jacob and the number of the fourth part of Israel Num. 23.10 So who can tell the multitudes of a populous City Oh it is a glorious thing when a City doth passe Arithmetick when the totall sum can scarce be cyphered up Who can tell Who can number when such a loud peal is rung within the walls that a City is full of noise Isai 22.2 when there is such a crowd for room that the place is too narrow for men to dwell in Isai 49.19 when new hangings must be bought for such a large family or new Bedsteads set up for the plenty of guests that come to lodge there that a City doth spread out the Curtains of her habitations and increase on the right hand and on the left Es 54.2 3. When such a flood of Inhabitants doth seem to stream in the streets that the Citizens are like many waters Rev. 17.1 when such swarms of living souls do skip up and down in the streets that they are as the grashoppers for multitude Judg. 6.5 When the sand-heaps do scarce exceed the number of their lovely issues the fruitfull Mothers seeming to have gotten shoals and shores of progenies into their wombs the ofspring of their bowels being as the gravell Esai 48.19 Is not this glory is not this honour yes this is to be a City with an excellency as Ninevehs fame and felicity is here described to be great that she can reckon by her many thousands even sixscore thousand Application 1. This doth serve first to present to you your Life-Blessing are ye not peopled Vnd undique circum Fundimur Virg. 3. Aeneid Quôque capit latis immensum moenibus orbem Ovid. 2. de Ponto turba vias impleverat agmine denso Lucan ad Cal. Pl. Veteri exhausta habitatore H. Boeth Pudendus ex ercitus ex maneipiis Plut. yes the City of Numbers every street and lane stored with dwellers yea a City so plenished with Inhabitants that it doth seem to contain a world within her walls the waies seem to be too streight for frequency of passengers If it should be said to you as it is Num. 1.40 Take the sum of the people or give in the full tale 1 Sam. 18.27 what troops might here march forth what armies might be drawn out Armorica Bretaigne in France was so thinned of men after the wars of Maximian that it was afraid that the Country should be drained of the old Inhabitant after the battle of Cannae Rome was so desolate that
the People No I doubt ye have forgotten your people that though they daily face you and their clappers strike in your ears yet that ye are both blind and dumb in extolling God for this high speeched favour What Hecatomb have ye ever offered for this numerous blessing Have ye ever sung Hosannah in the highest for this high mercy I question whether ye have an Altar in the City for this service or whether the smoak of the sacrifice hath bin seen ascending Have ye told over your people in heaven and sent up a bill to God Almighty of your multitudes and wrot in the bottom Sit nomen Domint benedidum Let the name of he Lord be praised for this populous City No I am afraid ye have too much silence closing up your lips and too much ingratitude sticking upon your heart strings that God hath not heard from you a great while concerning the state welfare prosperity innumerability of the City that ye have not sent him word how the people do how this City is stocked with people and what quantity of these treasures there are Would ye have a City with bare walls or these gorgeous buildings stand without Inhabitants ye deserve it if God hath given you houses and housholders and hath breathed the breath of life into every living person amongst you and ye will not so much as give him thanks for this quickning mercy Therefore as ye cannot shew to the world a greater Ornament of your City then your people so present this people to God as your City-Benediction let it be the cry of your streets and the charme of your Pulpits an extasie for the people a Rhapsody for the multitudes Oh for this keep your solemn triumphs and hang up your banners for Tokens Study the flesh-song the womb-streynes as ye have the people-blessing so learn the People-ditty let young Men and Maydens old men and Babes Bride grooms and Brides Masters and Servants Liverymen and Senators Princes and Judges Closets and Galleries Chambers and Chappels Towers and Temples City and Suburbs Heaven and earth eccho and rebound with varied notes of a Canticle upon the Persons For that Persons in great multitudes are a great blessing ye may see it here by Nineveh who hath it mentioned as her high felicity to reckon Persons by thousands Wherein are sixscore thousand persons Secondly This serves to eye your present blessing that ye are yet preserved in your thousands Ye are yet a populous City and the Lord God if it be his blessed will make you a thousand times so many more as ye are Deut. 1.11 But if the Arrow that flyeth at noon day Psal 91.5 should glide amongst you how many wounded brests would there be If God should send the Pestilence amongst you after the manner of Egypt Amos 4.10 with as consident a foot as ye now walk yet then with the Magitians of Egypt ye would not be able to stand because of the boyles Exod. 9.11 If Hippocrates were then amongst you with his precious odours and sweet oyntments to persume places If Miadererus were shooting of Guns in every corner of your streets Quercit in Diet Polyhist Sect. 2. c. 8. Avicen l. 1. Fen. 3. Doct. 2. c. 7. Gal. l. 1 de dâ—sser Feb. c. 4. Paulus Aegin de re medica l. 1. c. 32. because the forceable noyse dissipates the ayr and sulphur and salt-peter with strong sinells purge it If Quercitanus and Avicen were preseribing the strictest rules of dyet if Galen and Paulus Aegineta were giving cautions against Plethorick bodies If Aetius Aretaeus Rasis Rondeletius Albucasis Azaramias Baria Papillia Chelmetius Fernelius Fallopius Georgius Pistorius Georgius Cusnerus Guido de Canliato Gulielmus de Saliceto with the most expert Physitians that ever lived were then teaching you the art how to make Confections Electuaries Pilles Pomanders Cordials Epithymes Frontals Funtanels and to make new sires and fumigations of Storax Calamint Labdanum Ireos Nemphar Dragagant Withy-cole and a thousand other materials for pure smoaks to expell ill sents yet they might be all ineffectuall to prevent that irresistible stroak For I am not yet resolved with some Astrologers that if Saturn and Mars be in dominion under Aries Sagittarius and Capricorn and in opposition to Jupiter that the plague doth infallibly follow nor that it doth arise alwaies from hot and moist ayr Hippoer l. 2. Epidem Galen l. 1. de Temp. c. 4. Avenzoar l. 3. Tract 3. c. 1. as Hippocrates and Galen do hold nor from hot and dry air as Avenzoar conceiveth nor that kindred do take the infection sooner one from another than strangers because of the assimilation of blood as Vido Vidio affirmeth and that Virgins are more subject to it than married women because the spirits are fluid and reteyned and so apt to putrisie as Mindererus holdeth Cels l. 8. de re Med. c. 27. neither do I think that wine is an Antidote against all poysons nor that if a man be well dyeted he may escape any infection Lacrt. l. 2. because Socrates if it be true lived in Athens in many plagues and yet was never touched with it being a man of high temperance But I hold that a Pestilence is the Hand of God as David calleth it 2 Sam. 24.14 and the sword of the Lord as it is styled 1 Chron. 21.12 So that when God will strike or where or by what means is uncertain onely this is certain that whensoever God doth lift up his hand he will strike home Is there a more terrible and dismall blow then that of the Pestilence No it is the noysome pestilence Psa 91.3 and if this stinche come up into your nostrils ye are gone God will make you then smite with the hand stamp with the foot and cry alas Ezech. 6.21 Yea it is a weapon so sharp that it is able to leave a Nation without an heir for I will smite them with the Pestilence and disinherit them Num. 14.12 There is nothing but a burying-place to be seen where a Pestilence doth cleave to a place Deut. 28.21 Behold a pale horse and he that sat upon it was death Rev. 6.8 If this pale horse come to neigh in your streets and death be the Rider such an Horse and such a Rider are able to dash asunder and to dash into the grave many thousands I read of fourteen thousand seven hundred that dyed in one plague Num. 16.49 of twenty four thousand which dyed in another plague Num. 25.9 of seventy thousand in a third plague 2 Sam. 24.15 Paus in Baeoticis C. Rhod. ant lect l. 8. c. 12. Dion Ziphilinus liabell l. 9. Aencad 1. Ensebius lib. 7. c. 21. The Ectenae a people of Baeotia with their first King Ogyges were wholly destroyed with the plague so that the Hyantes and Aeones came in their stead to people the Land A golden Coffer in the Temple of Apollo at Babylon being opened it infected the whole Country with the Pestilence and spread
after it or look upon it that I heare a childe crying as if it had lost a Father or his fatherly providence and preservation Can God prepare a Table in the wilderaisse I am weary of my life what good shall my life do me who shall raise up Jacob for he is small thy breach is great like the Sea who can heale thee all joy is darkened the mirth of the Land is gone Wo is me now for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow I fainted in my sighings and have no rest When I cry and showt he shutteth out my prayer The anger of the Lord hath divided them he will no more regard them Is this the City that men call the perfection of beauty the joy of the whole earth The Lord hath cast off his Altar abhorred his Sanctuary Our bones are dryed our hopes are lost we are cut off These are the sad groans of an asslicted family the broken speeches of perplexed Sion we are chastised and the rod will never be hung up we are brought to a mourning condition and we must moisten our graves with our dying teares we are the footstool of the earth and all the Angels of heaven cannot remove this trampling foot our collar is loosened and we shall never be girded again with strength we are carried away to Babylon and we shall never see Sion again they which have dominon over our bodies rule over us with rigour and God hath forgotten us the earth is a Correction-house and heaven is no Sanctuary for us Barth Bonon in ejus vita yea as Antonius Vrceus Codrus for a little Chamber which he had burnt down went against the perswasion of all his friends and lived in the Woods and after that returning he lay the first night upon a Dunghill and when he entred into the City he could not be drawne to live in his owne house or in any other house of quality but lived six moneths in a mean mans house as if all were lost and he were never able to rise againe So if a few sparkes be fallen upon our estates or we but fired out of a little meanes we think we are never able to repair these losses no we are punished and we shall perish Porus King of India Justin lib. 12. when he was vanquished by Alexander he took it so heavily that though he had his life given him yet he would not for a great space eat any meat suffer his wounds to be dressed or be perswaded to live So if we be but crosed in any of our designs and cannot enjoy that liberty and fulnesse which formerly we had or carry any cuts about us we would even starve upon accidents or suffer our wounds to rankle we are unwilling to live or despaire ever again to live happily But oh sigh gently speak softly chide not with providence roare not under casualties fret not your selves into your graves for are ye the men that maintain a Creed and stand up to the Creed what one true article of faith have ye howsoever do ye believe a God what thus to loosen all the joynts of a Christian dependance to distrust a God oh remember that ye have suffered nothing but what the wisedome of God held convenient and the providence of God is able to restore double for it Moses fled for his life and kept sheep and afterwards became a mighty Ruler Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen thâ— end which the Lord wrought Jam. 5.11 Howsoever do ye suffer any thing out of Gods sight no his eye is upon all your trialls all your miseries are scored up in heaven he doth keepe a Catalogue of all your sufferings oh therefore take courage lift up your hands which hang down strengthen your feeble knees witnesse patience expresse confidence for why should ye be a fainting people under a knowing God no when ye are ready to complain and murmur and vex restrain these distempered passions by calling to mind that ye have a seeing and a searching God that hath taken notice of all your sorrows he can tell you all your losses reckon up all your injuries and indignities repeat to you all your extremities and exigences ye know not better how many eyes ye have in your heads nor how many fingers ye have upon your hands then he can bring in the full tale of all your distresses That he is such an observing and intelligent God ye may see herein Nineveh he can number out to her all her thousands and the surplus Wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons Secondly This doth serve to represse sin for oh that thou darest trespasse before such a knowing God canst thou doe any thing in such a close reserved manner that he shall not have cognizance of it I know there are a company of men which are all upon the point of secrecy and laying snares privily saying Who shall see them Psal 64.5 Yea a generation of men that have set their mouthes against heaven which say How doth God know and is there knowledge in the most high Psal 73.11 But these men shall hear God ere long answer them in thunder and tell them I know your manisold transgressions and your mighty sins Amos 5.12 Yea these things hast thou done and I kept silence then thou thoughtest wickedly that I was such an one as thy selfe but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Psal 50.21 Oh Lord thou hast searched me and known me thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising thou understandest my thought asar off Thou compassest my path and my â—ed and art acquainted with all my wayes There is not a word in my tongue but lo O Lord thou knowest it altogether Thou hast beset me behind and before and laid thine hand upon me Psal 139.1.2 3 4 5. God could tell Adam of his eating the forbidden fruit Cain of murthering his Brother Abel Saul of sparing Agag and taking a part of the prey David of slipping in to his neighbours Bed and covering the fowlnesse of that guilt with the skin of a dead Husband Asah of trusting in his Physitians Hezekiah of shewing his treasures to Merodach Baladan the Scribes and Pharisees of their secret lusts which deserved stoning Aâ—anias and Saphira of their keeping back part of the price what then unto God can be undiscovered no he hath not only a multitude of about spies thee but he himself is the constant visiter of all thy actions Mercury feared not Gallus not Vulcan nor all the Gods so much for the discovering his close passages with Venus Natales Comes l. 2. Myth c. 6. as the Sun so this Sun is shining into all corners to reveal the most hidden passages yea God will beat the woods to make the birds fly out of their secret nests and smoak the dens and burroughs to make the beasts which are earth'd under ground to appear thine own dogs shall bark in thine ears thine own corrupt
scripture to have the eyes of his understanding enlightned and to gain a spirituall understanding Col. 1.9 that thy child may be able at last to take the latitude of Christianity yea to comprehend the length the breadth the heighth the depth of Christ Jesus What are all the Maxims of the earth to the mysteries of the Kingdom No redemption justification adoption regeneration faith and to know a right in the tree of life excell all the speculations that the double refined Wits of the times can teach otherwise oh then that many men think their children should get these things onely by sitting under a Pulpit or learning a publique Catechism but not by making an absolute schooling of the study of virtue no people think that these things are to be taught at any rate and in any time they set them to learn other things without these or these with other things they will neither allow their children time nor meanes to make grace a trade I hear of seven years for a calling but of no such apprentiship for to learn meerly Religion a strange saving way that men have in pious things their own consciences cost them little at the Pulpit and they are as thrifty Husbands for the soules of their children in matters of grace the conscionable Divine hath few Disciples of this nature or he cannot match the Lawyer or Physitian or common Tradesman no not the Horse-rider Engineer or Minstril in the souls fees which he hath gotten Ministers must not be covetous and Professors are very penurious Gods judgements I doubt have taken out of your Purses vast sums because ye would not bestow them upon your childrens vertuous education to prevent those extravagant lawlesse irreligious and seditious wayes which to the griefe of your hearts they have trod therefore if ye would have them serve God train them up at the greatest expence under them which may institute and precept them in principles of true godlinesse Euseb how many noble Christians came there out of the school of Pantaenus both in Alexandria and India what a virtuous man proved Gratian Sigon l. 8. Imper. Occid by being brought up under Ausonius and Hugo of France by having his education under Floriacensis and amongst our selves Kebius Corinnius the Son of Solomon Id. l. 7. reg Ital. Beda Mat. Paris Duke of Cornwall by sayling into France and living many years with St. Hilary to have his conscience enflamed with the love of God by the sparks of those zealous lips And were former times spare-handed to their spirituall Masters No that was the golden age indeed As for human learning I find many liberall Voletaran l. 9. Anthrop Homer l. 9. Iliad in so much that Q. Fulvius gave to his Master Ennius a whole City and Achilles gave to his Master Phoenix halfe his Kingdom and half his honours So amongst Christians I find for the learning of Religion and grace Gratian gave unto Ausonius many presents and amongst the rest a Picture with his Fathers Image set all with pretious stones Sigon ubi supra telling him that he had paid but what he ought that he ought more then he had paid And Matthias Corvinus that renowned Prince bestowed the whole County of Veredarium upon his Master Johannes Vitesius Bonsin l. 1. Dec. 4. and infinite other examamples which might be produced to this purpose Therefore if thou beest not a parent that doth smell of the earth a meer Father of the Hutch if thou dost love thy childs soul as well as his body if thou wouldst have him reign in Heaven as well as rule upon earth provide some Master-workman that may lay in him the foundations both of wisdom and grace thou seest he had little of either of these when thou wert first called his Father alas he knew not thee nor himself He knew not his right hand from his left Which cannot discern between the right hand and the left hand Thirdly This doth shew That Infants rightly baptized have undoubted salvation for if Baptism doth take away Originall sin what other sin can be laid to their charge they have so few motions to sin that they cannot discern between their right hand and their left why then should we look with an eye of dread upon those Infants which come bathed and rinsed and made heaven white from the laver of Christ I do not like them which fright men of riper age with torturing scruples that no man can be saved but those which have swum through their whirle-pool but I tremble to see an Euripus prepared for Infants that they will neither let them have peace for themselves nor their infants Alas poor Infants when ye are bastardised in the arms of your heavenly father or disinherited when your elder Brother hath taken you by the hand and acknowledged you for co-heirs Have ye no certain interest in heaven by the virtue of the seal may ye be damned with the blood of Christ trickling upon your soules is the Covenant of no validity to you is not the Ordinance an undoubted pledge of your justification No marvell then that many say that they are above Ordinances when the power of the Ordinance is so much disparaged amongst our selves what Infants slayn at the Font and left to the Devill with the purgative waters upon their faces Why then do they baptize them at all or administer to them the Physick if they their selves doubt of the operation of it Esay no doubt had more confidence in his plaister of figs and Elisha in sending of Naaman to go wash in the River of Jordan Is a ministeriall act so full of suspence then why are they ministers if they unpower cassate their own function Have they received true Orders then why do they doubt of the efficacy of the Ordinances the Parents may as well suspect whether they can or do baptize namely whether they have a lawfull calling and execute it lawfully as they perplex the Parents in saying That if their Infants be baptized they cannot tell but that they may drop into hell from the Sacrament if they dye Infants Cannot they tell then let them tell me nothing upon my Death-couch that can tell so little comfort at the laver I confesse I should be loath to take my Absolution from them at my last gasp in the world that can give so little resolution at the first breath in Christianity St Augustine was said to be Darus pater Infantum The hard Father of Infants because he denyed heaven to Infants not being baptized but are not these more unkind Fathers which will not ascertain heaven to Infants when they are baptized The Pelagians which held no Originall sin held Baptism requisite for an outward admission into a Church and do these hold Original sin and shall Baptism give but an externall initiation into a Church visible a visible fallacy to speak in the mildest terms to attribute to Baptisme no more then a Pelagian priviledge If these
doth serve to shew the benefit of a divine ingratiating Since thou wert pretious in my sight thou wert honourable Es 43.4 so honourable that God will be a restlesse Advocate for his Saints I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Not only look upon his Saints but stand by them not onely assist them at the first or for once but never take off his helping hand till he hath brought his work to perfection He will contend with the whole Earth for them now a contention ye know is not quickly at an end no there is a long debate before a businesse can be stated so God will weary the quarrelling world and make men desist from opposing and molesting before he will give over answering and confuting As in prosperity there shall be a succession of blessings The Plowman shall overtake the Reaper and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed Amos 9.13 So in protection there shall be a continuation concomitation connexion of arguments reason upon reason multiplicity of proofes God will be at the first entring of the suit and the last hearing in the Court a faithfull Solicitour which will never desert his Client till the sentence be past or the decree gotten Julius Caesar having undertaken the defence of noble Masintha he did not onely argue the cause for him against King Hiempsa and roughly oppose his Son Juba afterwards and a third time take him out of the hands of a Provinciate Sueton. who would have carried him away by force but at the expiration of his Pretorship being commanded to go into Spain he carried the records of the Court and the Rods of the Lictours along with him in his littour that Masintha might not be summoned or proceeded against til his comming back and at his return most honourably got him cleared So God where he is interessed in a case he will go through all emergencies till he hath brought every thing to an happy close The Augures in Rome having a mind to the house of Claudius Centumalus they prosecuted him in the Court Valer. Max. that he might be constrained to pluck down his house because it was built so high that it hindred their sight from observing the flight of the sourth saying birds Cato observing the spight and covetousnesse of the Augurs perceiving that the man must either give them the house or pull it down he undertook the defence of Centumalus and got the house to be measured and though it was manifested that the offence was in all probability causelesse yet the South-sayers being of a troublesome spirit and uncessant in the quarrell he wished Centumalus to sell his house to Calphurnius and to convey himself into some Forraign Province the counsell being embraced and the bargain made Calphurnius was no sooner entred into his Possession but they were as much enraged against him and renewed the suit saying that the house was forfeit to them because he had bought it of Centumalus without their consent they having their exception recorded in Court against inconvenience Cato answered that their plea had been good if they had proclaimed their exception in the City or signified it in a legall way to Calphurnius before the house was bought but both these fayling the bargain was justifiable so at last he got both Man and case discharged In like manner if one thing will not help the Saints another shall God hath variety of reliefes to aid the innocent When Themistocles the Graecian was in the Army of Xerxes the Persian King Diod Siculus Manda-ae his kinswoman came and besought him that he would now be revenged of Themistocles whom he had in his hands for killing her two Sons at the Battle of Salamine Xerxes dearly loving his kinswoman but infinitely pittying the case of Themistocles told her that a businesse of that consequence ought not to be done in a passion but upon mature deliberation therefore he wished her to forbear a while and afterwards to attend upon him and she should have his resolution she failed not to repair to him and vehemently pressed home her suit Xerxes told her that her bitternesse was such for the present that she was not fit to be heard but let her come with a more calm spirit and he would take her request into consideration and so he dismissed her the second time she made her third addresse and then Xerxes told her that Themistockles was not taken as a Captive for then at her request he would have executed him but he came to him upon safe conduct it stood not with his honour to murther him whom he had taken upon him to preserve Manda-ae not satisfied with this cried out that her Children were dead and there was the person that slew them therefore he did her not right if he were not destroyed with them The Prince being perplexed with the impatience of the woman turned her over to his Councell saying that whatsoever they determined he would stand to Sheapplieth her self of the Councell they set a long day for the time of hearing till Themistocles might learn the Persian tongue when pleading for himself he was fairly acquitted So God will weary the Saints enemies with tediousnesse and as often as they renew their motions he will have new answers for them and never cease till he hath freed them with honour The wicked may be violent at first but God will hold them so long in debate that at last their edge will be dulled as it was said of Lucius Crassus when he accused Marcellus that he was sharp in the onset but leight in the close Why then are we dismayd that Gods first argument doth not take if God hath not yet disputed us out of danger Impetu gravis exitu levis Val. Max hath he no more disceptations behind yes if a Syllogisme in Mode and Figure will not do it or a short Enthymem God will bring an Induction or a Sorites or a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he will enforce the Adversary God will use all his demonstrative reasons and search all his Topicall heads that he may be Victour for his Saints Therfore if one thing hath not done it another thing may Is God scanted in reasonings No Chrysippus himself was never so well provided When he hath alledged many things here he hath an enlargement still in store And also Secondly this doth serve to daunt the Polititian he doth carry it high and soars in the admiration of his contriving brain as if Nestor were not his match nor Ulysses his equall no Magnus Apollo with the Prince of Tyrus he thinketh he is Wiser then Daniel Ezech. 28.3 the great Apollo of the age oh how is he enamoured upon his projects and idolising his designes In this thing I am prevalent in that thing I am successfull What cannot I do by my ingenious and aritificiall head here lies the maze of inventions the Labyrinth of devices I have all the Sages in my brest I carry a
his high preferment here thou art but spared and cattel spared for thee but hast thou no greater degree of happinesse to attain unto Yes thou art not onely set forth to be an Heir of the Creatures but to be a co-heir with Christ Jesus There is an inheritance reserved for thee in the heavens an inheritance incorruptible undefiled which fadeth not away 1 Pet 1.4 Oh therfore look with a kind of neglect upon this present estate Misera quaedam est haec vita quae cum bestiis est communis Anselm for it is a kind of miserable life which we have here onely common with beasts therefore if thou dost know where thy durable riches and thy better and more enduring substance is laid then where the treasure is there let the heart be also Let thy conversation be in heaven set thy affections upon those things which are above Aug. ep 45. ad Ripar Paulinam Let life everlasting have thee amongst her lovers What are all these pittances and moyeties to that far more excellent and eternall weight of glory No if we could consider how many things Si consideremus quae qualia nobis promittuntur in coelis vilescerent omnia quae hîc habentur in terris Greg. Quid restat nisi ut jubiles Aug. in Psal 94. and how great are promised to us in heaven all things here upon earth would seem contemptible unto us Some comforts thou maist have here but there what doth remaine but that thou shouldst keep a solemn Jubilee Oh then that through these chinks of the flesh some beames of that heavenly light could shine into thy soul that with these dull ears thou couldst hear some distichs of those new songs which thou shalt sing with that celestiall Quire that afar off thou couldst spy thy Crown and get a glympse of that white Robe and that thy heart were already in heaven and thy spirit conversing with the spirits of just men made perfect Oh step beyond this world oh be translated in spirit press into the presence of thy Redeemer and let thy soul serve above stairs and stand like a pensioner in the presence Chamber despise this dung contemn this ash-heap sigh under this chayn bewaile this wilderness Thou wouldst have felicity is this the scituation of it No when thou saist I would live happily Quando dicis Beatè vivere volo bonam rem quaeris sed non hic Aug. in 13 Joh. thou seekest for a good thing but thou must not seek for it here Oh therefore let thy fervour to heaven be so ardent that all that the earth can present unto thee even Messuages and Mannours Debt-books and Free-deeds Wardrobes and Ware-houses chests of Treasure or Cabinets of Jewels Patents or Charters surred Gowns or chains of Gold Portalls or Palaces seem despicable to thee though thou dost spend some time with blear eyed Leah yet never be contented till thou dost embrace the beautifull Rachel though thou drinkest some draughts of the dilute wine at the beginning of the banquet yet never be satisfied till thou dost get a taste of the miraculous wine which will be brought in at the latter end of the feast if thou couldst live never so happily in Achish Court yet doe not fix there but let thy desires be for thy Crown in Jerusalem if thou couldst see Christ here transfigured upon mount Tabour yet do not wish to build Tabernacles here but let thy inward pantings be to enter into thy Masters joy thy Masters glory ever to be with the Lord to enjoy the prize of the high-calling of God in Christ Jesus and to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth there thou shalt be a companion of Angels whereas alas here thou art but a Lord of Beasts there thou shalt have a communion with the Saints whereas here thou dost but converse with Cattel for after the persons are spared the greatest additionall that can be made is the sparing of Cattel And also Cattel Eightly This doth serve to shew That we ought to express commiseration to Cattel for seeing God would spare them why should not we Yes spare them 1. by respective usage The just man is mercifull to his beast but the mercies of the wicked are cruell he is a beast which is barbarous to his beast he is no better then a slave which doth make the beast his slave thou must neither feed it under the necessary allowance nor work it beyond the strength be neither too sparing of Provender nor too extream in punishment it is pitty but he should dwell in an Alms-house which hath no purse for his â—east that he should live under a Tyrant that hath nothing but a whip for his beast which pinch it till it faint or lay burthens upon it till it sink that because he is a Master doth not care what penuriousnesse or severity he doth expresse to it Where shall this dumb Creature be righted God hath a Bar for this oppressed Creature and the right beast even the savage Master shall one day meer both with a pound and a scourge Secondly Spare the Cattel by moderate use for though â—â—an hath a right to the Creature yet no Impery over it he may participate of it but not riot upon it he may enjoy it for his necessity and delight but not for his excesse and surfeit no those voluptuous Libertines and insatiable gluttons shall one day know what it is to tyrannize over the Creatures God is offended with evill beasts and slow-bellyes men given to the appetite which have mind of nothing but eating lambs out of the flock and calves out of the stall Amos 6.4 that is killing and devouring the cry of the Creatures shall one day bring in a sad arraignment at Gods Bar Dives that fared deliciously is in hell flames and our Saviour doth denounce a curse to all his fellow Epicures Wo be to you that are sull Gula clausâ—â— para disum primogenituram vendidit Sustendit pistorem decollavit I aptistam ejeciâ— Baltasarem Innoc. de vilit con human Malae Dominae servitur gulae Amb. deelia Jejun Qui Christum desideraâ— illo pane vescitur non magnopere curat quam de pretiosis cibis stercus conficiat Jeron ad Paul If surfeiting cast our first parents out of Paradise lost Esau his birth-right hung up the chiefe Baker beheaded John Baptist and rent away Baltazvrs Kingdome then it is a sinne not superficially to be regarded He doth serve an ill Mistress which obeyes his appetite He which desires Christ and doth make him his nourishment doth not care greatly of what precious meats he doth make his excrements Take heed therefore thou dost not fall from thy Dresser into Hell and that thy Cook-room doth not provide for thee a boyling Caldron below that thy riotous banquets do not provide for thee ravenous hunger in another world as thou wouldest spare thy soul spare the Cattel by moderate use 3ly Spare the Cattel by
Christian Nineveh had but one Prophet ye have had many Nineveh had but the cry of one day or a few daies ye have had the cries of many years yet when will ye match Nineveh in attention submission ashes sackcloth fasting prayer and reformation Plut. Lucius Sylla an old Dictatour blushed to see Cn. Pompey a young man to triumph before him So may not ye account it an high disparagement to you to see Nineveh but newly entred into religion a very Tyro to ride in the Triumphant Chariot before you which are grown gray headed under profession ye would be spared but when will ye seek God with Ninevehs penitent heart Oh let judgement I beseech you as much afflict you and affright you remorse as much humble you and change you as they did Nineveh Lacit that as Plato for resembling his Master was called Socrates junior So ye for resembling this City may be called Nineveh the younger If your peril be as great let your prevention be equal else in coming short in the pacification ye will come short in the preservation For can God and ye tread the same ground if ye walk by his sides as enemies No if ye rend away from God by disobedience he will pluck you off though ye were as the signet upon his right hand Where is Capernaum which was lifted up to heaven in priviledges Where are the seven golden Candlesticks Oh talk not of your Temples and Lectures your Protestations and Speculations your pure looks and pure language there is nothing will save you but humiliation and sanctification We have had personating men a long time amongst us but when shall we have the true penitent men Alexander Severus did cut asunder the sinewes of a mans hand which did present to him the false brief of a Case and do not we feare to be punished for offering to God a counterfeit repentance Oh ye which do humble your looks and not your hearts which do make many new faces and yet live in your old sinnes may ye not be surprised in your dissimulation perish in your hypocrisie Oh that the Gospell revealed doth not teach you more sincerity that judgement denounced doth not quicken you to more integrity Will ye dissemble to the last and jeopard the ruine of a whole City in your out-side cleansings tremuit saevâ sub voce tonantis Lucan l. 5. Pharsal How farre can ye imagine that ye are off from the collisions of justice every corner of your City doth seem to tremble under the voyce of a threatning God Oh your sinnes do cry and vengeance is awakned with the noyse of them the heavens are offended with you and the earth doth seem to rise up in tumults amongst you your courses have been such that most do defy you and few do pitty you there are many which do wish your destruction and are sorry that they cannot make you the miserable of the earth they consult sad things concerning you yea conspire against you night and day their braines doe work their hearts do boyle their mouthes do foam and they would willingly be stretching out their hands to shake you and shiver you ye have eâ—emies within your City ye have enemies in your own consciences your sinnes do threaten more calamities to you then all the inveterate and implacable adversaries which ye have upon earth How can ye oppose such irresistible forces no though ye had guards of Giants and every common Souldier were an Ashibenoh the head of whose spear weighd three hundred shekels of brass yet your sinnes will beat you down before your enemies Oh stand up in your own defence open the right Arsenall Have the armour of righteousnesse on the right hand and on the lest use Ninevehs weapons to sight this battel vanquish all your sinnes by crying lowder for mercy then they do for ruine escape vengeance by flying from your provocations before indignation hath attached you your City is threatned take heed ye do not sleep out the hour of your security Presumption may subvert let contrition deliver you the time may be short the work is great the danger is apparent the misery will be unspeakable lay aside neglect awaken from torpulency pluck down your haughtinesse surcease from obstinacy your City walls do shake let your hearts shake your buildings are loose upon the foundation groundsell them better by mortification all your goods are ready to be sacrificed to vengeance bring forth your sin offering before the sparks have taken fire if there be in you any listning to a warning credence of threatning obedience to counsail foresight of danger sting of guilt or obligation of duty pitty the City and petition for the City shed lakes of teares to obtaine the peace of the City kill droves of sins to procure the safety of the City wear sackcloth least ye do go naked fast least ye do starve sit upon the ash-heap least ye be brought to an ash-heap creep upon your knees least ye do creep into corners shut up your selves into your closets least ye be shut into dungeons fly to heaven least ye do fly out of the Land confesse your sinnes least justice do read the Bill to your faces condemn your selves least ye be sentenced without reprieve look upon your errours with passions be humbled with conflicts repent with agonies appease with fire reconcile with ropes weep with torrents pray with shrieks cleanse with nitre attend at the Court of Audience lay it out at Gods judgement seat wash in Jordan till the le prosie be departed wrastle with the Angell till ye have obtained the blessing Leave not one grievance in heaven to prosecute you not one injury upon earth to accurse you be perfectly renewed that ye may be perfectly secured Thus if I can now leave you with bleeding hearts sobbing breasts suppliant tongues abased bodies frayed souls purified consciences and rinsed conversations ye are Nineveh and your City may yet prosper For ye see how God pleaded out his case for Nineveh and freed his Clyent the City was humbled and preserved repentance prevented her over-throw not a man was smitten though there were multitudes of Persons not a beast was destroyed though there were much cattle Go and do thou likewise do likewise and enjoy likewise Oh that I could be such a Jonah to you that I could cry out such a City that I could make you thus to believe God and serve God your humiliation should free you from all horrors your dejection from all dangers your devotion and reformation from all exigents your walles should not be battered your Bulwarks not demolished your Palaces should not be laid wast your Temples should not be shut up your shops should not be rifled your persons should not be massacred nor your Cattle slaughtered but your Liberties your Lives your Goods your Royalties your Ordinances your Oracles your holy Altars holy Priests holy Vessels holy Shew-bread holy Incense and Holy of Holies even all your spiritual prerogatives and Church-priviledges should be ratified to you upon earth ye should continue a safe people and flourishing City yea after ye had served God in his Church ye should serve him in his Temple he should translate you from this City to the City of the new Jerusalem that after ye had enjoyed all the preferments of the materiall or mysticall City ye might have the joyes and pleasures of the glorious City even the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Which that ye may have the Lord grant for his mercies sake Amen FINIS Courteous Reader I intreat thee that before thou dost peruse the Sermons thou wouldst first amend the Errata Other literall and casuall errours I must leave to thy own judgement to Correct PAge 37. for as Magisteriall Gods r. as Magisteriall as Gods p. 57. for turn against Iacob r. burn against Jacob p. 69. for filled up r. siled up p. 81. for immaginating r immagnating p. 86. for serve together r. serre together p. 98. for Essences r. Essenes p. 105. for beautifull vision r. beatificall p. 151. for fiske the Nation r. fist the Nation p. 179. for Interceptours r. Interpretours p. 209. for Pylen r. Pylos p. 259. for ascement r. Casement p. 265. for laboust r. labourest p. 307. for except r. expect p. 308. for alteration r. altereation p. 311. for bowltick r. bowletick p. 312. for sill r. skill
be ye smitten grove-long to the earth wallow your selves in the ash heap weep till a teare more cannot melt out of your eyes reform till there be not one sinne left for conscience to turn new spy unto and so may repentance be your preservative a kind of Guardian Angell to the City with Nineveh ye may yet be spared But if ye be spared I wish ye not to be secure for if your repentance should intermit or abate in the vigour if ye should fast and fall to your old riot or put on sackcloth and change this sackcloth into new fashions or cry mightily unto God and cry but till the judgement be removed or turn from your evill wayes and wax as exorbitant as ye were before and forbear from the violence that is in your hands and then become as club-fisted as ever the renewing of your former sinnes will but renew your former dangers therefore your repentance must not onely be fervent but firm not onely unfeigned but unchangeable for remember Loths wife remember Nineveh she humbled her self and was pardoned she repented and was spared but she repented but for a time and was spared but for a time she turned again to be Nineveh the wicked and she happened to be Nineveh the miserable a temporary repentance procured for her but a temporary safety God aid not cry the second time nor send a new Jonah to her but he sent a curse instead of a cry and desolation instead of a Prophet she is now ruined into That great heap that was spared because she was That great City Should not I spare Nineveh that great City 3d General part Wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons which cannot discern betwixt their right hand and their left hand and also much cattel Now let us come to the description Wherein are more c. In which observe these two particulars First The principall commodities Wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons which cannot discerne between their right hand and their left hand Secondly The lesse principal commodities And also much cattel First for the principall commodities in which these parts are considerable 1. The receptacle Wherein 2. The season Are. 3. The treasures Persons 4. The quantity Sixscore thousand 5. The surplus More 6. The qualifications Which cannot discern betwixt their right hand and their left hand Wherein First for the Receptacle Wherein Elsewhere had been no credit to Nineveh but that Nineveh was the place in which such choise things are to be found this is honour Wherein From hence observe that Happinesse must carry with it an Appropriation the Appropriation is the approbation of it yea the apprehension and as I may call it the appurtenancy of it that is the most beneficiall Jewell which is worn about our own neck and the comfortable light Intus caâ—are Tullius which doth shine in our own Horison That is the best musick when men do sing within he is a pittifull mason which doth build for others and hath not an house to hide his head in and a lamentable tilth-man which doth plow and sow for others and hath not at the latter end of the year any crop of his own to reap what matter though thousands be recorded for fortunate persons if thy name be not put into the Catalogue Nos es in illo albo Plinius Mihi ipsi balneam ministrabo Aristoph A te tua cura consideratio inchoet ne frustra extendaris in alios te neglecto Bern. de Consid ad Eugen. Quid nobis cum alieno Greg. Naz. or that never such great multitudes are in the bath if thou dost not step in with them A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth Prov. 15.23 when a man 's own mouth can speak satisfactorily and feelingly for that which should truly blesse Let thy care and consideration begin at thy self lest in vain thou beest busie about others thy self being neglected Let us know amongst our selves what is good as Elihu saith Job 34.4 Particular experience is beyond generall relation Why shouldst thou destroy thy self Eccles 7.16 He doth destroy himself which doth not principally make sure that which is proper for his own preservation VVhat have we to do with that which is forraign He that heareth of much and acquireth nothing is like the fool which foldeth his hands together and eateth his own flesh Eccles 4.5 for should he onely see other men put meat into their mouths and not feed himselfe yes his mouth craveth it of him Prov. 16.26 That which a man doth possesse is his proper advantage for neither welfare nor honour law nor gospell peace of conscience nor the joyes of Heaven are usefull to us if we have not a proper title to them Therefore let not the blessing be mistaken but let it be individually our own as ye see it was Ninevehs happiness to have this felicity with a restriction or in the proper ubi VVherein Application First this doth reprove them which know blessings onely by hearsay there are places that have them but do they center at home can they say of their own station Wherein No they have a rumour of much by report but have nothing in their own enjoyment and is not this a wandering kind of comfort Domestica mala graviora sunt quà m ut lachrymas recipiant Herod l. 3. Se suos discipulos docere decem minis verùm qui ipsum docerent citra timidit atem loqui se ei daturum centum minas Eâ—asm Plut. in Apoph to see fulnesse abroad and want at home yes domesticall miseries are greater then can be expressed by tears as Psammenitus told Cambyses Oh that we should live by the gazel or satisfie our selves by an extraneous welfare What is this but like Isocrates which taught all his schollers resolution in pleading for ten pounds but he would give him an hundred pounds out of a sense of his own timidity which could teach him the like courage if we be satisfied with the endeavours of others to attain to great things and have not the like affections to make our selves happy we are but like the fishes gladioli as Themistocles said of Eretrienses which carry a sword upon their backs but have no heart within Oh therefore let us not be given too much to visit the state of others but let our eyes be in our heads to observe our own condition whether the right blessing be in the right place Let every man prove his own work that he may have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another Gal. 6.4 Oh let us not talk of dainties and tast no delicacies our selves or speak of banks and have no treasures in our own possession or tell tales of Heaven and have no heavenly interest and evidences for this were but to be imaginarily happy or implicitely blessed Therefore let us plead out our own entail to felicity and bring it home to the proper place as Nineveh here had it rightly seared for