love-tricks to what his Soul endured O all ye that passe by the way behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow Alasse what can we see of thy sorrowes we can no more see thy pain than endure it only this we see that what the infinite sins almost of infinite men committed against an infinite Majesty deserved in infinite continuance of time all this Thou in the short time of thy Passion hast payed for to the full and we are bought with a price O dear Christians how ought these Earthy Rocky Adamantine hearts of ours rent in pieces at this Meditation What all these tears and pangs and groans are for us yea from us Shall the Son of God thus smart for our sins yea with our sins and shall not we grieve for our own How far were our soules gone that could not be ransomed with an easier price If thy Soul had been in His Souls stead what had become of it it shall be if His were not in stead of thine Go too now thou lewd Man that makes thy selfe merry with uncleannesse thou little knowes the price of one sin which made thy blessed Saviour cry out to the amazement of Angells and horrour of men My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But now we are bought with a price And if we be bought with a price then away with those Jubile Proclamations of Rome I mean the Supererogatory sufferings of Saints to pay forth this price a blasphemous and beggerly Principle as learned Fulk calls it Some modest Doctours of Lovain would have minced it affirming that the suffering of Saints are not truly satisfactory but only motives to move God to apply unto us Christs sufferingss but they were soon charmed by four severall Popes as their own Cardinall confesses and commanded to speak home with Bellarmine Passionibus Sanctorum expiari delicta that by the sufferings of Saints our sins are expiated and that by them applyed we are redeemed from those punishments we yet owe to God Blasphemy worthy of tearing of garments How hath Christ payed the price if we must supply the defect But we are bought with a price Take up then a Song of deliverance far more glorious than that of Moses Deborah or Gideon Art thou afraid of Satan Christ hath spoyled Principalities and Powers Art thou affraid of sin Christ was made sin that is a price for sin for thee Death Hell and the Grave are conquered that thou maist triumph Hell where is thy sting Death where is thy victory Nay this price hath payed for the abolishment of the Ceremonies of the Law Away then with New Moones Sacrifices and the rites of Judaism the vail of the Temple is rent That conceit of Theophylact is witty at least That as the Jewes were wont to rend their garments when they heard blasphemy so the Temple not enduring those execrable blasphemies against the Son of God tore her Vail apieces But that is not all The vail rent is the observation of the Rituall Law cancelled I say not that all ceremonies are cancelled by this price but the Law of Ceremonies and Jewish It is a sound distinction of the Antients that some are Typicall foresignifying Christ some of order and decency those are abrogated not these The Spouse of Christ cannot be without her laces and chains and borders But thou O Lord how long shall thy poor Church through contentious spirits finde her ornaments her sorrowes How much better were it to revive the sweet spirit of divine Saint Austine turning this contention into grarâ—dation glorifying God for these mercies which is the next Proposition and the last of the three Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God All things ought to begin for to terminate in Gods glory which is the end of all our actions the centre of all our motions The Angells sounded this Trumpet at his Birth when the price was but offered shall not we for his pretious Death and Passion when it was payed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glory be to God on high This glory is Gods First a debito for we are his and that triplici jure by a threefold right of Creation as Men of Redemption as Sons of Sanctification as Saints Secondly ab integro from the whole we are composed of two parts Body and Spirit are Gods both in body and spirit therefore must glorifie him both in body and spirit Thirdly a lytro from the Ransom Empti sumus We are bought by a Synecdoche quasi redempti redeemed and re-bought and that by an Emphaticall Pleonasme pretio with a price And thus what one ought to have done a three-fold cord must move us to do to glorifie God We are Gods both in body and spirit Gods because we are redeemed both in body and spirit by the Son of God This is the main and cardinall reason let us prosecute it What mercy was ever like this for a God to sell his own Son that he might redeem his Enemies What more dear than a Son what more hatefull than an Enemy Yet oftentimes we see that the hate of an Enemy is drunk up of the love of a Son O my son Absalom would God I had dyed for thee Fulvius a Roman Senatour slew his Son for conspiring with Cateline but in Christ was no guile found Manlius adjudged his Son to die for violating the Law of Armes Christ kept the whole Law Aegeus sent his son Theseus to conflict with a Minotaur to free himselfe and his Country from deserved bondage God sent his Son to conflict with Satan Death and Hell who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free from all bondage The Israelites sacrificed their Children to Moloch Agamemnon his daughter Iphigenia to Neptune but they had more But God when he had no more gave his onely Son for a price Besides the infinite disproportion betwixt God and Man An act of mercy in Scripture in History not to be found the like unparallel'd unlesse a Type in Abraham and but a Type I know saies God to Abraham thou lovest me because thou hast not spared thine onely son Isaac And then shall not we O holy Father know thou lovest us that hast not spared but given thine onely Son Jesus Gods love to Christ was infinite Abraham's to Isaac but finite God gave his Son willingly Abraham as it were constrainedly God gave his Son to an ignominious death Abraham to a holy Sacrifice Isaac was in the hands of a tender Father Christ of barbarous enemies Isaac was but offered in shew Christ payed the price indeed O the infinite disproportion St. Chrysostome is rapt hereat and calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an excesse of love that is a pin to low Pareus calls it porâ—entum amoris a miracle of love that is yet too short St. Paul waft upon Seraphick wings styles it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 love surpassing knowledge that that 's it What can we do in lue but to the point in hand glorifie God like
A CABINET OF Spirituall Iewells WHEREIN Man's Misery God's Mercy Christ's Treasury Truth 's Prevalency Errour 's Ignominy Grace's Excellency a Christian's Duty the Saint's Glory is set forth In eight Sermons With a brief Appendix of the Nature Equity and Obligation of TITHES under the Gospell And Expediency of MARRIAGE to be lemnized onely by a lawfull Minister so in the Church or publick Assembly By JOHN CRAGGE M. A. and Minister of the Gospell at Lantilio Pertholy in Monmouth-shire 2 Tim. 4. 2 3. Preach the word be instant in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine For the time will come that they will not endure sound doctrin but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears LONDON Printed by W. W. for H. Twyford N. Brooks T. Dring J. Place and are to be sold at their Shops 1657. To the right Worshipfull Thomas Morgan of Machen Esq and his truly vertutuous Consort Mrs Elizabeth Morgan Much honour'd Worthies GIve me leave to prefix your names to this Manuell and conjoyne you in this Dedication whom Providence hath linked in that sacred Tye which so mysteriously emblems Christ and his Church and that with that lustre in your Family as Rubies and Diamonds Carbuncles and Saphires are matched in Emperiall Crownes with that happy successe in your Issue those Olive branches about your Table as Rachel and Leah which builded up the house of Israel with that harmonious Diapason in Religion as Jachim and Boaz in the Temple with that beautifull and sweet asspect to your Neighbourhood as the Rose and Flowre-deluce in Garlands with that Halcyon calmnesse in the troublesome Sea of this World as Castor and Pollux to the Mariners When Duty told me in something I was bound in much I was not able to expresse my gratefull affections towards you I resolved with that poor Persian who had nothing to entertain Artaxerxes with but water fetcht out of the next spring to present you with these Waters drawn out of the Wells of Salvation with this unpolished Cabinet not like that of Alexander's embroidered with gold and pearls wherein he kept Homer's Iliads but rather resembling that pretious stone in Dioscorides black on the outside checkered with golden spangles within or the Tree in Plinie withered in the outward rinde fruitfull in the inner core For indeed the frame and structure of it as mine is homely but the truth enshrined in it as Gods is pretious for it comprises an Elixir of that glorious Gospell for which the British Nation hath been so renowned and outshined all others in these Western parts velut inter ignes Luna minores Transcendently renowned in a threefold respect First in regard of their nursing Fathers of the Church Secondly of their primitive receiving of the Gospell as soon as any others Thirdly of retaining the purity of it after others For The first Christian Emperour was Constantine inaugurated to the Diadem at York by acclamation of the Souldiers Son of Helena King Coile's Daughter a British Lady The first Christian King the Sun beheld was Lucius Monarch of Brittain The first King that appeared for reformation of Religion which for many Centuries with the River Alpheus had coursed through the saltish brine of corruption was in part Henry the Eighth more compleatly his Son Edward the Sixth The first Prince that by his learned Pen laid Siege to the Hierarchie of Rome was King James all of them of the British Race What can be added more unlesse a proto-Matyr to seal it with his blood Secondly Brittain for primitive receiving of the Gospell may challenge equiqage if not precedency with other Nations which Gildas the wise emblazons for relating the tempestuous storms and billowes of calamity his Country-men were tossed withall under Claudius his bloody War with the same breath he mentions a sudden miraculous calm In the mean time saies he Interea glaciali frâ—igore rigente Insulâ c. Gild. de excidio Britan cap. 6. Niceph. lâ—b 3. hist cap. 1. Theod. lib. 9. de curand Graec affect while Bellona vvas raging there appeared and imparted it selfe to this cold Iland removed off from the visible Sun further than other Countries that true and invisible Sun vvhich in the time of Tiberius Caesar had shevved himselfe to the vvhole World Bâ—itannorum lâ—ca Roâ—anis inacâ—â—lla Christo sub ta sunt Tertul. advers Judaeos cap. 7. 8. Tertullian who lived lesse then two hundred years after Christ tells us that the Brittish Territories not only the Southern but those unaccessable to the Romans were subject unto Christ BritaÌ„niam in Christianam consentire religionem Orig. Homil. 4. in Ezek. Origen who lived in the year of Christ 260. saies that the Britaine 's had consented to the Christian Religion And St. Gallia Britannia Africa Persis oriens India omnes barbarae Nationes unum Christum adorant unam observant regulam veritatis Jerom. ad Evagrium Jerom proclaimes that Gaul Brittain Africk Persia East India and all barbarous Nations adore one Christ and observe one rule of truth And this Evangelicall light was brought hither both by Apostles and Apostolicke men Apostles first St. Peter if credit may be given to Simeon Metaph apud Surium die 23 Jun. pag. 862. Simeon Metaphrastes and Surius which seemes to be confirmed by Innocent 1. in Epist ad Decent Innocentius almost one thousand three hundred years ago saying The first Churches of Italy France Spain and the Ilands that lie betwixt them whereof Eusengrenius saith Britain was one were founded by St. Peter which may rationally be conjectured to be the cause why Gild. pag. 2. Epist de excid Brit. Gildas amongst other things objecteth to the British Priests Quod sedem Petri Apostoli inverecundis pedibus usurpâssent That they had usurped the Apostle Peter's seat with unreverent feet Secondly St. Paul whom Theodoret Sophronius and Arnoldus Mirmannus in Theatro quarto Neronis An. Dom. 59. Arnoldus Mirmannus affirme to have passed to Brittain the fourth year of Nero and there having sowen the seed of life to return to Italy This Venantius Fortunatus eleven hundred years ago witnesses of Paul's Peregrination Transiit Oceanum vel quà facit Insula portum Quasque Britannus habet terras atque ultima Thule He pass'd the Oceans curled wave As far as Ilands harbours have As far as Brittan yields a Bay Or Iselands frozen shore a stay Thirdly Symon the Canaanite surnamed Zelotes of his zeal in the second year of Claudius eleven years after our Saviour's passion arrived at Britain and preached the Gospell as witnesseth Dorotheus Simon Zelotes peragratâ Mauritaniâ Afrorum regione ChristuÌ„ praedicavit taÌ„dem in Britanniâ ubi crucifixus occisus sepultus est Doroth. in Synopsi Simon Zelotes having passed through Mauritania and the Regions of Africk at last preached Christ in Brittain where he was crucified slain and buried Nicephorus Evangelii doctrinam ad occidentalem Oceanum insulasque Britannicas
these three Assasinates that lie in wait for our Souls and say reficiam vos I will refresh you For we were lost and stood in need of a price And because lost let us therefore finde our hearts and be humbled for our losse if we desire to finde again The Prodigall at first lost his Estate and at once found his Father and himselfe If he had not lost himselfe on Earth he had scarce found Heaven when he went astray he was humbled and no sooner humbled but he was advanced This humility must be true and our sorrow as deep as our sins not hypocriticall like the Pharisees who with the Roman Brutus will kisse the Earth when their thoughts of vain-glory are builded as high as Babel by lessening themselves hide their hypocrisie as the Snake does her length by folding her selfe into many gyres and doubles It hath stil been and wil be the garb of those formall Penitentiaries who make Heaven a foot-stool for Earth and Religion a Pandour to worldly Policy like a Faulcon by voluntary humiliation to stoop the lowest when they mean to soar highest and like a Bullet spit out of the mouth of a Canon first graze and then mount But we must remember that we were lost and not our own This is somewhat harsh As we are generally forgetfull so in nothing more than in things belonging to our woes Either we dare not or cannot lay to heart our former adversity and our present cause of sorrow The Mariners love not to hear of Storms nor States rocked in security of VVars neither can wanton Youth endure the tidings of sicknesse and old age nor our souls that they were slaves to sin Satan not our own If any one be dismayed hereat thinking with the Disciples that it is durus sermo a hard speech or judge of this humiliation as Paphnutius did at the Council of Nice of the Inhibition of Priests Marriage that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a heavy yoke Loe here after this harsh sentence a pardon presents it selfe in the first words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye are bought with a price This is the second Proposition which as the Day-spring from on high visits us with comfort and as the Angell that sat upon the VVheel with the Martyr under Julian's persecution wiping away the blood with his handkerchiefe sweetens the malignity of the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye were bought The word signifies to Buy as one does in a Market comming from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fair or Market This Fair was proclaimed in Paradise rung to by Aaron's golden Bells sounded by Esay's Trumpet Isa 55. 1. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters buy milk and wine without mony and without price But Fountains of Milk VVine Oyle Mountaines of Gold Silver Diamonds VVorldes of Crownes Scepters Diadems were not of worth to redeem Man lost VVhat then must he be bought withall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a price The word sometimes signifies Honour sometimes the reward of Honour sometimes Magistracy Dignity and Authority sometimes Victory sometimes a Trophy or reward of Victory sometimes a Price that is paid for ransoming or recovering a thing lost and so here And surely if ever any was this may be styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of eminence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the honourable price The young Pellicans being dead are not restored to life but by the blood of the old one Nor we dead in trespasses and sins without the pretious blood of our Saviour Heaven is a Lottery each Man drawes for and aimes at a summum bonum or chiefest good some lights in friends some in Honour some in Riches some in Morall Vertues above three hundred opinions as Varre hath observed All these were but Blanks here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the price This price was Christ the seller Judas the buyer the Jewes God the permitter who appointed his Son a price 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By his determinate counsell and foreknowledge Act. 2. 23. The Son gave himselfe a price Ephes 5. 2. Judas was stigmatised with this everlasting brand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the deliverer all of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joynt Agents in this sale yet not alike God gave this price out of mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he so loved the world such a sic as can never be parallel'd with a sicut The Son gave himselfe a price in submission to the Father Father not my will but thine be done Judas sinned against the Father in selling the Son God neither commanded nor compelled Judas Judas neither obeyed nor aimed at Gods command therefore was neither God guilty of Judas his fault nor Judas free from guilt by co-operating with God Thus God brought light out of darknesse Judas darknesse out of light Lord turn our darknesse into light that we may see the value of this price a price unvaluable The Vestalls fire put out might not be kindled but by the beams of the Sun neither the fire of Gods Grace re-kindled but by the obedience of his own Son Men Angells blood of Martyrs Incense of Saints a thousand Worlds ten thousand Rivers of Oyle could not nor any thing but the death of him that was the Lord of Life We were captives bondslaves and he to use the Civilians words ad pretium participandum sese venundari passus est suffered himselfe to be sold to purchase the price of our Redemption A price delivered from Satan to Judas from Judas to the Souldiers from the Souldiers to the High Priests from the High Priests to Pilate from Pilate to the Jewes to be crucified Thus mare repellit ad barbaros barbari ad mare tossed between the Sea of our sins and the Pikes of Satan could find no resting place till he was naild to the Crosse in Calvary Look up all ye beholders look upon this pretious Body and see what part ye can finde free That Head that was adored and trembled at by the Angelicall Spirits is all raked and harrowed with thorns that Face of whom it was said Thou art fairer then the children of men is all besmeared with the filthy spittle of the Jewes and furrowed with his tears those Eyes clearer then the Sun are darkened with the shadow of death those Ears that hear the heavenly consorts of Angells are now filled with the cursed speakings and scoffs of wretched men those lips that spake as never man spake that commanded the Spirits both of light and darknesse are scornfully wet with Vinegar and Gall those Feet that trample on all the powers of Hell His enemies are made his footstool are now nailed to the footstool of the Crosse those hands that freely sway the Scepter of Heaven now carry the Reed of reproach and are nailed to the Tree of reproach that whole Body that was conceived by the Holy Ghost was all scourged wounded mangled This is the outside of his sufferings and was he free within these were but
whether in their time and if they had it all is but to make Gold a little glittering Clay What then should we do to gain Christ in gaining whom we gain Heaven and all How often have we heard and pittied some whom the world accounts her dearest Minions beyond an ordinary pitch of Epicurisme or Atheisme Midas-like to cram their soul with wishes to themselves to their Children of the flesh-pots of Aegypt trash of this world ballast to fill the guts not one poor wish I fear scarce a thought for Heaven for Christ Me-thinks I could resolve my selfe into Jeremie's lamentation and Nehemiah's tears to see the preposterous course worldlings take to provide earthly garbage for their Children advancing them by Marriage when ignorant of the principles of Religion they go together like Brutes They themselves tumbled into the grave like the rich Glutton leaving their posterity in as pittifull a plight as he his five brethren Tell me I beseech you what comfort is it to a damned soul in hell to leave Children upon earth wallowing in abundance without Christ they shall be as Fellons apprehended with the Mannure in which they glory and cast into the same Prison The Rich without Christ are so far from having all things that they have nothing like the mad lunatick man at Athens they may perswade themselves that every ship that is landed is their own like the Lamâ—ae or Witches think they feed upon delicacies like Sanguine-dreams fancy they have Earldomes Dukedomes Mountains of Gold yet all is but a fancy And admit the meat thou eats the cloaths thou puts on the pleasure thou enjoyes the lands thou possesses be truely thine own without Christ they are but as Trees without fruit Clouds without rain Combes without honey have no more proportion to that a Christian enjoyes than a house of Cards hath to a Palace a Mole-hill to a Mountain a King on a Stage to a King on a Throne And admit thou receive some reall comfort here the more will be thy sorrow hereafter for every minute of sugered delight thou shalt have an eternity of horrour the more thy strength thy beauty thy riches thy honour here the more will be thy feeblenesse thy deformity thy want the deeper thy disgrace hereafter Boast now O Worldling of that thou enjoyest without Christ glory as a Cripple of his soars a Prisoner of his Fetters a Pirate of his robberies at the Gallowes of the things thou usurpest till Judas-like thou throw them away as the cursed price for which thou hast sold thy soul to Satan and confesse as thou wilt be once compell'd that only he that hath Christ hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things All things in this world are like Sun-dials blaze-Torches Tapers Candles all Stars at once they are of no use flow Riches Honour Strength Wives Friends Children to our contentment without this Sun of Righteousnesse it is still night They may be Copies of Gods grace but without Seal Ciphers of no value till the Unity in the Trinity by Christ the Meadiatour be joyned with them When this union is once made then as if the whole World were a Globe of Gold the Earth a Centre of Diamond the Heavens poured down Balme the Clouds showred down pretious Oyntments all for the solace of that man God shall replenish his Soul with comforts and no wonder seeing he hath given him his Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How shall he not with him give all things This is the three-fold Emphasis by which this Argument is amplified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a note of Interrogation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Negation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Augmentation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How shall he not also As if he had said It is a thing beyond all possible certainty and more then certain that he will give us all things and more then all things if it be possible and all of this because he hath given us his own Son who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all of all and all in all and more than all And the reason of this inference may be either taken from the Cause Christ that made all things containes all things or from the Signe He that could give Christ can give all things He that would give Christ will give all things God hath given to Satan power in the world and therefore he is styled in Scripture god of this world the prince that rules in the the aire To the blessed Angells he hath given power in Heaven therefore they are called Thrones dominions principalities and powers but to neither of them hath he given his Son Some Divines make this the occasion of Lucifer's fall and the Angells they ambitiously aspired desired the union with the Unity in Trinity envyed that the seed of Woman should be united with the eternall Word the second Person in the Trinity God hath given eternall Crownes to the Angells in Heaven power to the Devills upon Earth but Christ to neither of them But he hath given us Christ therefore he wil with him give us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things in Heaven and Earth Wherefore art thou then perplexed within me O my Soul still trust in God Ille providebit He will be thy great reward Quid dubitas de possessionibus saies St. Chrysostome herum dominum cum habeas Why doubtest thou of possessions when thou possessest the Lord of all even Christ the Son of God Now O Lord thou that sparedst not but crucifiedst thy Son for our sins-sake crucifie our sins and spare us for thy Son's sake Spare us for thy Son's merits who wouldst not spare thy Son for our sins demerits Receive us by the red Sea of his Blood through the dead Sea of Death to the Land of Promise To whom with thee O holy Father c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A SERMON Preached before these times as prognosticating the storms that were then impendent whereof part are fallen since The Text Psal 76. 7. And who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry THE time when the occasion why and the Author by whom this Psalm was penned is not generally agreed upon but that it was as all Scripture is from the holy Ghost in time of spirituall joy and exaltation after some glorious victory none makes question And if Moses and the Israelites sung a Song of deliverance for the overthrow of Pharaoh Barak and Deborah for the death of Sisera why may â—ot we think with the Septuagints that this is a Song of deliverance for that miraculous discomfiture of Senacherib's army in the daies of Hezekiah But we leave that as more then probable come to the parts of the Psalm which are four The first is a Preface in the two first verses laying down the Argument that God is to be praised enforced by two reasons the one drawn from his wonderfull works whereby he hath shewed himselfe to the Jewes the other from his speciall presence at Jerusalem and
promised to be a Husband to the widow a Father to the fatherlesse a succour to the poor a guide to the stranger They that offer wrong to these strive to separate those whom God hath wedded to himselfe by holy affections by promises by his Son Jesus Therefore see what God saies Exod. 22. 22. Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherlesse child if thou afflict them in any wise and they criâ— at all unto me I will surely hear their cry and my wrath shall wax hot and I will kill you with the sword and your wives shal be widowes and your children father lesse Lastly all filthy unnaturall and abominable lusts of the flesh these rebell against the spirit anger God the Father of spirits witnesse the adultery of David for which the sword never departed from his house those thousands of Benjamites that were slain for abusing the Levit's wife those Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that were buried in the fiery flakes of brimstone Thus we have discovered a few of the chiefest of those sins that provoke Gods anger By these and all others let us examine our souls and sit an audit in our consciences whether we have any share in kindling of Gods anger or no. O that many mens consciences did not tell them without examination and that we did not see by daily experience that Hos 4. 2. by swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing of adultery men break out that blood touches blood Thus much for the Use of Examination The next Use is of Enquiry if it be so that we have angered God how we may foresee and know the day of his anger Mariners desire to so see a storm diggers in Mines a damp souldiers would be forewarned that they may be fore-armed against the comming of their enemies The truâ—h is God for the most part keeps the expresse day of his anger in his secret will to himselfe yet many times shewes that it is near and those are either such as must infallibâ—y come to passe as the last Judgment or are revealed to us with a condition as Niniveh shall be destroyed if they repent not Jerusalem shall be demolished if she will not know the day of her visitation Judas shall smart for it if he betray his Lord and Master and these events which are conditionally proposed to us may be known three waies First by the threatnings and menaces of Gods Prophets and Ministers for they are his mouth and as long as they speak his Word cannot lie If the Prophet tell Zedechiah that if he go to the Battle he must be slain tarry at home he must or die If Daniel tell Nebuchadnezzar that God was angry at the great Tree he must either give over his beastly lusts or live with the beasts So when Gods Ministers threaten a day of anger against any Nation Citie Family for their proud transgressions it must of necessity come to passe either here or hereafter be repented of here or for ever punished hereafter The second signe whereby we may know that the day of Gods anger is at hand are lesser plagues that he sends as fore-runners and harbingers of severer wrath like Tamberlain he first hangs out his Ensigne of peace then his red Crosse of justice and musters smaller plagues against us if then we return not and strike a League he hangs out his black Flag of implacable wrath skirmaging and massacring till neither Prince nor People root nor branch be left He is like a Man of war discharges a warning-piece at his enemies if they despise that quits the Hatches of them with a second strikes off their mani-Mast with a third and so sinks them He sends little flashes before the great thunder-crack come Hence it is that his anger is first compared to a smoak then to a kindling of fire then to a flame of fire then to a consuming fire then to an unquenchable fire He sent to the Egyptians Frogs Lice Locusts Murrain Blood Darknesse Hail Death of the First-born and lastly an utter Overthrow Christ Matth 24. having told Jerusalem of warrs rumours of warrs troubles famines pestilences earthquakes ends his speech with a nondum finis yet is not the end these are but the beginnings of trouble To apply What shall we think God meant by the late threatning of dearth and famine such streams of blood-shed in our neighbour Nations feavours and pestilences scattered abroad as though the destroying Angell were shooting at Rovers I will not conclude that his day of anger is at hand and that he will make us the Butt at which he will discharge his whole Quiver of Arrowes but this I say that either repentance or destruction must follow Neither is it the least signe that a day of vengeance is at hand and that the Lord hath a controversie with his people when he takes holy and religious men zealous Ministers from amongst them If a Seal be plucked from an Evidence it argues the whole Writing shall be torn assunder cancelled throwne in the fire burned Godly men are as a Signet on Gods hand Seales and Pledges that he will not destroy the righteous with the wicked A royall Priesthood whom he oftentimes takes away that they may not see the ensuing misery as Pearles pluck'd from Rings Wheat gathered from the Tares foretells the one must to the furnace to be new moulded the other to the fire to be burn'd As children taken from the breasts of mothers adjudged to die that they may not see their execution Thus God sent Lot and his Family out of Sodom and then rained down fire and brimstone upon them After God had taken away the godly King Iosiah what miseries and calamities like waves one in the neck of another pursued the Jewes till their utter desolation The third signe whereby to know that a day of God's anger is at hand is his suffering of sin long to raigne unpunished Vespasian had for his Ensigne an Anchor with a Dolphin painted in it an Anchor to signifie that he was slow in comming a Dolphin that he was fierce in taking revenge It is the Tree that continues unpruned that must be hewen down the Oxen that go in fat Pastures that must to the shambles So sinners if God feed them it is but to fat them for the knife if he preserve them it is but for further judgment This is not the least token that God hath sealed us up unlesse we repent for the day of his anger What heart though harder than Adamant would not bleed to think of the scourges of other Countries The streets running with blood the Cities burning with fire the children slain in the parents sight the old gray heads dyed in crimson blood the young led into captivity while while we are hedg'd about on every side with peace wallow in abundance and which is worse in unthankfulnesse in sin What good could we not yet promise this our Nation But when the Streets rings with swearing and profanenesse Markets
that despised Jove's thunderbolts like Darius that writ a Letter of defiance to the River Xanthus for drowning his Horse like the Cicilians that made war against the mountain Aetna for spoiling their corn fields but were buried under the sands thereof and flakes of fire this is the lot of all that anger God But some Machiavel or State-politician will say we have Riches Artillery strong Towers to defend us So had Jerusalem but when she had anger'd God she could not stand But our enemies are weak O consider he can without means of man overthrow as he did Pharaoh in the red Sea Iericho with the sound of Rams horns with weak means as a thousand with Samson's jaw-bone Goliah with David's sling But the rich cormorant will say What need we fear plague famine hunger we keep alone from all company our tables are full of dainties our granaries are full of corn and mony we have enough to supply Consider He that could slay so many of David's of Senacherib's Army in one night can send the pestilence in thy meat in thy drink in every blast of aire thou drawes He that took away holy Iob's substance in one day may justly confound thee in a moment that if thou like a flie flutter against this flame thou will be forced one day to cry out as did Iulian the Apostat when he was wounded with an arrow from heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou hast conquered O Iesus of Galilee Secondly this reproves those that when God is angry adde flame to flame firebrand to firebrand Does God threaten scarcity and want then be sure at this time drunkennesse and gluttony will most abound Does God smite with diseases of the body as pestilence burning Feavours c then lasciviousnesse wantonnesse uncleannesse of the flesh whordome adultery and the like Does he shut up any in their houses with the seales of his judgments then there will be the most stealing even out of infected houses when his judgments will not come to them they will find them out Is not this to stand in defiance against Gods anger Thirdly this reproves those that murmur against God for sending his rod of anger to correct us when our sins have deserved the sword to kill us If he should send the enemy amongst us and you should see your daughters ravished your sons butchered before your eyes would not this be bitter If we should see our Townes and Cities on fire our streets running with blood all in a skirmage and uproar at once would not this be bitter Should your children fall in the streets for bread die for thirst they ready to eat you up you ready to chop them for the pot would not this be bitter All this we have deserved all this Gods anger threatens all this we shall have unlesse we repent O let 's now prevent this that we may never see nor feel it The Word of God is against us the decree is come out most of those sins that have brought captivity sword famine upon other Nations are amongst us we see the Lord hath begun already and our Brethren have begun to us in this bitter cup. O the bitter lamentations of Germany Fathers Mothers weeping for their Sons that be not O England England look to it that we drink not of the dregs O that you would fast and mourn in publick O that you would each in private pray earnestly and say O Lord spare our Nation our houses our sons and daughters spare them from the sword from famine from pestilence from misery and who knowes but the Lord may yet have mercy turn away his anger that we may not fall but stand in his sight for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A SERMON Preached when the Church seemed in part to be Eclipsed and some eminent Members thereof to be Clouded The Text Act. 14. 22. And that we must through much affliction enter into the Kingdome of God THE subject is Christian sorrow the burden of Paul and Barnabas their first Sermon preached at Antioch where men were first called Christians a burden but like Christs leight affliction fit for Paul to begin the kingdome of God a theam of comfort more suitable for Barnabas to end The substance of the Law was do and live but of the Gospell suffer and believe Faith and affliction are linked together for so saies the Text that they confirmed the soules of the Disciples and exhorted them to continue in faith and that we must through much affliction enter into the kingdome of God The Proposition entire is not pure but modall consisting as all of that kind of two parts First the moâ—us or manner of it oportet we must Secondly the dâ—ctum or matter of it through much affliction enter into the kingdome of God This life is a Race Heaven is the Goal this Text the common Stadium wherein observe these severalls First the terminum à quo whence our afflictions begins and that is here implyed from the wombe nascimur afflicti Secondly the mobile or parties who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we Christians Thirdly the motum or passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enter through Fourthly the medâ—um or way through which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through much affliction Fifthly the terminum ad quem the end of this race 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the kingdome of God Thus divided it admits of a two-fold handling First generall in regard of the modus or manner of it Secondly speciall in regard of the dictum or matter of it where as in a Sorites so many Propositions so many implyed Syllogismes so here are so many parts so many propositions We 'l content our selves at the present with the generall where the Propositions are two The first is necessary and armed with an oportet that we must suffer affliction before we can enter upon heaven This is somewhat sharp and harsh The next sweetens and sugars it That through these afflictions and waters of Marah we shall at the length come to Heaven We 'l begin and end like a Comedie and so of them in order Afflictions must be suffered The Crosse of Christ must be born before a Crown of glory be woâ—â— we must through the Wildernesse and Iordan before we come at Canaan go through the Wine-presse before we drink of the Grape in the Kingdome of Heaven Some have and some still must go through a purgatory of rods swords racks wheeles flames strapadoes in this life before they be carryed in a charriot of triumph into glory We may prosecute this Argument launching in blood of Martyrs to the knees whole clouds of tears of afflicted Prophets Apostles Saints who are now noble and thrice renowned in Heaven who had no other Armes upon the earth but the Crosse no Coat but Sable no Badge but the marks of Christ no Crest but Confidence no Supporters but Patience no Field but Aceldama a field of blood This is the Watchword our Saviour gives his Souldiers and the Motto in his
which are two the one young Samuel revealing who by this occasion received primam tonsuram his first unction to prophecy the other is old Eli who like Sexagenarius de ponte as his bodily so his spirituall eyes grew dim for 1 Sam. 3. 1. The word of the Lord was pretious in those daies there was no open vision Secondly we have the thing revealed which is either the sin or the punishment of sin sin either the father Eli's for not correcting and chastising his sons or the sin of his sons Hophni and Phinehas who being Priests of the Lord 1 Sam. 2. 12. were sons of Beliall knew not the Lord by their rapine made men abhor the daily sacrifice 17. lay with the women that assembled at the dore of the Tabernacle of the Congregation 22. The punishment of sin either threatned first by a man of God not otherwise named 1 Sam. 2. 27. secondly by Samuel himselfe that the Lord would cut off the whole family of Eli from the priesthood and that the iniquity of his house should not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever 1 Sam. 3. 14. Or executed in the fourth Chapter for thirty thousand of the Israelites were put to the sword the whole Camp scattered Hophni and Phinehas the Priests slain the Ark of God taken captive by the Philistims the Wife of Phinehas hearing of it fell into the pangs of childbirth and was delivered of a Son calling his name Ichobod the glory is departed from Israel and so expired and at the relation of the messenger Eli being ninty eight years old fell back from his chair and brake his neck Thus the whole Family was dysastered rarò antecedentem scelestum deseruit pede poena claudo Seneca Punishment and shame like a blood-hound alwaies pursues sin at the heeles the Ark was taken the Army routed the Priests slain Phinehas his Wife perished in the after-pangs Eli brake his neck Hence observe that sin is the deserving cause procuring the ruine and calamity of Church and State Cities and Families Sin it is that infects our purest aire that damps our richest mines that poysons our sweetest dainties that laies thornes in our softest beds of down that undermines Palaces pulls down Crowns shakes Thrones and ruinates Kingdomes that sets all mortall Wights at opposition heat against cold cold against heat winter and summer light and darknesse moysture and drought in arms one against another That the whole world is become a boyling furnace of contradictions where man is the mettall the body is the drosse which must first be burned by the refining fire of death before the soul can become pure gold fit for the heavenly Sanctuary For the proof of this hear Jeremie's lamentation Lam. 3. 39. Wherefore is the living man sorrowfull Heaven and earth answers his Interrogatory with a soul 's sad Eccho Man suffereth for his sins Come on further and see all Creatures Angells Men Beasts Plants Elements Heavens in sorrowes discord sighing out the sad Epitaphium of mans mortality 42. We have sinned and rebelled therefore thou hast not spared thou hast covered us with wrath and persecuted us thou hast slain and not spared Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sin is death As tooth for tooth eye for eye hand for hand one talent for another so death is a deserved reward for sin death first seizing upon the body while we live by the canker of corruption and mortality bringing at the length death of the body by dissolution and all this hatched and brooded under the Cocatrice sin Come on and travail with St. Paul to Corinth 1 Cor. 11. 3. For this cause saies he many are weak amongst you and sick and many sleep For this cause that is for the poyson of sin the canker of corruption in generall for spilling of our Saviour's blood piercing his side nailing his feet unworthy receiving of the holy Sacrament in particular Are sick that is feavours boyle you consumptions waste you plague and pestilence devour you And many sleep sleep in an everlasting Lethargy and apoplexie of death never to be awaked before the last doom Many that Biers are become restlesse Peripateticks the Spade and Mattock tyred the Sextons still digging the Graves still gaping passing-Bells without any stop or period confounding the language one of another the Church-yards more peopled then the Theaters Mista senum ac juvenum densantur funera no sex nor age nor young nor old are spared but are made a subject for death to read mortalitie's lecture upon This made David complain that his bones waxed old and that his moysture was turned into the drought of summer Psal 32. made him houle and cry that his daies were consumed like smoak his bones were burned as hearth withered like grasse he was become like a Pelican in the wildernesse or a sparrow on the house top Ps 102. This made Job complain that his griefe was heavier then the sand of the sea that the arrowes of the Almighty were within him that the poyson had drunk up his spirit the terrours of God had set themselves in array against him Job 6. This makes all Mankinde rot as a Pomgranate shiver as a Potsheard splinter as a Venice Glasse corrupt as a standing Pool and vanish into ashes like Sodom's Apples And the reason of all this is because the justice of God requires it sin is daily in the view of his all-piercing eye sends up cries aloud into his holy ear piercing through the clouds for revenge importuning his vindicative hand to whet his glittering sword to feather his arrowes to make sharp the point of his spear to wash his footsteps in blood And then shall not he that hath called his footstool the Earth and his throne the Heavens to witnesse and hath sworn by himselfe the greatest that sin shall not passe without revenge shall not he be just Besides this consider all Creatures as daily Oratours that miserably complaining put up their petitions to him The higher House the suburbs of Heaven sits drooping the Sun is turned into blood and eclipsed the Stars unsnuffed burn dim within the socket of their sphears their naturall force abated their influence impaired all waxes old as does a garment and saies that sin is the cause The aire is stifled with the poysoned breath of meteors and insteed of comforting the inhabitants of the earth is become a stage of prodigies and terrours flying Dragons amaze blazing Stars as Beacons of astonishment affright Thunder with her loud Canon-shot makes roaring the impetuous fury of the Bolts brings death the Clouds in time of need are barren in time of harvest intoxicate the earth with deluges no dew sometimes but mildew no light but lightning no blast nor gale of winde but blasting and saies that sin is the cause The sea roules the windes blow unmercifully the waves rage impetuously all things are troubled unnaturally which makes the Leviathans roar and the fishes die and saies that sin is the cause The earth quakes
yet it holds proportion to the Ministry of the Gospell according to their dignity and necessity and being devoted unto God by our fore-fathers famous in their Generations for piety are as obligatory as what God himselfe immediately consecrated Fourthly God calls it a robbing of him in tithes and offerings Mal. 3. 8. and for that pronounces the whole Nation cursed with a curse that is a signall curse which the Spirit of God does not use to do for violating Lawes that are purely judiciall or ceremoniall Fifthly Christ confirms them under the Gospell Matth. 23. 23. telling the Pharisees they pay tithes of Annise Mint and Cummin these things ought to be done And if they could not enter into heaven unlesse their righteousnesse exceeded the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees what shall become of those that come short of them The Pharisees payed cheerfully things hallowed unto God Christians do not Sixtly the Apostle of the Gentiles makes sacriledge which consists in detaining of tithes and holy things worse than Idolatry Rom. 2. 32. Thou that abhorrest Idolls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dost thou commit sacri'edge To rob God of his due is a greater sin then through mistake to ascribe that to a false God which is not his due Seventhly it seemes by the Law of Nature or a Positive Law of God to be derived from Noah to all Nations Plutarch saies in Camillus that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pay tithes to Jupiter Herodotus saies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they offered unto Hercules the tenth part of their wealth so did the Hetrurians calling it the Herculian part as Plautus hath it in his Truculentus Xenophon saies the Grecians did offer their tithes at the Temple of Apollo at Delphos Aristotle lib. 2. Oeconomicks saies that the Babylonians payed tithes Hence it was that Princes when they came like Caligula to challenge Deity to themselves usurped the tithes Appian records that the Sicilians and other conquered Nations payed the tenth part to the Roman Emperours therefore the Publicans as Cicero hath it are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tithe-gatherers Eighthly that tithes should be payed was the judgment of the Antients that lived in Primitive times St. Chrysostom saies that Abraham in paying of tithes was our Instructor teaching us what we should do St. Jerom saies Quod qui non fecerit deum defrandare supplantare convincitur that he that paies not tithes defraudes and undermines God St. Austin saies Nolumus partiri cum Deo decimas mod◠autem totum tollitur We have been unwilling to pay God his tithes therefore it is just he should take all from us Ninthly many Councills have confirmed the paying of tithes the first Aurelian chap. 17. the second of Matiscone chap. 5. the Forojulium in the last Chapter at Ments in the time of Charls the Great chap. 38. at Mentz under Rabanus chap. 10. at Mentz in the time of the Emperour Arnulph chap. 17. where it was decreed that those that neglected to pay tithes should be excommunicated At Rhemes chap. 38. in the time of Charles the Great at Valence in the time of Lotharius chap. 10. the fourth at Arles chap. 9. with many more besides Panormitan Hostiensis and the Canonists of all Ages Tenthly the Heathens by the glimmering light of reason punished those that were sacrilegious Plato ordained in his Lawes that if a servant or stranger should detain holy things they should be branded in the hands and forehead but if a free-man he should be put to death This was one of the twelve Tables of the ancient Romans Sacrum sacrove commodatum qui rapsit parricida esto Let him that steales any holy thing or dedicated to a holy use be punished as a parricide that is as one that murders his father or mother and that was to be sowen in a sack of Leather with a Serpent in it and throwne into the Sea Amongst the Aethiopians if any was convinced of that crime a potion was given him to drink of divers kinds of poyson which was no sooner taken but it so wrought upon the fancy that they conceived themselves to be stung with all kindes of Serpents and to be rid of that pain they made away themselves Eleventhly Histories tells us that imbezilling or alienating of tithes hath been the Prodrome and Harbinger of ruine to severall Nations Churches and Families In Hezekiah's raigne tithes began to be neglected that he appointed Overseers to look to the payment thereof 2 Chron. 31. 11. for which cause God suspended the judgment for his time but his successours growing carelesse they were given up to a Babylonish captivity and their temple destroyed About one hundred and thirty years before our Saviour's Incarnation corruption so prevailed that it began to be questionable whether tithes were to be payed or no whence their high Court of Sanhedrim decreed that instead of the tenth as Moses Cotsensis hath it they should pay one part of an hundred and shortly after God took from them their Rulers their Temple their Land and all O what a sad thing is it when men will be wiser than God It was one of Julian the Apostata's projects to supplant Christianity by taking away the livelyhood of the Ministry The Eastern and African Churches acted their parts in this Scene before they were delivered up to the dolefull Catastrophe of Mahometan blindnesse and slavery What successe Henry the Eighth had in pillaging of the Church the dysasters in his Family and the sad tragedies of Cardinall Wolsey the Vicar-generall with the rest of his Agents and many of those Tribes that were enriched by them can signally witnesse Lastly Sacriledge hath been inevitably attended with remarkable judgments in all ages Xerxes and Brennus sent their Souldiers to violate the Temple at Delphos the one was destroyed with all his Army by lightning the other lost forty thousand of his Foot by fire from heaven The Souldiers that Cambyses sent to spoyl the Temple of Ammon were buried quick under heaps of sands and he slain with his own sword Pyrrhus having pillaged the Lucresian Proserpina was wracked with his whole Navy and left to the mercy of the waves Alsimus high Priest of the Jewes attempting the overthrow of the Temple was struck with a dead Palsie and dyed miserably Heliodorus sent by Seleucus to ransack the Temple at Jerusalem felt the revenging hand of God till Onias the high Priest interceded for him out of which Temple when Crassus the Roman Generall had taken two thousand talents of gold he was no sooner passed over the River Euphrates then his whole Army was rooted by the Parthians and part of the gold he had taken melted and poured into his mouth with these words Now surfeit on gold after thy death which thou couldst not be satisfied with all thy life long Herod sending his men to dig into the Sepulchers of David and Solomon where Church-Treasures were laid up for security there brake out thence a fire that burned the
de nuptiis Concil de Toledo caus 4 quest 21. dispose And this with approbation is quoted by St. Ambrose and is further confirmed by the civill Lawes Canons of severall Oecumeniall Councells the pith and marrow whereof Gratian epitomises saying In contracting of Marriage the consent of parents is alwaies to be required And as the consent of parties and parents is requisite for marriage as it is the seed-plat of Families so the complyance of civill or municipall constitutions and Magistrates which are patres patriae fathers of the Country is to be taken in for the further consummation of it as Families are integrall parts of Provinces Nations or Kingdomes And this is clear from prescription since Adam Gen. 6. 2. which was first violated when the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they took them wives of all which they chose and that questionlesse maugre the advice of Enoch Noah and other godly Patriarchs whom God had set Princes over them In conformity to this Gen. 24. 3. Abraham made his servant swear that he should not take a wife to his son Isaac of the daughters of the Canaanites Rebecca Gen. 27. 46. was weary of her life for the daughters of Heth lest Jacob should take a wife of them Gen. 28. 8. Esau saw the daughters of Canaan pleased not his father Isaac And when the Jewes after their departure out of Egypt were incorporated into a body politick God who is Lord Paramount as well of judiciall as cerimoniall and morall Lawes gave a Directory for marriage Levit. 18. which being sleighted by Solomon he was deserted of God and lapsed into Idolatry The Jewes were hurried into captivity for taking strange wives which crime after their reducement Shechaniah and Ezra endeavoured to expiate by a generall Ezr. cap. 9. 10. 〈◊〉 Aristotl polit 1. Gellius noct Attic. lib. 12. cap. 18. Florus Plutarch in vitâ Solonis Lycurgâ— Ad Odyss â— divorce and deposition of their illegitimate budds Ezr. 9. 10. The Pagans had a glimmering sight of this which Minos expressed in his Lawes at Crete Rhadamanthus at Lycia Aeacus in Aenopia Draco in blood at Areopagus Numa Pompilius at Rome Lycurgus at Sparta Solon at Athens rearing his superstructure upon Cecrops his basis who there first instituted the contract of matrimony and for that cause was saluted by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Eustathius as if he were an Hermophrodite or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 participating of both sexes or according to the Scholiast upon Aristophanes quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 3. Scen. 3. Because with much ado the coalition of the two natures of father and mother into one was his inventory This the Egyptians received from the Hebrewes the Phoenicians from the Egyptians the Ionians from the Phoenicians the Romans their Justin. Hist Carion Chron. duodecâ—m tabulas from the Ionians or Grecians which twelve Tables were the root whence the Arbor of the civill Lawes consisting of the Code Digestes Constitutions Pandectes Extravagants hath spread its branches over the western world and all treates of Marriage This Nation as far as the Torch of History Vxores habent deni duodenique inter se communes sed si qui sunt ex his nati eorum habentur liberi à quibus primum virgines quaeque ductae sunt Caesar de Bello Gallic l. 5 Libro constitutionum Londinensium pertaining to the Guild hall yields us light had alwaies their Nuptialls regulated by Lawes even the antient Britaines while uncivilized as Caesar their enemy confesses had their conjugall knot But when the Sun of Righteousnesse arose with healing in his wings Lucius the first Christian Monarch by Elutherius his direction gave Scripture-grounded rules for Marriage as well as other perquisites how this was inviolably observed through the Saxon's Heptarchy till Ina's Monarchy from thence till Alfrid and Edward the Confessor from them till Magna Charta and so successively till our times I leave it to the recognition of the learned Sages of our Lawes onely observing this That what provisoes as preparatory to Marriage were formerly executed by the Officers of civill Constitutions are now defalked and the power wholly transmitted to the Magistrate or Ministers of the common Law the legality whereof far be it from me to dispute or question which obliquely all this while I have been proving But the scope I aime at is this to which I doubt not every unbiassed judgment will subscribe that as the first step of matrimoniall solemnity takes in the consent of parties and parents the second of Magistrates and municipall Lawes and both of these but in a domestick and politicall capacity common to us with Turks and Pagans so there is a further graduall perfection which requires the consent and benediction of the Church as the parties contracting are members thereof and so pleads for the expediency of the solemnization thereof by a Lawfull Minister in the publick Assembly This I 'le endeavour to evidence founding the structure of my whole fabrick upon a three-fold bottom first the Law of Nations secondly praescription of the Church thirdly deductions from Scripture These single may seem weak but in conjunction will make a threefold cord not easily broken First the Law of Nations though barbarous some of them concenters in this that Marriage is but rough cast till polished by the sacred hand of a Priest and this Tradition doubtlesse they had hereditary from Noah Noah from Methusalem Methusalem from Adam Adam from God who consecrated the yoke of our first Parents not abstractly as man and woman but as his servants and in covenant with him gave a benediction not onely as they were to replenish the earth but as their Seed was to bruise the Serpents head And that act was managed by the Creator rather as he was the prototype of Priestly than Kingly office leaving a president to posterity which all future ages observed till Moses acknowledging the first-born in this sense as consecrated to God which selling Esau heard profane because the Priesthood a thing holy was an appendix of his birth-right And that the nuptialls of all their children were to be celebrated by the Patriarcks or heads of their respective Families is as transparent from Scripture-light as if writ with the Sun-beams This other Nations whether civilized or barbarians religiously observed Let the Grecians be mustered in the van who for the consummation of their marriages usually repaired to the Temple where in the presence of the Priest they engaged themselves Achil. Tat. libr. 5. mutually by Oath as appears by the practice of Clitiphon and Leucippe where the man in the Temple of Isis swore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to love sincerely and the woman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that she would accept him for her Husband and Lord of all And as preparative Cael. Rhod. lib. 7. cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip