punienter Not innovations secondly It is that which Job findes out as one of the hainousest sins of his time Some remove the Land-marks a thing which God hath given strict charge against Deut. 19.4 and we from Moses fetcht it into our Lenten Curses Cursed be he that removeth his neighbours Land-marks Deut. 27.17 even in this case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a sure rule The old way saith the Prophet is the good way every novelty carries suspicion in the face of it It was a good question of the Church in the Canticles why should I be as one that turneth aside to the Flocks of the companions The wisdom of great States-men have still taken it for a just principle that of Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye have heard of Land-marks but ye see how it is with Sea-marks if they should be changed it is the wrack of every vessell either Rocks would dash them or shelves swallow them And as innovations do not well in way of change so not in way of addition that which Tertullian said of faces I may say of main truths A diabolo sunt additamenta and if Terpander do but add but one string more to his harp the instrument is broke and he censured In regard of both if it be the great and glorious stile of God that in him is no shadow by changing surely those well setled Churches and States come nearest to his perfection that alter least And if with Lipsius we shall say Quid si in melius I must answer that in every change there is a kind of hazard it is a wise word therefore of our Hooker that a tolerable sore is better then a dangerous Remedy The second Remedy must be a discreet moderation in the pursuance of our apprehended right How many good matters have been marr'd with ill handling The debter did owe to the rigorous steward an hundred pence no doubt the dept was due he might justly claim it but to lay hands on the man and to offer to pluck it out of his debters throat this is justly taxed for a foul cruelty Many an honest Corinthian was injured by his wrangling neighbour and had justissimam causam litigandi yet for Christians to go to law before infidels this the Apostle taxes for a sinfull peece of Justice why rather suffer ye not wrong saith the Apostle This is durus serms saies some brangling parishioner that fetches up his poor Minister every Term for trifles yet in St. Paules judgment a sleight injury is better them a scandalous quarrell The third is a meek complying with each other relenting so far as we may with all possible safety on either part if the difference be between unequalls charitable and mercifull on the superiours part humble and submiss on the inferiours Abraham and Lot fall upon a difference Abraham is the better man he is the Uncle Lot but the Nephew yet Abraham seeks the peace and follows it with him whom one would think he might have commanded Good David had done his Master and Father in Law no wrong unless it were tu pugnas ego vapulo and yet after good demonstration of his loyalty how humbly doth he beg a reconcilement at the hands of Saul Wherefore doth my Lord the King pursue after his servant Now therefore let my Lord the King hear the words of his Servant If the Lord have stirred thee up against me Let him accept an offering Harsh contestations never did good The ball rebounds from the floor to the face of him that throwes it whereas a look of wooll falls without noise and lies still Those that would take birds imitate their language do not scare them with shouting Bitter oppositions may set off but cannot win either an hollow friend or a known Enemy The fourth and last must be a charitable construction of each others acts and intentions There is nothing in the World which may not be taken with either hand whether the right hand of favour or the left of malice We see the Son of God himself in whom the Prince of this World could find nothing yet was exposed to mis-construction Doth he dispossesse Divels it is by Magick by Beelzebub the Prince of Divels Doth he frame himself other then his fore-runner to a sweetly-sociable conversation with men for their conversion Behold a glutton a wine bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners Mat. 11.19 Doth his chosen vessel St. Paul desire to comply with the Jews in purifying himself with the Votaries in the Temple Act. 21.28 he is cryed out on for an enemy to the law for a profaner of the holy place away with him he is not worthy to live Good Lord what uncharitable censure are men apt to passe upon each other let a man be strict and austere in moral and divine duties though never so peaceable he is a Puritan and every Puritan is an Hyppocrite Let him be more free and give more scope to his conversation though never so conscionable he is a Libertine let him make scruple but of any innovated forme he is a Schismatick let him stand for the antiently received rites and government he is a time-serving Formalist This is a Diotrephes that an Aerius this a scorner that a flatterrer In the mean time who can escape free Surely I that taxe both shall be sure to be censured of both shall be yes am to purpose and therein I joy yea and will joy What a neuter saies one what on both sides sayes another This is that I look't for yes truly brethren ye have hit it right I am and professe to be as the termes stand on neither and yet of both parts I am for the peace of both for the humour of neither how should the morter or cement joyn the stones together if it did not lie between both And I would to God not you only that hear me this day but all our brethren of this Land were alike-minded we should not have such libellous presses such unquiet pulpits such distracted bosomes for the truth is there is no reason we should be thus disjâ—ined or thus mutually branded This man is right ye say that man is not right this sound that rotten And how so dear Christians What for ceremonies and circumstances for rochets or rounds or squares let me tell you he is right that hath a right heart to his God what formes soever he is for The Kingdome of God doth not stand in Meats and Drinks in Stuffes or Colours or fashions in Noyses or Gestures it stands in Holinesse and Righteousnesse in Godlinesse and Charity in Peace and Obedience and if we have happily attained unto these God doth not stand upon nifles and niceties of indifferencies and why should we Away then with all false jelousies and uncharitable glosses of each others actions and estates Let us all in the fear of God be intreated in the bowels of our dear Redeemer as we our Selves our Land our Church the Gospell to combine our counsells
colour is most proper for sad occasions for as white comes nearest to light and black to darkness so we know that light and joy darknesse and sorrow are commonly used to resemble and expresse each other Well may we then outwardly profess our inward mourning for the dead but yet not beyond a due moderation It is not for us to mourn as men without hope as the Apostle holily adviseth his Thessalonians Our sorrow must walk in a mid-way betwixt neglect and excess Sarah was the first that we find mourn'd for in Scripture and Abraham the first mourner now the Hebrew Doctors observe that in Genesis 23.2 where Abrahams mourning is specified the letter which is in the midst of that original word that signifies his weeping is in all their Bibles written lesse then all his fellowes which they who find mountains in every tittle of Moses interpret to imply the moderate mourning of that holy Patriark surely he who was the Father of the faithful did by the power of his faith mitigate the sorrow for the loss of so dear a partner Thus much for the manner of our mourning Now for as much as it is the mourner in Sion not in Babylon whom we look after In the fourth place the inseparable concomitant of his mourning must be his holy devotion whether it be in matter of suffering or of sin in both which our sorrow is ill-bestowed if it do not send us so much the more eagerly to seek after our God Thus hath the mourning of all holy souls ever been accompanied the greatest mourner that we can read of was Job who can say My skin is black upon me and my bones are burnt with heat Job 30.30 How doth he lift up his eyes from his dunghill to Heaven and say I have sinned what shall I do to thee O thou Preserver of men Job 6.20 The distresses of David and the depth of his sorrowes cannot be unknown to any man that hath but looked into the book of God and what are his divine ditties but the zealous expressions of his faithfull recourses to the throne of grace good Ezra tells you what he did when he heard of the generall infection of his people with their Heathen matches Having rent my garments and my mantle I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God and said O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee O my God for our iniquities are increased over our heads and our trespass is grown up to the Heavens Ezra 9.5.6 And Daniel a no lesse devour mourner then he layes forth himself in as holy a passion I set my face unto the Lord God to seek him by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes and I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said O Lord the great and dreadfull God keeping the covenant and mercie to them that love him and to them that keep his commandements we have sinned and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments c. Hereupon it is that praier is ever joyned with fasting in all our humiliations without which the emptinesse of our mawes were but a vain and purposeless ceremony as that which was onely taken up to whet our devotions and to give a sharper appetite to pious duties So as he that mourneth and fasteth without praying is as he that takes the preparative but refuses the medicine that might bring him health or as he that toiles all day in the vineyard and neglects to call for his wages This for the companion of our mourning Fifthly and Lastly The attendant of our mourning is the good use that must be made of it for the bettering of the Soul for surely affliction never leaves us as it findes us if we be not better for our mourning we are the worse He is an unprofitable mourner that improves not all his sorrow to repentance and amendment of life whether his sin be the immediate object of his griefe or his affliction and this is both the intention of our Heavenly Father in whipping us and the best issue of our teares Thus it was with his Israel Their dayes saith the Psalmist did he consume in vanity and their years in trouble when he slew them then they sought him and they returned and inquired early after God vs 35. And they remembred that God was their rock and the high God their Redeemer To the same purpose is that of Jeremiah In those dayes and in that time saith the Lord the children of Israel shall come they and the children of Judah together going and weeping they shall go and seek the Lord their God they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying Come let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall covenant that shall not be forgotten Jerem. 50.4.5 Surely as he were an unnaturall parent that would scourge his child with any other purpose then to correct and amend somewhat amiss in him so is he no better then an ungracious child that makes a noise under the rod but amends not his fault Here then let mine eyes run down with tears night and day and let them not cease for the obstinate unproficiency of the sons of my mother under the heavy hand of my God O Lord are not thine eyes upon the truth thou hast stricken them but they have not grived thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder then a rock they have refused to return Jerem. 5.3 how sadly dost thou complain of us under the person of thine Israel In vain have I smitten your children they received no correction Jerem. 2.30 Notwithstanding all the fair warnings that thou hast given us We run on resolutely in the course of our wickedness as if those pathes were both safe and pleasing giving thee just cause to renew thine old complaint against the men of Judah and Jerusalem Thus saith the Lord Behold I frame evill against you and devise a devise against you Returne ye now every one from his evill wayes and make your wayes and your doings good And they said There is no hope but we will walk after our own devises and we will every one do the imagination of his evill heart Jerem. 18.11.12 wo is me who sees not that after all the blood that thou hast let out of our vaines we are still full of the deadly inflammations of pride and maliciousnesse that after we have drunk so deep of the cup of thy fury even to the dregs we cease not to be drunk with the intemperate cups of our beastly excess and after strict professions of holynesse have run out into horrible blasphemies of thy sacred name So as we have too just cause to fear lest thou have decreed to make good upon us that wofull word which thy Prophet denounced against thy once-no-less-dear people I will
below if any wealthy citizen upon the uncertainty of trade shall have turned his shop-book and his bagges into lands and mannours and having purchased plentifully and called his land by his name shall be so foolish as to set down his rest here and say Hic requies mea soul take thy ease he may well look that God will give him his own with a Thou fool this night c. It is true the worldly man is at home in respect of his affections but he is and shall be a meer sojourner in respect of his transitoriness His soul is fastened to the earth all his substance cannot fasten himself to it Both the Indies could not purchase his abiding here this is our condition as men but much more as Christians we are perfect strangers and sojourners here in the world and if we be no other then such why do we not demean our selves accordingly If then we be but sojourners and that in a strange nation here must be an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unmedlingnesse with these worldly concernments not that we should refrain from managing the affaires of this present life without which it were no living for us upon earth there is a difference betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 necessary businesse and unnecessary distractions A man that sojournes abroad in a strange countrey findes himself no way interessed in their designes and proceedings what cares he who rises or falls at their Court who is in favour and who in disgrace what ordinances or lawes are made and what are repealed he sayes still to himself as our Saviour said to Peter Quid ad te What is that to thee Thus doth the Christian here he must use the World as if he used it not he must pass through the affairs of this life without being intangled in them as remembring who and where he is that he is but a sojourner here Secondly here must be a light address no Man that goes to sojourn in a strange Country will carry his lumber along with him but leaves all his houshold stuffe at home no he will not so much as carry his stock of mony or Jewells with him as knowing he may meet with dangers of theeves and robbers in the way but makes over his mony by exchange to receive it where he is going ye rich men cannot think to carry your pelfe with you into Heaven no it were well if you could get in your selves without that cumbrous Load it may keep you out ye cannot carry it in if you will go safe and sure wayes make over your stock by exchange that is as our Saviour tells you make you friends of the unrighteous Mammon 1. Tim. 6.19 that when ye go hence they may receive you into everlasting habitations those riches which Solomon saith have wings and therefore may flie up and being well used may help to carry up your soules towards Heaven if you clip their wings may prove as clogs to weigh your soules down to Hell dispose of them therefore where you may be sure to find them with an happy advantage to your selves and do not think to keep them still in your hands remembring that you are but sojourners here Thirdly if ye be but strangers and sojourners here you must make account of no other then hard usage in the world it is the just Epithete of the world which Julius Scaliger gives unjustly to London Torva peregrinis but we cannot add that which follows sed non inhospita for surely there is nothing to be expected here but unkinde and churlish intertainment we know that God still puts together the Stranger the Widow and the Orphan these are every where most exposed to wrong as men are still apt to climb over the hedg where it is lowest The good Shunamite when the Prophet offered her the favour to speak to the King for her could say I dwell amongst my own People intimating that while she dwelt at home amongst her good Neighbours she had no need of a Friend at Court But when she had been abroad sojourning in the land of the Philistims 2 Kings 8. and in her absence was stripped of her house and Land she is fain to come with an humble petition in her hand suing to be righted against the injurious usurpation of her cruel oppressour Do we therefore finde harsh usage at the hands of the World are we spightfully intreated by unjust men our reputation blemished our profession slandered our goods plundered our estates causelesly empaired our bodies imprisoned and all indignities cast upon us and ours let us bethink our selves where and what we are strangers and sojourners here And let us make no reckoning to fare any otherwise whiles we sojourne in this vale of tears Lastly if we be strangers and Pilgrimes here we cannot but have a good mind homeward It is natural to us all to be dearly affected to our home and though the place where we sojourne be handsomer and more commodious then our own yet we are ready to say Home is homely and our heart is there though our bodies be away and this is a difference betwixt a banished man and a voluntary Traveller The exiled man hath none but displeasing thoughts for his native Countrey would fain forget it and is apt as we have had too much proof to devise plots against it whereas the voluntary Traveller thinks the time long till he may enjoy his long desired home and thinks himself happy that he may see the smoak of his own chimney and if our lot be faln upon a stony and barren Ithaca yet it is not all the glorious promises of a Calypso can withdraw us from desiring a speedy returne to it beloved we know we are strangers here our home is above There is our Fathers house in which there are many mansions and all glorious If this earth had as many contentments in it as it hath miseries and vexations yet it could not compare with that region of blessednesse which is our only home Oh then if we believe our selves to have a true right to that abiding City to that City which hath foundations where our Father dwels why do we not long to be possessed of those glorious and everlasting habitations we finde it too true which the Apostle saies That whiles we are present in the flesh we are absent from the Lord. 2 Cor. 5. Why are we not heartily desirous to change these houses of clay for that house not made with hands eternal in the heavens we may please our selves in formalities but I must tell you it is no good sign if we be loath to go home to our fathers house Me thinks this word here should be emphatical in deed it is not in the original text but it is both sufficiently implyed and would seem to intimate a kind of comparison between the place of our sojourning and the place of our home Here is trouble and toil there is rest
but know hath been and is miserably infested on both sides with Papists on the one side and Schismaticks on the other The Psalmist hath of old distinguisht the enemies of it into wild Boars out of the Wood and little Foxes out of the Burroughs The one whereof goes about to root up the very foundation of Religion the other to crop the branches and blossomes and clusters thereof both of them conspire the utter ruine devastation of it As for the former of them I do perceive a great deal of good zeal for the remedy and suppression of them and I do heartily congratulate it and blesse God for it and beseech him to prosper it in those hands that shall undertake and prosecute it but for the other give me leave to say I do not finde many that are sensible of the danger of it which yet in my apprehension is very great and apparent Alas my Lords I beseech you to consider what it is that there should be in London and the Suburbs and Liberties no fewer then fourscore Congregations of several Sectaries as I have been too credibly informed instructed by Guides fit for them Coblers Taylors Feltmakers and such like trash which all are taught to spit in the face of their Mother the Church of England and to defye and revile her government From hence have issued those dangerous assaults of our Church Governours From hence that inundation of base and scurrilous libels and pamphlets wherewith we have been of late overborne in which Papists and Prelates like Oxen in a yoke are still matched together O my Lords I beseech you that you will be sensible of this great indignity Do but look upon these reverend persons Do not your Lordships see here sitting upon these benches those that have spent their time their strength their bodies and lives in preaching down in writing down Popery and which would be ready if occasion were offred to sacrifice all their old blood that remains to the maintenance of that truth of God which they have taught and written and shall we be thus despightfully ranged with them whom we do thus professedly oppose but alas this is but one of those many scandalous aspersions and intolerable affronts that are daily cast upon us Now whither should we in this case have recourse for a needful and seasonable redresse The arme of the Church is alas now short and sinewless it is the interposing of your authority that must rescue us You are the Eldest sons of your dear Mother the Church and therefore most fit most able to vindicate her wrongs you are amici Sponsae give me leave therefore in the bowels of Christ humbly to beseech your Lordships to be tenderly sensible of these woful and dangerous conditions of the times And if the government of the Church of England be unlawful and unfit abandon and disclaim it but if otherwise uphold and maintain it Otherwise if these lawless outrages be yet suffred to gather head who knowes where they will end My Lords if these men may with impunity and freedom thus bear down Ecclesiastical authority it is to be feared they will not rest there but will be ready to affront civil power too Your Lordships know that the Jack Straws and Cades and Watt Tylers of former times did not more cry down Learning then Nobility and those of your Lordships that have read the history of the Anabaptistical tumults at Munster will need no other Item let it be enough to say that many of these Sectaries are of the same profession Shortly therefore let me humbly move your Lordships to take these dangers and miseries of this poor Church deeply to heart and upon this occasion to give order for the speedy redressing of these horrible insolencies and for the stopping of that deluge of libellous invectives wherewith we are thus impetuously overflown Which in all due submission I humbly present to your Lordships wise and religious consideration A SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT In Defence of the CANONS MADE IN CONVOCATION My Lords I cannot choose but know that whosoever rises up in this cause must speak with the disadvantage of much prejudice and therefore I do humbly crave your Lordships best construction were it my Lords that some few doubting persons were to be satisfied in some scruples about matter of the Canons there might have been some life in the hope of prevailing but now that we are borne down with such a torrent of generall and resolute contradiction we yield but yet give us leave I beseech you so to yield that posterity may not say we have willingly betraid our own innocence First therefore let us plead to your Lordships and the World that to abate the edge of that illegality which is objected to us it was our obedience that both assembled and kept us together for the making of Synodicall acts We had the great Seal of England for it seconded by the judgments of the oracles of law and justice and upon these the command of our superiour to whom we have sworn and owe canonical obedience Now in this case what should we do Was it for us to judg of the great seal of England or to judg of our Judges alas we are not for the law but for the Gospell or to disobey that authority which was to be ever sacred to us I beseech your Lordships put your selves a while in to our condition had the case been yours what would you have done If we obey not we are rebels to authority if we obey we are censured for illegall procedures Where are we now my Lords It is an old rule of Casuists nemo tenetur esse perplexus Free us one way or other and shew us whether we must rather hazard censure or incurr disobedience In the next place give us leave to plead our good intentions since we must make new Canons I perswade my self we all came I am sure I can speak for one with honest and zealous desires to do God and his Church good service and expected to have received great thanks both of Church and Common-wealth for your Lordships see that the main drift of those Canons was to repress and confine the indiscreet and lawless discourses of some either ignorant or parasiticall I am sure offensive Preachers to suppress the growth of Socinianism Popery Separatism to redress some abuses of Ecclesiastical courts and officers In all which I dare say your Lordships do heartily concurr with them And if in the manner of expression there have been any failings I shall humbly beseech your Lordships that those may not be too much stood upon where the main substance is well meant and in it self profitable In the third place give me leave to put your Lordships in mind of the continuall practise of the Christian Church since the first Synod of the Apostles Act. 15. to this present day wherein I suppose it can never be showed that ever any Ecclesiasticall Canons made by the Bishops and Clergy in Synods
IOSEPHI HALL NORVIC EPISCOPI VERA EFFIGIES REVERENDI DO NI The Shaking of the Olive-Tree THE Remaining Works Of that Incomparable PRELATE JOSEPH HALL D. D. Late LORD BISHOP of NORWICH WITH SOME SPECIALTIES OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE IN HIS LIFE Noted by His own Hand Together with His HARD MEASURE VVritten also by Himself Heb. 11.38 Of whom the World was not worthy John 6.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by J. Cadwel for J. Crooke at the Ship in S. Pauls Church-Yard 1660 CHRISTIAN READER WE present thee here with some scattered Reliques of a departed Saint void of the superstition of those of Rome as those of Rome are void of their divine operation These few drops of Inke from the Authors pen will work saving miracles when the pretended blood of the Baptist so shrined and adored at Naples shall blush at its weaknesse That account which thou hast here of the Life of the Reverend Author from his own hand is exceedingly too short and modest yet durst we not presume to make any additions to it for many reasons Our Relation to him would but impair the credit of our most sincere relations of him as too partial and flattering and indeed the attempt is too hard and high for us where his own accurate pencil hath begun a draught of himself to continue it with the same Elegancy and Decorum And besides where this meek Moses hath drawn a vail over his own shining face in his pourtraict of himself It seems to us undecent to take it away though to discover more of his splendour especially to the weak and prejudiced eyes of this Age and Generation who cannot indure innocency it self when habited in a Rochet We remember what Seneca saith and it is in his De Ira too they are affecti oculi quos candida vestis obturbat happy is it for him that the blackest Stigma that can be fastned upon him is that his robes were whiter then his Brethrens that only the coat of our Joseph hath drawn their envy upon him the Man Dr. Hall was not the object of their distast but the Bishop To satisfy these tender eyes they have here this great Aaron stripped of all his Priestly Ornaments and laid open to them only in these few winding sheets spunne and woven with his own hand In the narrative of his life his pen breaks off with his outward pressures wherein all the Losses and indignities he suffered did so little trouble him as to some eminent Commissioners who desired to know his suffering condition and made fair overtures of some little reparation he replyed that of Seneca Qui se habet nihil perdidit God had no sooner withdrawn his hand from visiting him with those outward tryals then he began to exercise him by sore afflictions of the body in his continually increasing paines of the stone and strangury which for many years held him and pursued him to the death yet could not these great impediments take him off from being active both in Presse and Pulpit His intellectuals and sences continued strong and fresh to the last his head continued Gold and his heart of refined Silver when all the rest of his body was half clay His sence of the sad and divided condition of the Church was to his end passionatly tender professing all willingness to live though in the midst of his exceeding pains and torments so he might be any way instrumental to the making up of the breaches of it and putting it in due frame and order But since all his endeavours with men so little prevailed he never ceased wrestling with God to this purpose setting apart one day in every weak through the Year for fasting and humiliation with his Family not that he sought his own Interests to be restored to that Episcopal height and greatness of which he had been divested All those who truely knew him can witness with us his abundant contentment in his retreat to a private life as not a misery but a blessing to him We know when in the height of all his honors he was ready enough to such a secession could he fairly and handsomly have retired And now that impetuous storme which beat him off from the course of his publick employments though it batter'd his vessel and tore his sailes yet it did but drive him to the quiet haven where he would be justly could he take up the words of holy Nazianzen in this and many other things his parallel who when hotly opposed and thrust from his See of Constantinople could say A retired life everwas and now is dearly affected by me though they drive me from my chair they cannot drive me from my God Among many worthy men who received Ordinaon to the Ministry from his hands we cannot but mention one in whome he take great comfort as being a notable precedent for the rest of our learned religious Gentry to follow It was Mr. Gipson Lucas an Esq of good estate a great Commissioner and Justice of Peace in the County of Suffolk who found his Spirit and Conscience so wrought upon as after good deliberation and consultation with others he came to this Reverend Father for Ordination as refusing to take it from any hands where his did not precede which he received good proof being given of his abilities according to his desire and he who entred Nayoth before this aged Samuel like Saul in his scarlet for that was his habit returned from him a Sackcloth Prophet continuing a diligent and zealous preacher of the Gospel To returne to the Reverend Author his retreat from the World though he were hotly and constantly charged with furious onsets of his sharp diseases yet was it answerable to his life solemn and staid with a composed and heavenly temper of spirit The stream was deep which could run clear calmly through so craggy crooked a Channel without a murmure After his prevailing infirmities had wasted all the strengths of nature and the Arts of his learned and excellent Physician D. Brown of Norwich to whom under God we and the whole Church are ingaged for many Years preserving his life as a blessing to us after his Fatherly reception of many persons of Honour Learning and Piety who came to crave his dyeing prayers and benediction One of which A Noble person he saluted with the words of an ancient Votary Vides hominem mox pulverem futurum after many holy prayers exhortations and discourses he rouzed up his dying Spirits to a heavenly Confession of his Faith which ere he could finish his speech was taken from him so that we cannot here insert it After some struglings of nature with the agonies of death he quietly gradually and even insensibly gave up his last breath And now how can we forbear to cry sadly after him O our Father our Father the Chariots of Israel and the Horsemen thereof Theodorets Lamentation over Chrysostome may be taken up over Him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though ye have
stated and arbitrated by Reverend and Learned Bishop Overall on one side and our Divines on the other As for this Authour himself to prevent thy hard censure of his leaning to Arminius we referre thee to the passages which thou wilt meet with wherein he claims the liberty of reserving his own Judgement and more especially to pag. 387. where in the close of the Tract his unbyassedness is clearly professed Now Reader after thy quarrel with us taken off for our thus long withholding the good in these Remains from thee when it was in the power of our hands to give them forth for which we plead our long mocked Expectation of a promised and delayed Reimpression of all the Authours scattered Tracts to be reduced into a Volume in which these were meant to be included we dismiss thee with this blessing and we think it blessing enough May the Spirit of this Reverend Father rest upon thee and maist thou be but as Sound in thy Judgment and Religious in thy Affections as he was and as Blessed in the End as he now is The Heads of what is here Collected A Sermon Preach't before K. James at Hampton-Court in September 1624. on Philip. 3.18 19. Fol. 1 Christian Liberty laid forth in a Sermon at White-Hall 1628. on Call 5.1 Fol. 19 Divine Light and Reflections in a Sermon at White-Hall on Whitsunday 1640. on 1 John 1.5 Fol. 33 A Sermon Preach't at the Cathedral of Exceter upon the Pacification betwixt the two Kingdomes Septemb. 7. 1641. on Psalm 46.8 Fol. 48 The Mischief of Faction and the Remedy of it a Sermon at White-Hall on the second Sunday in Lent 1641. on Psal 60.1 Fol. 65 A Sermon Preacht at the Tower March 20. 1641. on James 4.1 Fol. 84 A Sermon Preach't on Whitsunday June 9. 1644. in Norwich on Ephes 4.30 Fol. 101 A Second Sermon in prosecution of the same Text in Norwich July 21. 1644. Fol. 127 A Sermon on Easter-day at Higham 1648. Fol. 185 A Sermon Preacht on Whitsunday at Higham 1652. on Rom. 8.14 Fol. 140 The Mourner in Sion on Ecclesiastes 3.4 Fol. 154 A Sermon Preacht at Higham July 1 1655. on 1 Pet. 1.17 Fol. 192 The Womens Vail or a Discourse concerning the necessity or expedience of the Close-covering of the Heads of Women Fol. 265 Holy Decency in the Worship of God Fol. 253 Good Security a discourse of the Christians Assurance Fol. 261 A plain and familiar explication of Christs presence in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood Fol. 287 A Letter for the Observation of the Feast of Christs Nativity Fol. 296 A Letter to Mr. William Struthers one of the Preachers of Edenbourgh Fol. 306 Epistola D. Baltasari Willio S. T. D. Fol. 317 Epistola D. Lud. Crocio S. T. D. Fol. 321 Epistola D. Herman Hildebrando S. T. D. Fol. 331 Reverendissimo Marco Antonio de Dom. Archiep. Spalatensi Epistola discessus sui ad Romam dissuasiva Fol. 394 A Modest Offer Fol. 336 Certain irrefragable Propositions worthy of serious Consideration Fol. 348 The way of peace in the five busie Articles commonly known by the name of Arminia Fol. 353 A Letter concerning the falling away from Grace Fol. 389 A Letter concerning Religion Fol. 401 Resolutions for Religion Fol. 405 A Letter concerning the frequent injection of Temptations Fol. 411 A consolatory Letter to one under Censure Fol. 414 A short answer to the Nine Arguments which are brought against the Bishops sitting in Parliament Fol. 417 For Episcopacy and Liturgie Fol. 421 A speech in Parliament Fol. 425 A speech in Parliament in defence of the Canons made in Convocation Fol. 428 A speech in Parliament concerning the power of Bishops in Secular things Fol. 432 Anthemes for the Cathedral of Exceter Fol. 435 OBSERVATIONS Of some Specialties of DIVINE PROVIDENCE In the Life of JOS. HALL BISHOP of NORWICH Written with his own Hand NOt out of a vain affectation of my own Glory which I know how little it can avail me when I am gone hence but out of a sincere desire to give glory to my God whose wonderful Providence I have noted in all my wayes have I recorded some remarkable passages of my fore-past life what I have done is worthy of nothing but silence and forgetfulness but what God hath done for me is worthy of everlasting and thankfull Memory I was born Julii 1. 1574. at five of the clock in the Morning in Bristow-Park within the Parish of Ashby de la Zouch a Town in Leicester-shire of honest and well allowed Parentage my Father was an Officer under that truly Honourable and Religious Henry Earl of Huntingdon President of the North and under him had the Government of that Market-Town wherein the chief Seat of that Earldome is placed My Mother Winifride of the House of the Bambridges was a woman of that rare Sanctity that were it not for my Interest in Nature I durst say that neither Aleth the mother of that just Honour of Clareval nor Monica nor any other of those pious Matrons antiently famous for Devotion need to disdain her admittance to comparison She was continually exercised with the affliction of a weak Body and oft of a wounded Spirit the Agonies whereof as she would oft recount with much passion professing that the greatest bodily sicknesses were but Flea-bites to those Scorpions so from them all at last she found an happy and comfortable deliverance and that not without a more then ordinary hand of God For on a time being in great distress of Conscience she thought in her Dream there stood by her a grave Personage in the Gown and other Habits of a Physitian who enquiring of her estate and receiving a sad and querulous answer from her took her by the hand and bad her be of good Comfort for this should be the last Fit that ever she should feel of this kinde whereto she seemed to answer that upon that condition she could well be content for the time with that or any other torment reply was made to her as she thought with a redoubled assurance of that happy issue of this her last tryal whereat she began to conceive an unspeakable joy which yet upon her awaking left her more disconsolate as then conceiting her happiness imaginary her misery real when the very same day she was visited by the reverend and in his time famous Divine Mr. Anthony Gilby under whose Ministry she lived who upon the Relation of this her pleasing Vision and the contrary effects it had in her began to perswade her that Dream was no other then Divine and that she had good reason to think that gracious premonition was sent her from God himself who though ordinarily he keeps the common rode of his proceedings yet sometimes in the Distresses of his Servants he goes unusual wayes to their relief hereupon she began to take heart and by good Counsel and her fervent prayers found that happy prediction verified to her and upon all occasions in the
hither out of any doubt of my professed belief or any purpose to change it but moving a question to this Gentleman concerning the pretended miracles of the time he pleased to referr me to your self for my Answer which motion of his I was the more willing to embrace for the fame that I have heard of your learning and worth and if you can give me satisfaction herein I am ready to receive it Hereupon we setled to our places at a Table in the end of the Hall and buckled to a further discourse he fell into a poor and unperfect account of the difference of Divine miracles and Diabolicall which I modestly refuted from thence he slipt into a Cholerick invective against our Church which as he said could not yield one miracle and when I answered that in our Church we had manifest proofs of the ejection of Divells by fasting and prayer he answered that if it could be proved that ever any Divell was dispossessed in our Church he would quit his Religion Many questions were incidently traversed by us wherein I found no satisfaction given me The conference was long and vehement in the heat whereof who should come in but Father Baldwin an English Jesuite known to me as by face after I came to Brussells so much more by Fame he sate down upon a bench at the further end of the table and heard no small part of our Dissertation seeming not too well apaid that a Gentleman of his Nation for still I was spoken to in that habit by the stile of Dominatio vestra should depart from the Jesuites Colledge no better satisfied On the next morning therefore he sends the same English Physitian to my Lodging with a courteous compellation professing to take it unkindly that his Country-man should make choice of any other to conferr with then himself who desired both mine acquaintance and full satisfaction Sr. Edmund Bacon in whose hearing the message was delivered gave me secret signes of his utter unwillingness to give way to my further conferences the issue whereof since we were to pass further and beyond the bounds of that Protection might prove dangerous I returned a mannerly answer of thanks to F. Baldwin but for any further conference that it were bootless I could not hope to convert him and was resolv'd he should not alter me and therefore both of us should rest where we were Departing from Brussells we were for Namur's and Liege in the way we found the good hand of God in delivering us from the danger of free-booters and of a nightly entrance amidst a suspicious convoy into that bloody City Thence we came to the Spadane waters where I had good leasure to add a second century of Meditations to those I had published before my journey After we had spent a just time at those medicinall wells we returned to Liege and in our passage up the River Mosa I had a dangerous conflict with a Sorbonist a Prior of the Carmelites who took occasion by our kneeling at the receit of the Eucharist to perswade all the company of our acknowledgment of a Transubstantiation I satisfyed the cavill showing upon what ground this meet posture obtained with us the man grew furious upon his conviction and his vehement associates began to joyn with him in a right down railing upon our Church and Religion I told them they knew where they were for me I had taken notice of the security of their Laws inhibiting any argument held against their Religion established and therefore stood only upon my defense not casting any aspersion upon theirs but ready to maintain our own which though I performed in as fair terms as I might yet the choler of those zelots was so moved that the paleness of their changed countenances began to threaten some perillous issue had not Sir Edmund Bacon both by his eye and by his Tongue wisely taken me off I subduced my self speedily from their presence to avoid further provocation the Prior began to bewray some suspicions of my borrowed habit and told them that himself had a green Sattin suit once prepared for his travells into England so as I found it needfull for me to lye close at Namur's from whence travelling the next day towards Brussels in the company of two Italian Captains Signior Ascamo Negro and another whose name I have forgotten who enquiring into our Nation and Religion wondred to hear that we had any Baptism or Churches in England the congruity of my Latin in respect of their perfect Barbarisme drew me and the rest into their suspition so as I might overhear them muttering to each other that we were not the men we appeared straight the one of them boldly exprest his conceit and together with this charge began to inquire of our condition I told him that the Gentleman he saw before us was the Grandchild of that renowned Bacon the great Chancellour of England a man of great birth and Quality and that my self and my other companion travailed in his attendance to the Spa from the train and under the Priveledge of our late Ambassador with which just answer I stopt their Mouths Returning through Brussels we came down to Antwerp the paragon of Cities where my curiosity to see a solemn procession on St. John Baptists Day might have drawn me into danger through my willing unreverence had not the hulck of a tall Brabanter behinde whom I stood in a corner of the Street shadowed me from notice Thence down the fair river of Scheld we came to Vlushing where upon the resolution of our company to stay some hours I hasted to Middleburgh to see an ancient Collegue That visit lost me my passage ere I could return I might see our ship under sail for England the Master had with the wind altered his Purpose and called aboord with such eagerness that my Company must either away or undergo the hazard of too much loss I lookt long after them in vain and sadly returning to Middleburgh waited long for an inconvenient and tempestuous passage After some year and half it pleased God in expectedly to contrive the change of my station My means were but short at Halsted yet such as I oft professed if my then Patron would have added but one ten pounds by year which I held to be the value of my detained due I should never have removed One morning as I lay in my bed a strong motion was suddenly glanced into my thoughts of going to London I arose and betook me to the way the ground that appeared of that purpose was to speak with my Patron Sir Robert Drury if by occasion of the publick Preachership of St. Edmunds Bury then offered me upon good conditions I might draw him to a willing yieldance of that parcell of my due maintenance which was kept back from my not over-deserving predecessor who hearing my erâ—and disswaded me from so ungainfull a change which had it been to my sensible advantage he should have readily given
gone along with them in their election It came to the Poll Those of my Nomination carried it The Parliament begun After some hard tugging there returning home upon a recess I was met on the way and cheerfully wellcom'd with some hundreds In no worse terms I left that my once dear Diocess when returning to Westminister I was soon call'd by his Majesty who was then in the North to a remove to Norwich but how I took the Tower in my way and how I have been dealt with since my repair hither I could be Lavish in the sad report ever desiring my Good God to enlarge my heart in Thankfulness to him for the sensible experience I have had of his fatherly hand over me in the deepest of all my Afflictions and to strengthen me for whatsoever other tryalls he shall be pleased to call me unto That being found faithfull unto the Death I may obtain that Crown of life which he hath Ordained for all those that Overcome Bishop HALL'S HARD MEASURE NOthing could be more plain then that upon the Call of this Parliament and before there was a general Plot and Resolution of the Faction to alter the Government of the Church especially the height and insolency of some Church-governours as was conceived and the ungrounded imposition of some Innovations upon the Churches both of Scotland and England gave a fit Hint to the Project In the vacancy therefore before the Summons and immediately after it there was great working secretly for the Designation and Election as of Knights and Burgesses so especially beyond all former use of the Clerks of Convocation when now the Clergy were stirred up to contest with and oppose their Diocesans for the choice of such men as were most inclined to the favour of an Alteration The Parliament was no sooner sate then many vehement Speeches were made against established Church-government and enforcement of extirpation both root and branch And because it was not fit to set upon all at once the resolution was to begin with those Bishops which had subscribed to the Canons then lately published upon the shutting up of the former Parliament whom they would first have had accused of Treason but that not appearing feisible they thought best to indite them of very high crimes and offences against the King the Parliament and Kingdom which was prosecuted with great earnestness by some prime Lawyers in the House of Commons and entertained with like fervency by some zealous Lords in the House of Peers every of those particular Canons being pressed to the most envious and dangerous height that was possible The Arch-bishop of York was designed for the report aggravating Mr. Maynards criminations to the utmost not without some Interspersions of his own The Counsel of the accused Bishops gave in such a demurring Answer as stopt the mouth of that heinous Indictment when this prevailed not it was contrived to draw Petitions accusatory from many parts of the Kingdom against Episcopal Government and the Promoters of the petitions were entertained with great respects whereas the many petitions of the opposite part though subscribed with many thousand hands were sleighted and disregarded VVithall the Rabble of London after their petitions cunningly and upon other pretences procured were stirred up to come to the Houses personally to crave justice both against the Earl of Strafford first and then against the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and lastly against the whole Order of Bishops which coming at first unarm'd were checked by some well-willers and easily perswaded to gird on their rusty Swords and so accoutred came by thousands to the Houses filling all the outer rooms offering soul abuses to the Bishops as they passed crying out No Bishops No Bishops and at last after divers dayes assembling grown to that height of fury that many of them whereof Sir Richard Wiseman professed though to his cost to be Captain came with resolution of some violent courses in so much that many Swords were drawn hereupon at Westminster and the Rout did not stick openly to profess that they would pull the Bishops in pieces Messages were sent down to them from the Lords they still held firm both to the place and their bloody resolutions It now grew to be Torch-light one of the Lords the Marquesse of Hartford came up to the Bishops Form told us that we were in great danger advised us to take some course for our own safety being desired to tell us what he thought was the best way counselled us to continue in the Parliament House all that night for saith he these people Vow they will watch you at your going out and will search every Coach for you with Torches so as you cannot escape Hereupon the House of Lords was moved for some Order for the preventing their mutinous and riotous meetings Messages were sent down to the House of Commons to this purpose more then once nothing was effected but for the present for so much as all the danger was at the â—iâ—ising of the House it was earnestly desired of the Lords that some care might be taken of our safety The motion was received by some Lords with a smile some other Lords as the Earl of Manchester undertook the protection of the Arch-bishop of York and his company whose shelter I went under to their lodgings the rest some of them by their long stay others by secret and far-fetch't passages escaped home It was not for us to venture any more to the House without some better assurance upon our resolved forbearance therefore the Arch-bishop of York sent for us to his lodging at Westminster layes before us the perillous condition we were in advises for remedy except we meant utterly to abandon our Right and to desert our Station in Parliament to petition both his Majesty and the Parliament that since we were legally call'd by his Majesties writ to give our Attendance in Parliament we might be secured in the performance of our Duty and Service against those Dangers that threatned us and withall to protest against any such Acts as should be made during the time of our forced Absence for which he assured us there were many Presidents in former Parliaments and which if we did not we should betray the Trust committed to us by his Majestie and shamefully betray and abdicate the due right both of our selves and Successours To this purpose in our presence he drew up the said petition and protestation avowing it to be legall just and Agreeable to all former Proceedings and being fair written sent it to our severall Lodgings for our Hands which we accordingly subscribed intending yet to have had some further Consultation concerning the delivering and whole carriage of it But ere we could suppose it to be in any hand but his own the first Newes we heard was that there were Messingers addressed to fetch us in to the Parliament upon an Accusation of high Treason For whereas this Paper was to have been delivered first to his Majesties
the height of rigour wave their former Impeachment of Treason against us and fall upon an Accusation of high Misdemeaners in that our Protestation and will have us prosecuted as guilty of a Premunire although as we conceive the law hath ever been in the Parliamentary proceedings that if a man were impeached as of Treason being the highest crime the Accusant must hold him to the proof of the charge and may not fall to any meaner Impeachment upon failing of the higher But in this case of ours it feâ—l out otherwise for although the Lords had openly promised us that nothing should be done against us till we and our Counsail were heard in our defense yet the next Newes we heard was the house of Commons had drawn up a bill against us wherein they declared us to be Delinquents of a very high Nature and had thereupon desired to have it enacted that all our spirituall Means should be taken away Only there should be a Yearly allowance to every Bishop for his maintenance according to a proportion by them set down wherein they were pleased that my share should come to 400 p. per annum this bill was sent up to the Lords and by them also passed and there hath ever since lyen this being done after some weeks more finding the Tower besides the Restraint chargeable we petitioned the Lords that we might be admitted to bail and have liberty to return to our Homes the Earl of Essex moved the Lords assented took our bail sent to the Lieutenant of the Tower for our discharge How glad were we to flie out of our Cage No sooner was I got to my Lodging then I thought to take a little fresh Air in St. James his Park and in my return to my Lodging in the Deans yard passing through Westminister Hall was saluted by divers of my Parliament acquaintance and welcomed to my liberty whereupon some that look't upon me with an evil eye run into the House and complained that the Bishops were let loose which it seems was not well taken by the house of Commons who presently sent a kind of expostulation to the Lords that they had dismissed so haynous offenders without their knowledg and consent Scarce had I rested me in my lodging when there comes a Messinger to me with the sad newes of sending me and the rest of my brethren the Bishops back to the Tower again from whence we came thither we must go and thither I went with an heavy but I thank God not impatient heart After we had continued there some six weeks longer and earnestly Petitioned to return to our severall charges we were upon 5000 l. Bond dismissed with a clause of Revocation at a short warning if occasion should require Thus having spent the time betwixt New years Even and VVhitsontide in those safe walls where we by turnes preached every Lords Day to a large Auditory of Cittizens we disposed of our selves to the places of our severall abode For my self addressing my self to Norwich whether it was his Majesties pleasure to remove me I was at the first received with more respect then in such times I could have expected there I preached the day after my arivall to a numerous and attentive people nether was sparing of my pains in this kind ever since till the times growing every day more impatient of a Bishop threatned my silencing There though with some secret Murmurs of disaffected persons I enjoyed peace till the ordinance of sequestration came forth which was in the latter end of March following then when I was in hope of receiving the profits of the fore-going half year for the maintenance of my family were all my Rents stopped and diverted and in the Aprill following came the sequestrators viz. Mr. Sothertou Mr. Tooly Mr. Rawly Mr. Greenewood c. To the Palace and told me that by vertue of an ordinance of Paraliment they must seize upon the Palace and all the estate I had both reall and personall and accordingly sent certain men appointed by them whereof one had been burnt in the hand for the mark of his Truth to apprize all the goods that were in the house which they accordingly executed with all diligent severity not leaving so much as a dozen of Trenchers or my Childrens pictures out of their curious Inventory Yea they would have apprized our very wearing clothes had not Alderman Tooly and Sheriff Rawley to whom I sent to require their Judgment concerning the Ordinance in this point declared their opinion to the contrary These goods both Library and houshold stuff of all kinds were appointed to be exposed to publick sale Much inquiry there was when the goods should be brought to the Market but in the mean time Mrs. Goodwin a religious good Gentlewoman whom yet we had never known or seen being moved with compassion very kindly offered to lay down to the Sequestrators that whole summe which the goods were valued at and was pleased to leave them in our hands for our use till we might be able to repurchase them which she did accordingly and had the goods formally delivered to her by Mr. Smith and Mr. Greenwood two Sequestrators As for the books severall Stationers lookt on them but were not forward to buy them at last Mr. Cook a worthy Divine of this Diocess gave bond to the Sequestrators to pay to them the whole summe whereat they were set which was afterwards satisfied out of that poor pittance that was allowed me for my Maintenance as for my evidences they required them from me I denyed them as not holding my self bound to deliver them They nailed and sealed up the door and took such as they found with me But before this the first noise that I heard of my trouble was that one Morning before my servants were up there came to my Gates one Wright a London Trooper attended with others requiring entrance threatning if they were not admitted to break open the Gates whom I found at my first sight strugling with one of my Servants for a Pistol which he had in his hand I demanded his business at that unseasonable time he told me he came to search for Armes and Amunition of which I must be disarm'd I told him I had only two Muskets in the house and no other Military Provision he not resting upon my word searcht round about the house lookt into the Chests and Trunks examined the Vessells in the Cellar finding no other VVarliek furniture he askt me what Horses I had for his Commission was to take them also I told him how poorly I was stored and that my age would not allow me to travell on foot In conclusion he took one Horse for the present and such accompt of another that he did highly expostulate with me afterwards that I had otherwise disposed of him Now not only my Rents present but the Arrerages of the former Years which I had in favour forborn to some Tenants being treacherously confessed to the Sequestrators
were by them called for and taken from me neither was there any course at all taken for my maintenance I therefore addressed my self to the Committee sitting here at Norwich and desired them to give order for some means out of that large Patrimony of the Church to be allowed me They all thought it very just and there being present Sr. Tho. VVoodhouse and Sr. John Potts Parliament men it was moved and held fit by them and the rest that the Proportion which the Votes of the Paliament had pitcht upon viz. 400 l. per annum should be allowed to me My Lord of Manchester who was then conceived to have great power in matter of these Sequestrations was moved herewith He apprehended it very just and reasonable and wrote to the Committee here to set out so many of the Mannors belonging to this Bishoprick as should amount to the said summe of 400 l. annually which was answerably done under the hands of the whole Table And now I well hoped I should yet have a good Competency of maintenance out of that plentifull Estate which I might have had But those hopes were no sooner conceived then dasht for before I could gather up one Quarters Rent there comes down an Order from the Committee for Sequestrations above under the hand of Sergeant Wild the Chair-man procured by Mr. Miles Corbet to inhibit any such allowance and telling our Committee here that neither They nor any other had Power to allow me any thing at all But if my Wife found her self to need a Maintenance upon her Sute to the Committee of Lords and Commons it might be granted that She should have a fifth part according to the Ordinance allowed for the sustentation of her self and her Family Hereupon she sends a Petition up to that Committee which after a long delay was admitted to be read and an Order granted for the fifth part But still the Rents and Revinues both of my Spirituall and Temporall Lands were taken up by the Sequestrators both in Norfolke and Suffolke and Essex and we kept off from either allowance or accompt At last upon much pressing Beadle the Solicitor and Rust the Collector brought in an Account to the Committee such as it was but so Confused and Perplexed and so utterly unperfect that we could never come to know what a fifth part meant But they were content that I should eat my books by setting off the Sum engaged for them out of the fifth part Mean time the Synodalls both in Norfolke and Suffolke and all the Spirituall profits of the Diocess were also kept back only Ordinations and Institutions continued a while But after the Covenant was appointed to be taken and was generally swallowed of both Clergy and Layety my power of ordination was with some strange violence restrained For when I was going on in my wonted course which no Law or Ordinance had inhibited certain forward Voluntiers in the Citty banding together stir up the Mayor and Aldermen and Sheriffs to call me to an account for an open violation of their Covenant To this purpose divers of them came to my Gates at a very unseasonable time and knocking very vehemently required to speak with the Bishop Messages were sent to them to know their business nothing would satisfie them but the Bishops presence at last I came down to them and demanded what the matter was they would have the gate opened then they would tell me I answered that I would know them better first If they had any thing to say to me I was ready to hear them they told me they had a writing to me from Mr. Mayor some other of their Magistrates the paper contained both a challenge of me for breaking the Covenant in ordaining Ministers and withal required me to give in the Names of those which were ordained by me both then and formerly since the Covenant My answer was that Mr. Mayor was much abused by those who had misinform'd him drawn that paper from him that I would the next day give a ful answer to the writing they moved that my answer might be by my personal appearance at the Guild-hall I askt them when they ever heard of a Bishop of Norwich appearing before a Mayor I knew mine own place would take that way of answer which I thought sit and so dismissed them who had given out that day that had they known before of mine ordaining they would have pull'd me those whom I ordained out of the Chappell by the Ears VVhiles I received nothing yet something was required of me they were not ashamed after they had taken away and sold all my Goods and personall estate to come to me for assesments and monethly payments for that estate which they had taken and took Distresses from me upon my most just denyall and vehemently required me to finde the wonted Armes of my Predecessors when they had left me nothing Many insolencies and affronts were in all this time put upon us One while a whole rabble of Voluntiers come to my Gates late when they were locked up and called for the porter to give them entrance which being not yielded they threatned to make by force and had not the said gates been very strong they had done it Others of them clambred over the walls and would come into mine house their errand they said was to search for Delinquents what they would have done I know not had not we by a secret way sent to raise the Officers for our Rescue Another while the Sheriff Toftes and Alderman Linsey attended with many Zealous followers came into my Chappell to look for Superstitious Pictures and Reliques of Idolatry and send for me to let me know they found those VVindowes full of Images which were very offensive and must be demolished I told them they were the Pictures of some antient and worthy Bishops as St. Ambrose Austin c. It was answered me that they were so many Popes and one younger man amongst the rest Townsend as I perceived afterwards would take upon him to defend that every Diocesan Bishop was Pope I answered him with some scorn and obtained leave that I might with the least loss and defacing of the windows give order for taking off that offence which I did by causing the heads of those Pictures to be taken off since I knew the Bodies could not offend There was not that care and moderation used in reforming the Cathedrall Church bordering upon my Palace It is no other then Tragical to relate the carriage of that furious Sacrilidge whereof our eyes and ears were the sad witnesses under the Authority and presence of Linsey Tofts the Sheriffe and Greenwood Lord what work was here what clattering of Glasses what beating down of VValls what tearing up of Monuments what pulling down of Seates what wresting out of Irons and Brass from the Windowes and Graves what defacing of Armes what demolishing of curious Stone-work that had not any representation in the VVorld
and familiar case that of Ezekiel 33.7 c. Son of man I have set thee for a watchman to the House of Israel therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth and warn them of it When I say to the wicked O wicked man thou shalt surely dye If thou doest not speak to warn the wicked from his way that wicked man shall dye in his iniquity but his blood will I require at thine hand A sleeping Centinel is the loss of a whole City the forfeiture of his own life is the least piece of the mischief he is guilty of Oh therefore ye that are the watchmen of the Lord rouze up your selves and as you desire to avoid so many vengeances as there are souls lost by your drouziness and taciturnity bestir your tongues in giving warning to Gods people of their spirituall dangers as our Apostle doth here I have told you and now tell you again Thus much for the warning now the Frequence followes I have told you often Not once not seldome had the Apostle told his Philippians of these inordinate walkers but often St. Paul feared not the slander of a Tautology Rather like a constant workman he beats still upon the same anvil There can never be too much warning of that whereof there can never be enough heed Nice ears are all for variety of Doctrines as palates of meats Quousque eadem what still the same over and over Is the note of both How scornfully do these Gluttons look at the often entrance of the same standing dishes St. Paul hates to feed this wanton humour and tells them this single diet is safe for them and to himself not grevious and therefore not fearing their surfet of so wholesome a service he still sets before them the same messe I have told you often and now tell you again We tell over the same numbers in the counting of our coyn and are not weary of it In our recreations we spend the night after the day at the same game and complain not of satiety why should we who professe our selves spiritual so soon nauseate at the iteration of good counsels Perhaps if we would seek Athens in our City we should not lose our labour There is an itch of the ear which St. Paul foresaw would prove the disease of the latter times that now is groan epidemical an itch after newes even in Gods chair new Doctrines new dresses and surely it must needs be confessed that of latter years there was much fault in this kind too many Pulpits were full of curious affectation of new quirks of wit new crochets of conceit strange mixtures of opinions In so much as the old and plain formes were grown stale and despicable let me tell you I still feared this itch would end in a smart Certainly there cannot be a more certain argument of a decayed and sickly stomack then the loathing of wholsome and solid food and longing after fine quelque choices of new and artificial composition For us away with this vain affectation in the matters of God surely if ought under Heaven go down better with us then the savoury viands of Christ and him crucified of faith and repentance and those plainly dressed without all the lards and sauces of humane devices to say no worse our soules are sick and we feel it not Oh ye foolish Israelites with whom too much frequence made the food of Angels contemptible If Onions and Garlick had grown as risely in the Wildernesse and Manna had rained down no where but in Egypt how would ye have hated those rude and strong Salades and have run mad for those celestial delicates The tast of Manna was as of Wafers made with Hony Exod. 16.31 now what can be sweeter then hony Yet sayes the Wise man the Full dispiseth an hony comb I doubt there are too many thus full full of the World full of wicked nature of sinful corruptions and then no marvell if they despise this food of Angels but for us my brethren Oh let us not be weary of our happiness let not these dainties of Heaven lose their worth for their store every Day let us go forth of our tents and gather and while we are nourished let us not be cloyed with good else God knowes a remedy he knowes how to make the Word precious to us precious in the want because it was not precious to us in the Valuation He that hath told us how precious Peace is by the sence of a wofull War can soon show us how precious his word was by a spiritual famine which God for his mercies sake avert from us I might here have done with the frequence but let me add this one consideration more that often inculcation of warning necessarily implies a danger There is much danger in a contagious conversation evill is of a spreading nature sin as leaven yea old leaven fowres the whole lumpe where it lyes yea it is a very plague that infects the Air round about it If as the entrances of sin are bashfull it begin with one Angell it infects legions let it begin with one Woman it infects all the mass of Mankind One person infects a Family one Family a whole Street one Street a whole City one City a whole Country one Country a whole World yea it runs like powder in a train and flies out suddainly on all sides Look about you and see whether you need any other witnesses then your own eyes Do ye not see daily how drunkenness doth in this participate of the nature of that liquor which causeth it that it is not easily contained within it's own bounds The vice as well as the humour is diffusive of it self how rarely have you ever seen a solitary drunkard no the very title which is mis-given to this sin is good Fellowship Mark if oaths where leud men are met do not flie about like squibs on a wheel whereof one gives fire to another and all do as it were counter-thunder to Heaven on bold swearer makes many and the land mournes with the number Look at the very Israelitish Stewes They assemble by troupes into the harlots houses Jer. 5.7 And for heresies and erroneous opinions in religion the Apostle tell us it is a Gangrene 2 Tim. 2.17 whose taint is both suddain and deadly Let it be but in the finger if the joynt be not cut off or there be not an instant prevention the whole arme is taken and straight the heart It is a pregnant comparison of the Father that the infection of heresie is like the biting of a mad dogg you know the dog when he is taken with this furious distemper affects to bite every living thing in his way and what ever he bites he infects and whomsoever he infects without a present remedy he kills not without a spice of his own distemper I would we had not too lamentable experience of this mischief every day wherein we see one tainted â—ith Popery another with Socinianism another
clear and piercing and therefore it is purposely added for the further Emphasis In him is no darkenesse Oh the infinite clearnesse of the Divine knowledg to which all things lye open both past present and to come which doth not only reach in one intuition to all the actions motions events of all Creatures that have been are shall be but which is infinitely more then all these extends to the full comprehension of himself his whole Divine nature and essence to which the World though full of innumerable varieties is lesse then nothing The Sun is a goodly globe of Light The visible World hath nothing so glorious so searching and yet there are many things lye hid within the bosome of the Earth and Sea which his eye never saw never shall see Neither can it ever see more then half the World at once darkness the while enwraps the other nor indeed of any much lesser if round body And though it give light unto other Creatures yet it gives not light to it self like as our eye sees all other objects but it self it cannot see And though it enlighten this materiall Heaven both above and below it self as also this lower Air and Earth yet the Empyreal Heaven transcends the beames of it and is filled with a more glorious illumination But God the Light of whom we speak who is the Maker of that Sun sees the most hidden secrets of Earth and Hell sees all that is done in Earth and Heaven at one view sees his most glorious self and by his presence makes Heaven Most justly therefore is God Light by an eminence Now the reflection of the first quality of Light upon us must be our clear apprehension of God the World and our selves and by how much more exact knowledg we shall attain unto of all these by so much more do we conform our selves to that God who is Light and by how much less we know them so much more darkness there is in us and so much less fellowship have we with God If the eye have not an inward Light in it self let the Sun shine never so bright upon it it is nevertheless blind What are we the better for that which is in God if there be not an inward Light in our Souls to answer and receive it How should we love and adore God if we know him not How shall we hate and combat the World if we know it not How shall we value and demean our selves if we know not our selves Surely the want of this Light of knowledg is the ground of all that miserable disorder which we see daily break forth in the affections in the carriages of men I know the common word is that we are fallen into a knowing age such as wherein our speculative skill is wont to be upbraided to us in a disgracefull comparison of our unanswerable practise our forward young men out-run their years bragg that there is more weight in the down of their chins then in the gray beards of their aged Grandsires Our artificers take upon them to hold argument with and perhaps control their Teachers neither is it any newes for the shop-board to contest with the schooles every not Knight or Rook only but Pawn too can give check to a Bishop The Romish Church had lately her Shee-Preachers till Pope Urban gagg'd them and our Gossips now at home in stead of dresses can tattle of mysteries and censure the Pulpit in stead of neighbours Light call you this No these are fiery flashes of conceit that glance through vain minds to no purpose but idle ostentation and satisfaction of wild humours without stability or any available efficacy to the soul Alas we are wise in impertinencies ignorant in main truths neither doth the knowledg of too many go any deeper then the verge of their brains or the tip of their tongue I fear true solid knowledg is not much less rare then when our unlett'red Grand-fathers were wont to court God Almighty with false Latin in their devotions For did the true Light shine into the hearts of men in the knowledg of God the World themselves how could they how durst they live thus Durst the leud tongues of men rend the holy name of God in peices with oaths and blasphemies if they knew him to be so dreadfull so just as he hath revealed himself Durst the cruell oppressors of the World grind faces and cut throats and shed blood like water if they were perswaded that God is a sure revenger of their outrages Durst the goatish adulterer the swinish drunkard wallow in their beastly uncleannesse if they knew their is a God to judge them an Hell to fry in Durst the rebellious seditionary lift up his hand against the Lords Anointed and that under a colour of religion if the fool had not said in his heart There is no God Could the covetous fool so admire and adore his red and white Earth could the ambitious so dote upon a little vanishing honour as to sacrifice his soul to it if he knew the World could the proud man be so besotted with self-love as that he sees his God in his glass if he knew himself Surely then the true Light is as rare as it is precious and it is as precious as life it self yea as life eternall This is eternall life to know thee and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ What were the World without Light and what the soul without the Light of knowledg We condemne Malefactors to darkness that is one great part of the horrour of their durance Jo. 17. â— and by how much more haynous their crime is so much darker is their dungeon Darkness of understanding then is punishment enough alone as it is also the entry into hell which is described by blackness of darkness None but savage Creatures delight in darkness Man naturally abhorres it in all things If our eyes be dim we call for glasses if our houses be dark we make windows if the evening grow dark we call for lights and if those lights burn dim we call for snuffers and shall we avoid darkness in every thing except our soules which is our better and more Divine part Honourable and beloved as we love and tender those dear soules of ours let us labour to furnish them with the Light of true and saving knowledg What is this Gospell which shines thus daily and clearly in your faces but the Vehiculum lucis the carriage of that heavenly Light to the World Send forth thy Light and thy Truth saith the Psalmist Thy Word is Truth saith our Saviour that word of truth then is the body of that Light which God showes to men Oh let it not shine upon us in vain let us not trample upon the beams of it in our floore as that foolish woman that St. Austin speaks of did to those of the Sun with a Calco Manichorum Deum But now while God gives these happy opportunities let us enlarge our hearts to receive
great power are met in any Prince he can be content to fit still and not break forth into some notable breaches of publick peace And where once the fire of war is kindled it is not easily quenched yea it runs as in a trayn and feeds it self with all the combustable matter it meets withall on every side and therefore t is a marveilous work of the power and mercy of God that he makes war to cease And this he doth either by an over-powering victory as in the case of Hezekiah Sennacherib which should seem to be the drift of this Psalme whereof every passage imports such a victory and triumph as the conquered adversary should never be able to recover Or by tempering and composing the hearts of men restraining them in their most furious carriere and taming their wild heats of revenge and inclining them to termes of peace This is a thing which none but he can do the heart of man is an unruly and head strong thing it is not more close then violent as none can know it so none can over-rule it but he that made it It is a rough sea he only can say here shalt thou stay thy proud waves Shortly then publick peace is the proper work of an Almighty and mercifull God His very title is Deus pacis the God of peace Rom. 15.33 and 16.20 Heb. 13.20 so as this is his peculium yea it is not only his for he owes it but his for he makes it I make peace and create evill I the Lord do all these things Esa 45.7 That malignant Spirit is in this his profest opposite that he is the great make-bate of the World Labouring to set all together by the ears sowing discord betwixt Heaven and Earth betwixt one peece of Earth against another Man against Man Nation against Nation hence he hath the name of Satan of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Diabolus of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as whose whole indeavour is enmity and destruction Contrarily the good God of Heaven whose work it is to destroy the works of the Devill is all for peace he loves peace he commands it he effects it He maketh wars to cease This is his work in the kinde and so much more his work in the extent To the ends of the Earth by how much more good any work is by so much more it is his and by how much more common any good is by so much better it is Even the pax pectoris the private and bosome peace of every man with himself is his great and good work for the heart of every man is naturally as an unquiet sea ever tossing and restlesse troubled with variety of boistrous passions he only can calme it the peace of the family is his he maketh men to be of one minde in an house without whose work there is nothing but jarres and discord betwixt husband and wife parents and children masters and servants servants and children with each other so as the house is made if not an hell for the time yet a purgatory at the least the peace of the neighbourhood is his without whom there is nothing but scolding brawling bloodsheds lawing that a City is at unity in it self not divided into sides and factions it is the Lords doing for many men many mindes and every man is naturally addicted to his own opinion hence grow daily destractions in populous bodies That a Country that a Nation is so is so much more his work as there are more heads and hearts to governe But that one Nation should be at unity with another yea that all Nations should agree upon an universall cessation of armes and embrace peace A domino factum est hoc est mirabile it must needs be the Lords doing so much more eminently and it is marveilous in our eyes Faciam eos in gentem unam was a word fit only for the mouth of God who only can restrain hands and conjoyne hearts as here He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the Earth Now wherefore serves all this but for the direction of our recourse for the excitation of our duty and immitation for the challenge of our thankfulnesse In the first place are we troubled with the fears or rumours of wars are we grieved with the quarrells and dissensions that we finde within the bosome of our own Nation or Church would we earnestly desire to finde all differences composed and a constant peace setled amongst us we see whether to make our addresse even to that omnipotent God who maketh warrs to cease unto the ends of the earth who breaketh the bow and snappeth the spear in sunder And surely if ever any Nation had cause to complain in the midst of a publick peace of the danger of private destractions and factious divisions ours is it wherein I know not how many uncouch Sects are lately risen out of Hell to the disturbance of our wonted peace all of them eagerly pursuing their own various fancies and opposing our formerly received truth what should we do then but be take our selves in our earnest supplications to the God of peace with an Help Lord never ceasing to solicit him with our prayers that he would be pleased so to order the hearts of men that they might encline to an happy agreement at least to a meek cessation of those unkinde quarrels wherewith the Church is thus miserably afflicted But secondly in vain shall we pray if we do nothing Our prayers serve only to testifie the truth of our desires and to what purpose shall we pretend a desire of that which we indeavour not to effect That God who makes wars and quarrels to cease useth means to accomplish that peace which he decrees And what are those means but the inclinations projects labors of all the well-willers to peace It must be our care therefore to immitate yea to second God in this great work of peace-making The phrase is a strange but an emphaticall one that Deborah uses in her song Curse ye Meroz said the Angel of the Lord curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to help the Lord to help the Lord against the mighty Judg. 5.23 Lo what a word here is To help the Lord what help needs the Almighty or what help can our weaknesse afford to his omnipotence Yet when we put our hands to his and do that as instruments which he as the authour requires of us and works by us we help that Lord which gives us all the motions both of our wills and actions so must we do in the promoting of peace and the allaying of quarrells when an house is on fire we must every one cast in his pail-full to the quenching of the flames It is not enough that we look on harmlesly with our hands in our bosomes No we add to that burning which we indeavour not to quench We must contribute our utmost to the cessation of these spirituall and intellectuall wars which shall be
presence followes upon the other or accompanies it For when we do carefully and conscionably wait upon Gods ordinance then his Spirit offers and conveighs it self into the heart these are Vehiculum gratiae the carriage of grace into the soul Never any scorner or profane person hath any sense of this presence This is that David speaks so passionately of Oh cast me not away from thy presence and take not thine holy spirit from me It troubled him as before to be kept from Gods ordinances but it troubled him an hundred times more to be cast out from this more entire presence Cant. 5.6.7 the Church in the Canticles when she misses her welbeloved how impatient she is How she runs about the City How she hazards her self to the blowes of the watchmen and will take no rest till she have recovered him These spirituall desertions are the saddest things that can befall to a man For there is a spirituall familiarity of sweet conversation betwixt God and his which it is a death to forgoe they injoy each other live in each others sight impart their counsels each to other So then we draw near to God when repenting us of our former aberrations from him we renue our covenants with him put our selves into an awfull acknowledgment of him still seeing him that is invisible when we grow into dear though trembling acquaintance with him taking pleasure in his company interchanging our dulce susurrium cum Deo as Bernard speaks and indevouring to be in all things approved of him This must needs be a very comfortable and blessed condicion Oh happy thrice happy are they that ever they were born who have truly attained to it It is a true rule in philosophy that every naturall agent works by a contaction whether bodily or virtuall which the weaker or further off it is the efficacy of the operation is so much the lesse As when we are cold the fire heates us but not except we come within the reach of it If we stand aloof off it warmes us so feebly that we are little the better for it but if we draw close to the hearth now it sensibly refresheth us even thus also doth God himself please to impart himself to us How ever there is infinite vertue in the Almighty not confinable to any limits Luc. 8.45 yet he will not put it forth to our benefit unlesse we thus draw near to him who toucht me saith our Saviour when the bloody-fluxed woman fingred but the hemme of his garment Lo many thronged him but there was but one that toucht him and upon that touch Vertue went out from him to her cure He might have diffused his vertue as the Sun doth his beames at a distance to the furthest man but as good old Isaac that could have blessed his Esau in the field or in the forrest yet would have him to come close to him for his benediction So will God have us to draw nigh to him if ever we look for any blessing at his hands according to the charge here given Draw nigh unto God Now then that from the respect to the presence of God we may descend to consider the motion of man There are many wayes of our appropinquation to God this People saith God drawes nigh me with their lips but their hearts are farr from me This is an approach that God cannot abide this lip-walk may advance us to hell for our hypocrisie but it can never promove us one step towards Heaven God cannot abide meer talkers of religion let them say Lord Lord he shall answer them I know you not Depart from me ye workers of iniquity There are three wayes of our drawing nigh to God which he accepts of from us On our feet on our hands and on our knees On our feet first Keep thy foot Eccles. 5.1 saith Solomon when thou goest into the house of God what are the feet of the soul but the affections Then do we therefore draw nigh to God when we are so affected to him as we ought when we come to him with the foot of fear Fear the Lord all his Saints saith the Psalmist Serve the Lord in fear Ps 2. Fear God and depart from evill saith his Son Solomon Prov. 3.7 when we come to him with the foot of love I sought him whom my soul loveth saith the Spouse Cant. 3.1 when with the foot of desire As the embossed heart panteth for the rivers of waters so doth my soul for thee O God Ps 42.1 with the foot of joy I rejoyced when they said Come let us go up to the house of the Lord with the foot of confidence In the Lord put I my trust how then do ye say to my soul Flee hence as a bird to the hills And as we must draw nigh to God on the feet of our affections so also upon the hands of our actions even as Jonathan and his armour-bearer climbed up the rock with feet and hands this is done when we perform to God all holy obedience when we serve him as we ought both in our devotions and our carriage and this is the best and truest approximation to God Walk before me saith God to Abraham and be upright Master saith Peter if it be thou Joh. 21.17 bid me come unto thee and after that when he heard it was the Lord he girt his fishers coat to him casts himself into the Sea to come to Christ without this reality of action all our profession is but idle pretence I remember our Country-man Bromiard tells us of one who meeting his neighbour coming out of the Church askt him what is the Sermon done Done said the other No It is said it is ended but it is not so soon done And surely so it is with us we have good store of Sermons said but we have but a few done and one sermon done is worth a thousand said and heard For not the hearers of the law but the doers of it are justified and if ye know these things blessed are ye if ye do them Glory honour and peace to every one that worketh good Rom. 2.10 Now that we may supply both those other approaches on our feet hands we must in the third place draw nigh to God on our knees in our earnest supplications to him for his enabling us to them both doth any man want wisdom and this is the best improvement of wisdom that may be Ja. 1.4 to shelter our selves under the wings of the Almighty let him ask of God who giveth liberally and upbraideth no man let us sue to him with all holy importunity Oh that my wayes were made so direct that I might keep thy statutes Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes Ps 119. and I shall keep it to the end O stablish thy word in thy servant that I may fear thee Thus let us seek the Lord early and fervently and powre out our hearts before him It is not for us to
fear that we can offend in an over-bold accesse to the throne of Grace in bouncing to hard at his mercy-gate for Lo his goodnesse hath invited us and animated our bashfulnesse When Moses approached to the burning bush he heareth Come not near for he came out of curiosity and wonder not out of devotion but God calls us to this approach Ho every one that thirsteth come Come to me all ye that travell and be heavy laden and I will refresh you and therefore we cannot come with too much confidence nor fail of successe in coming It is an holy and well grounded expostulation which the Psalmist hath How long wilt thou be angry with thy people that prayeth implying that whiles we can pray we may make just account of favour and protection So then upon the feet of our affections upon the hands of our actions upon the knees of our devotions we must draw nigh unto God But that we may do so Our care must be that the hindrances of our approach may be removed And first of all we must draw off from the World that is like a rock of Load-stone that drawes our Iron hearts to it and holds them close to it self so as it is not easily quit It is like the Father of the Levites Concubine that holds us on with a pleasing entertainment till there be a danger of mis-carriage in the return But ye remember what the Psalmist sayes Hearken O Daughter and consider Thou must leave thy Fathers house we must in our affections leave the World if we would betake our selves to God Tush ye are ready to say we shall hold in with both and do well enough Be not deceived Brethren The love of the world is enmity with God Ye cannot serve to Masters God and Mammon one of them you must forsake Abraham must leave his Ur of the Chaldees his native Country and his Fathers house if he will have the clear vision of God The Israelites must go out of Egypt ere they can offer an acceptable sacrifice to God we must with Elisha forsake our teame if we will be fit attendants for a Master that is rap't up to Heaven we must forsake our nets and follow Christ if we will be meet Disciples of his In the second place we must give strong denyalls to our own corrupt desires These are like some leaden weights that hang upon our heels and keep us from mounting up into our Heaven these like to Potiphars wanton wife hang upon Josephs sleeve to draw him unto folly and they must be shaken off if ever we would draw nigh unto God If Father or Mother or Wife or Child lie in thy way per calcatum Vade patrem trample upon thy Fathers brest in thy passage to thy Father in Heaven Our self-love and self-respect lies like an huge mountain betwixt God and us we must either by the power of our faith say to this Mountain be thou removed and cast into the midst of the Sea or else we must climbe over it by the painfull practises of a constant and effectuall mortification Shortly as men peregrinamur a domino we are here absent from the Lord 2. Cor. 5.6 but as sinners we are with the prodigall gone into a farr Country quite out of the Ken of our Fathers house and there having spent our patrimony and debauch't our selves we are feeding upon the huskes of vanity Oh let us take up at the last serious resolutions to return home though by weeping crosse and put our selves into our way we shall be sure that our indulgent Father will espie us afar off and meet us in our passage and welcome us with a kisse according to this word in my Text Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you And so from the duty injoyned we descend to the Inducement proposed But indeed what needs any inducement at all There are actions that carry their reward in their mouth such is this we have in hand It is a great honour to us wretched Creatures that we may be allowed to draw nigh to the Lord of glory If there do but an earthly Prince come ever though we have no relation to him at all yet what pressing there is to see him so as there is need of Ushers or whifflers to stave off the multitude but if our own would allow all his subjects to repair to his Court with expectation of favour and countenance from him what thronging would there be to his gates what ambition to enter And Lo the God of Heaven gives us this gracious liberty of a free accesse and yet withall backs it with a strong motive of advantage He will draw nigh unto you And indeed what inducement can there be equally powerfull to this that God will draw nigh to us There is nothing in us but want misery infirmity deformity there is nothing in God but perfection and glory and therefore for us vile wretches to draw nigh to him what can it be other then an honour too high for us but for him to draw nigh to us what can it be but a kind of disparagement to him Ye know what a construction was set upon our Saviour for this very point that he did eat and drink with Publicans and Sinners and how the proud Pharisee censur'd him when that humble penitent made an ewre of her eyes and a towell of her hair for the feet of Christ Luc· 7.39 Oh saith he if this man were a Prophet he would have known what manner of woman this is that toucheth him for she is a sinner as if the suffering himself to be toucht by a sinner were disgrace enough and yet the God of Heaven will descend to us so low as notwithstanding our extream sinfulnesse and unworthinesse to draw nigh unto us God will be so to us as we are to him As face answers to face so doth God to us when ye look upon your glasse if you smile upon it it will smile upon you again if you frown it will so do also even so doth God with us with the pure thou wilt be pure with the mercifull thou wilt be mercifull with the froward thou wilt show thy self froward If thou run away from God he will run away as fast from thee if thou draw nigh unto God he will draw nigh to thee And how will God draw nigh unto us In his Ordinances In his Audience in his Graces In his Aid and Salvation In his Ordinances For God hath graciously as it were tyed his presence to them as under the law so no lesse under the Gospell when Jethro Moses his Father in Law took a burnt offering and sacrifice for God Aaron came and all Israel with him to eat bread with Moses his Father in Law before the Lord Exod. 18.12 where was that but before the Testimony of his presence the Cloudy Pillar And that is very pregnant which God hath Exod. 29.40 This shall be a continuall burnt offering throughout your Generations at
Spirit of God by which ye are sealed to the day of Redemption IT was a rule of some wise Heathen of old That he was a great Master of Morality that had learn'd to govern his Tongue his Gut his Concupiscence these three And well might it be so when Christianity hath so farr seconded it as that the Spirit of God hath singled out one of these for a Triall of the rest He that offends not with his Tongue is a perfect Man James 2.2 So as that triplicity is reduced to an Unitie and indeed if a man have attained to an exact government of this loose and busie filme which we carry in our mouths it is a great argument of his absolute Mastership over himself in the other particulars whereupon it is that the Apostle hath hedged in my Text with this Charge Before my Text inhibiting all corrupt Communication after it all bitternesse and Clamour and evill speaking and betwixt both enforcing this vehement and Heavenly dehortation And grieve not the holy Spirit Intimating in the very contexture of the words that that man can never hold good terms with the Spirit of God what profession soever he makes that lets his tongue loose to obscene and filthy Communication or to bitter or spightfull words against his Brethren and in these words disswading us both from this and all other before mentioned particularities of wickednesse by an argument drawn from unkindnesse look to it for if you shall give way to any of these vicious courses ye shall grieve the holy Spirit of God and that will be a shamefull and sinfull ingratitude in you forasmuch as that holy Spirit hath been so gracious unto you as to Seale you to the day of Redemption a motive which how sleight soever it may seem to a carnall heart and by such a one may be past over and pisht at in imitation of the carelesse note of Pharaoh Who is the Spirit of God that I should let my Corruptions go yet to a regenerate man to such our Apostle writes it is that irresistible force whereof Nahum speaks that rends the very Rocks before it Nahum 1.6 And indeed an ingenuous Spirit is more moved with this then with all outward violence The Law of Christ both constraines and restraines him constraines him to all good Actions and restraines him from all evill The good Patriark Joseph when his wanton Mistresse solicited him to her wicked lust Behold saith he My Master hath committed all that he hath to my hand there is none greater in his house then I neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee because thou art his wife how then can I do this great wickednesse and sin against God Gen. â—â— 8.9 wherein ye see he hath a double Antidote for her poysonous suggestion the one his Masters favour and trust which he may not violate the other the offence of his God Joseph knew he could not do this wickednesse but he must bring plagues enough upon his head but that is not the thing he stands upon so much as the sin against God A Pilate will do any thing rather then offend a Cesar that word thou art not Cesars friend if thou let him go John 19.12 strikes the matter dead Thou art not Gods friend if thou entertain these sins cannot but be prevalent with a good heart and bear him out against all Temptations and this is the force of our Apostles inference here who after the enumeration of that black Catalogue of sins both of the whole man and especially those of the Tongue infers And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are Sealed to the Day of Redemption The Text you see is a dehortatory charge to avoid the offence of God wherein we have the Act and the subject the Act Grieve not the subject set forth by his Title by his Merit his Title The holy Spirit of God his Merit and our obligation thence arising By whom ye are sealed to the day of Redemption the subject is first considerable both in Nature and Act as that the knowledg and respect whereof doth both most disswade us from the offence and aggravate it when it is committed The holy Spirit of God which when we have shortly meditated on apart we shall joyne together by the Act inhibited in this holy dehortation That this is particularly to be taken of the third person of the blessed Trinity to whom this day is peculiarly devoted there can be no doubt for both the Title is his The holy Spirit of God not absolutely God who is an holy Spirit but the holy Spirit of God and the effect attributed to him is no lesse proper to him for as the contriving of our Redemption is ascribed to the Father the atchieving of it to the Son So the Sealing confirming and applying of it to the Holy Ghost There are many Spirits and those holy and those of God as their Creator and Owner as the enumerable Company of Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect Hebr. 12. but this is set forth as Zanchius notes well with a double Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that holy Spirit by a transcendent eminence by a singularity as that which is alone The holy Spirit of God Now why the third Person should specially be denominated a Spirit a title no lesse belonging to the Father and the Son to the whole absolute Deity as being rather Essential then Personal or why an holy Spirit since Holinesse is as truly Essentiall to the other Persons also as their very being Or why being coequal and coessential with God the Father and the Son he should be called the Spirit of God though they might seem points incident into the Day yet because they are Catechetical heads I hold it not so fit to dwell in them at this time Only by the way give me leave to say that it had been happy both for the Church of England in general and this Diocesse in particular that these Catechetical Sermons had been more frequent then they have been as those which are most usefull and necessary for the grounding of Gods People in the principles of saving Doctrine and I should earnestly exhort those of my Brethren of the Ministry that hear me this day that they would in these perilous and distractive times bend their labours this way as that which may be most effectuall for the setling of the Soules of their hearers in the grounds of true Religion that they may not be carried about with every winde of Doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Cockboat of mens fancies as the Apostle speak but this by the way I shall now only urge so much of the Person as may add weight to the dehortation from the Act Grieve not the holy Spirit of God and every notion of it adds a several weight as a Spirit as the Spirit of God as the holy Spirit of God It is a rule not capable of contradiction that by how much more
purpose let no Antinomian stop the floodgates of our eyes let no Popish Doctor prevail to the abatement of this holy sorrow those men out of a profession of much outward rigour and austerity do under hand by their doctrine slacken the reines of true penitence to their clients Contritio una vel remissa c. One easie contrition is able to blot out any sin if never so haynous saith their learned Cardinall Toleth and their Jesuite Maldonate to the same effect Ad perfectionem Poenitentiae c. To the perfection of penitence is required onely a sleight kind of inward sorrow wherein I cannot better resemble them then to timorous or indulgent Chirurgians that think to pleasure the patient in not searching the wound to the bottom for which kindnesse they shall receive little thank at the last for the wound hereupon festers within and must cost double time and pain in the cure whereas those solid Divines that experimentally know what belongs to the healing of a sinning Soul go thorough stitch to work Insomuch as Cardinall Bellarmine taxeth it as too much Rigour in Luther Calvin and Chemnitius that they require Magnam animi concussionem a great concussion of soul and a sharp and vehement contrition of the penitent For us let us not be niggardly of our sorrow but in these cases go mourning all the day long See how the Spirit of God expresses Zachar. 12.10 They shall Mourne as one that Mourneth for his onely Son and shall be in bitternesse as one that is in bitterness for his first Born This is a Repentance never to be repented of Blessed are they that thus mourne for they shall be comforted This aversion is punishment enough alone and if it should be totall and finall as it is not to Gods own Children it were the worst peece of Hell for the punishment of losse is justly defined worse then that of sense but withall it is attended as there is good cause with sensible demonstrations of Gods anger and the smart of the offender My wounds stink and are corrupted because of my foolishness saith the Psalmist Psal 38.5 I am weary of my groaning Psal 6.6 And if the most righteous cannot avoid this sore hand of the Almighty where shall willfull sinners appear These effects of Gods displeasure then are such as are worth trembling at It is true as that wise Pagan said a speech worthy to be written in Letters of Gold and that which I doubt not shall be in the day of Judgment laid in the dish of many Millions of professed Christians si Omnes Deos hominesque celare possimus nihil avare nihil injuste nihil libidinose nihil incontinenter faciendum That if we could hide our actions from God and men yet we may do nothing covetously nothing unjustly nothing lustfully nothing incontinently Who would not be ashamed to hear this fall from an Heathen when he sees how many Christians live but it is most true A good man dare not sin though there were no Hell but that holy and wise God that knowes how sturdy and headstrong natures he hath to do withall findes it necessary to let men feel that he hath store of Thunderbolts for sinners that he hath Magazins of Judgments and after all an Hell of torments for the rebellious and indeed we cannot but yield it most just that it should be so If but an equall do grieve and vex us we are ready to give him his own with advantage and if an inferiour we fall upon him with hand and tongue and are apt to crush him to nothing and even that worm when he is troden on will be turning again how can we or why should we think that the great and holy God will be vexed by us and pocket up all our indignities If a Gnat or Flea do but sting thee thou wilt kill it and thinkest it good justice yet there is some proportion betwixt these Creatures and thee but what art thou silly nothing to the Infinite We men have devised varieties of punishments for those that offend our laws Artaxerxes his decree mentions four sorts Death Banishmentt Confiscation Imprisonment Ezra 7.26 And which perhaps you will wonder at commits the managing of justice in the execution of them all to Ezra the Priest the Romans as Tully tells us had eight severall kindes of punishments for their delinquents Forfeiture Bonds Stripes Retaliation Shame Exile Servitude and Death God hath all these double over and a thousand others for the First which is Forfeiture here is the Forfeiture of no lesse then all Take from him the pound saith the Master concerning the unfaithfull servant Luc. 19.24 for the Second Bonds here are the most dreadfull Bonds that can be even everlasting chaines of darkness Jude 6. for Stripes here are many Stripes for the knowing and not doing servant Luc. 12.47 for Retaliation it is here just and home it is just with God to render tribulation to those that trouble you 2 Thess 1.6 for Shame here is confusion of face Daâ— 9.8 for Exile here is an everlasting Banishment from the presence of God Matth. 25.41 for Servitude here is the most odious Bondage sold under sin Rom. 7.14 for Death here is a double death a temporal and eternal these and more then can be expressed are the consequents of Gods displeasure If thou lovest thy self therefore take heed above all things of grieving thy God with thy sins and if thou hast done so hasten thy reconciliation agree with thine adversary in the way else tribulation and anguish upon every soul that doth evill thy grieving of him shall end in weeping and wayling and gnashing for our God is a consuming fire And here now that I may turn your thoughts a little aside from a personall to a nationall grieving of Gods Spirit I am faln upon the grounds of those heavy judgments under which we have lyen thus long groaning and gasping to the pitty and astonishment of our late envying neighbourhood even the destroying and devouring sword alas my Beloved we have grieved our good God by our havnous sins of all sorts and now we do justly feel the heavy effects of his displeasure we have warred against Heaven with our iniquities and now it is just with God to raise up war against us in our own Bowells It was the Motto that was wont to be written upon the Scotish coine as the embleme of their Thistle Nemo me impune Lacesset None shall scape free that provokes me Surely it is a word that well fits the Omnipotent and eternal justice and power of Heavens we have provoked that to wrath and therefore could not hope to avoid a fearfull judgment wo is me we have made our selves enemies to God by our rebellious sins therefore thus saith the Lord the Lord of Hoasts the Mighty one of Israel Ah I will ease me of my adversaries and avenge me of mine Enemies Esa 1.24 Three things there are that aggravate the deep unkindnesse that
besides it And indeed what other can we insist upon Outward profession will not do it many a one shall say Lord Lord with a zealous reduplication which yet shall be excluded And for pretended revelations they are no lesse deceitfull Satan oftentimes transforming himself into an Angel of light A Zidkijeh thinks he hath the Spirit as well as any Michaiah of them all our books are full of the reports of dangerous dulusions of this kind whereby it hath come to pass that many a one in stead of the true David hath found nothing but an image of clouts laid upon a bolster stuffed with Goats hair 1 Sam. 19.16 But this mark of reall sanctification cannot fail us It will ever hold good that which St. Paul hath Rom. 8. So many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Nothing in this World can so highly concern us as this to see and know whether we be sealed to the day of Redemption Would we know how it may be evidenced to us look upon the impression that Gods Spirit hath made upon our hearts and lives if he have renewed us in the inner man and wrought us unto true holiness to a lively faith to a sincere love of God to a conscionable care of all our actions and to all other his good graces doubtlesse we are so sealed that all the powers of Hell cannot deface and obliterate this blessed impression But the principal main use of this Seal is for certainty of performance If we have the word of an honest man we believe it but if we have his hand we make our selves more sure but if we have both his hand and seal we rest secure of the accomplishing of what is given or undertaken How much more assurance may we have when we have the word of a God whose very title is Amen Rev. 3.14 whose promises are like himself Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 Alas the best man is deceitful upon the balance and his true stile is Omnis homo mend ax every man is a lyer But for this God of truth Heaven and Earth shall passe away before one tittle of his word shall fail but when that promise is seconded by his Seal what a transcendent assurance is here It is the charge of the Apostle Peter Give diligence to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Sure not in respect of God whom no changes can reach whose word is I am Jehovah my counsel shall stand but in respect of our apprehension not in regard of the object only which cannot fail but even of the subject also which if it were not fecible sure the Spirit of God would not have injoyned it or imposed it upon us The Vulgar reads Per bona opera by good works And indeed it is granted by Beza and Clamier that in some Greek copies it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereupon Bellarmine would fain take an advantage to prove his conjecturall assurance A strange match of words meerly contradictory for if but conjecturall how can it be assurance and if it be assurance how only conjecturall we may as well talk of a false truth as a conjecturall assurance But that implication of Bellarmine is easily blown over if we consider that these Good works do not only comprehend external works as almes-deeds prayer attendance on Gods ordinances and the like but also the internall acts of the soul the Acts of believing the Acts of the love of God the Acts of that hope which shall never make us ashamed These will evidence as our calling and election so the certainty of both and therefore are the seal of our Redemption Let foolish men have leave to improve their wits to their own wrong in pleading for the uncertainty of their right to Heaven But for us let us not suffer our souls to take any rest till we have this blessed seal put upon us to the assuring of our Redemption and Salvation that we may be able to say with the chosen vessel God hath sealed us and given us the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts 2 Cor. 1.22 If we have the grant of some good lease or some goodly Mannor made to us by word of mouth we stay not till we have gotten it under black and white and not then till we have it under seal nor then if it be a perpetuity till we have livery and seizin given us of it and when all this is done we make account securely to enjoy our hopes and shall we be lesse carefull of the main-chance even of the eternal inheritance of Heaven Lo here all these done for us Here is the word preaching peace and Salvation to all that believe here are his Scriptures the internal monuments of his written word confirming it here is the seal added to it here is the Livery and Seâ—zin given in the earnest of his Spirit and here is sufficient witnesse to all even Gods Spirit witnessing with our Spirits that we are the sons of God Let us finde this in our bosome and we are happy neither let our hearts be quiet till we can say with the chosen Vessel I am perswaded that neither life nor death nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any creature can be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 3. the last verse Lo this is not a guesse but an assurance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither doth the Apostle speak of his own speciall revelation as the Popish Doctors would pretend but he takes all beleevers into the partnership of this comfortable unfailablenesse nothing shall separate us thus happy are we if we be sealed unto the day of Redemption Having now handled the parts severally let us if you please put them together and see the power of this inference or argument ye are by the Spirit of God sealed to the day of redemption Oh therefore grieve not that Spirit of God by whom ye are thus sealed The Spirit of God hath infinitely merited of you hath done so much for you as ye are not capable to conceive much lesse to answer in so Heavenly an obsignation Oh then be you tender of giving any offence to that good Spirit Do not you dare to do ought that might displease that loving and beneficent Spirit Be not you so much your own enemies as to give just distast to your good God So as the force of the argument as we intimated at the first lies upon an action of unkindnesse affording us this instruction that the ground of Gods Childrens fear to offend must be out of love and thankfulness great is thy mercy that thou maist be feared saith the Psalmist he doth not say great is thy mercy that thou maist be loved nor great is thy Majesty that thou maist be feared but great is thy mercy that thou maist be feared base servile natures are kept in with feare
God our Heavenly Father toward us is no less then infinite Psal 103.13 what return do we make of love to him again we can perhaps talk largely of our love to God but where is the proof of it Did we love our Father in Heaven as children could we strange our selves from his interest Could we indure to see him wronged in all his concernments to hear his sacred and dread name blasphemed to see his Ordinances trampled upon his messengers contemptuously used his house and his day prophaned would we not spit at that son that would put up such indignities offered to his carnal Father And why will we lay claim to a son-ship of God if we can swallow such spiritual affronts put upon our God Thirdly every not ill-natur'd and ungracious son as God hath none such bears a kind of awfull respect to his Father both in what he doth and in what he suffers For his actions he dares not to do any thing wilfully that may work his Fathers displeasure and even those things which he would not stick to do before a stranger yet before his Father he reverentially forbeares to do If I be a Father where is my honour Malac. 1.6 If then we be not awfully affected to the presence of God If we dare boldly sin God in the face it argues strongly that we have no filial relation to him For his sufferings A child will receive that correction from the hand of a Father which he would never abide from a stranger He that would be ready to repay blowes to another man takes stripes from a Father and answers them onely with tears Thus if we be the Sons of God we do submissely undergo from his hand what fatherly chastisment he shall be pleased to lay upon us but if we be ready to struggle and groyningly repine at his correction it showes we do not acknowledge him for our Father Lastly a son as he is wholly at his parents disposing so he depends upon his Fathers provision expecting such patrimony as his Father shall bestow upon him and waiting with patience for such childes-part as he can have no hope of from a stranger If we do so to our Heavenly Father leading the life of faith with him casting our selves upon his gracious providence for all good things of either World and fixing our eyes upon that glorious inheritance which he hath purchased for us above we do evidently show our selves to be the sons of God but what need we any other evidence of this blessed condition then what is here expresly laid down to our hands in my Text So many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God What is it then to be led by the Spirit of God The originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word which every Grammarian knowes to signifie both agi and duci to be led or driven so where it is said by one Evangelist that Christ was led into the Wilderness to be temped Mat. 4.1 Of another it is read that he was driven Mark 1.12 And though the vulgar reads it here qui aguntur yet our Rhemists turn it Those that are led noteing in the margin out of St. Augustines true explication that Gods children are not violently compelled against their wills but sweetly drawn moved and induced to do good So as this word then implies both an act of Gods Spirit working in us and our complying with that act in an obedient and ready conformity thereunto For wherever the Spirit of God is it is not idle and ineffectuall but it is still directing and inclining unto good and whosoever is led by that Spirit yields himself to the motions and guidance Acti agimus as the old word is In all leading therefore and so in this there must be an hand to guide and a foot to follow good motions on Gods part and motions in good on ours both these must go together else there is no leading by the Spirit of God It is not enough that good thoughts are injected into us by the holy Spirit yea it is so farr from availing us as that a man is so much the worse for those good motions he entertaines not as the motions are more excellent and divine But those good injections must be received imbraced delighted in and followed home in a constant and habituall practise with a resolute rejection and detestation of the contrary Besides that spirit of our mind Ephes 4.23 which lodgeth in every brest every man is led by some spirit or other One is led by a spirit of Errour 1 Tim. 4.1 and seduction in matter of understanding Another by the spirit of giddiness Esa 19.14 into wild fancies and brainsick imaginations another is led by the Spirit of bondage to slavish fears and afflictive horrours as in the next verse to my Text another by the spirit of the World 1 Cor. 2.12 Another and indeed all these by the unclean Spirit as he is usually styled in the Gospell others which are all the regenerate are led by the Spirit of God when our Saviour said to his too fiery Disciples Ye know not of what Spirit ye are he implies that of some spirit they must needs be now there are those that pretend to be led by the spirit of God and are not St. Paul could upon good warrant say I trust I have the Spirit of God that trust was however he modestly expresses it no lesse then a certain knowledg but a Zidkijah on the other side in a false presumption can say Which way went the Spirit of God from me to speak to thee I remember in the history of the Anabaptists of Munster one of those illuminated companions of John Becold and Onipperdoling is said to have kill'd his own naturall Brother in the face of his parents and professed to do it upon a revelation from the Spirit the night before And what heresies and prodigious opinions have been set on foot and maintained to the death under pretence of the dictation and warrant of Gods Spirit who can be ignorant Let us therefore enquire how a man may know whether he be truly led by the Spirit of God First then the Spirit of God leads no man but in a right way and what is that but the way of Gods Commandements All other wayes are wayes of our own oblique and crooked as deviating from the straight line of righteousnesse In them either we lead our selves or Satan leads us If any man be tempted let him not say that he is tempted of God God moves to holy duties to just and charitable actions and none but them for he cannot be contrary to himself Is there any of us therefore that is carried on in a course of uncleannesse excess disobedience oppression or any other sin whatsoever Alas we are led by a contrary spirit in the dark wayes that lead to death and Hell It were blasphemy to father these sinfull mis-leadings upon the holy Spirit of God Secondly Gods
reliance upon God yea even with some kind of joy it self for when we are bidden to rejoyce continually Philip. 4.4 even the dismal dayes of our mourning are not excepted Not so only saith the Apostle but we glory in tribulations Rom. 5.3 Yea more then so My brethen saith St. James count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations James 1.2 Thirdly for the manner of our mourning we cannot but take notice that there is a solemn mourning and there is a private and domestical the solemn is by publick indiction of authority That only Power that can command our Persons may command our humiliation and prescribe the circumstances of the Performance of it Niniveh it self had so much divinity as to know and practise this truth How strict a Proclamation was that of the King of that Heathen City Let neither man nor beast herd nor flock tast any thing let them not feed nor drink water but let man and beast be covered with sack-cloth c. As for the choise and punctuality of the time whereto this publick mourning must be limited where should it rest but in the hand of soveraignty whose wisdom is to be presupposed such as to pitch upon the meetest seasons for this Practise It is very remarkable that we finde recorded in the case of Israels Publick mourning Nehem. 8.9 10. Then Nenemiah which is the Tirshatha or governour and Ezra the Priest the Scribe and the Levites that taught the People said unto all the People This daie is holy unto the Lord your God mourne not nor weep Go your way eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared for this day is holy unto our Lord neither be ye sorrie for the joy of the Lord is your strength A consideration if I may intimate it without presumption meet to be tendred to our Brethren of the neighbour Church who are wont to cast their publick fasts upon the Lords day contrary no less to the determination of the Councels of the Evangelical Churches then the practise of the Jewish For what other is this but Gods holy-day of which we may well take-up the words of the Psalmist This is the Day which the Lord hath made let us rejoice and be glad in it As it would therefore be utterly unseasonable to rejoyce in a day of mourning so must it needs be to mourn in a day of rejoycing The rites and formes of publick mournings may and were wont to vary according to the usages of severall Nations and Churches how ceremonious the Jewes were in this kind I need not tell you here was rending of garments girding with sackcloth muffling of faces prostration on floores covering with ashes houling on the house-tops cutting and tearing of hair wringing of hands and all possible gestures that might expresse depth of passion And so much of this is imitable by us as may in a grave Christian fashion testify our dejection and true sorrow of heart upon the occasion of publick calamities this solemn humiliation then being alwaies joyned with an afflicting the body by fasting for deep sorrow doth both take away appetite and disregards nature so it calls us for the time to an absolute forbearance and neglective forgetfulness of all Earthly comforts In which regard the Popish mock-fasts which allow the greatest dainties in the strictest abstinence and the Turkish which shut up in an evening gluttony are no better then hypocriticall counterfeits of a religious self-humbling those habits then those discourses or actions those contentments which are in themselves perhaps not lawfull only but commendable must now be avoided as unseasonable if not sinful How hainously did the Almighty take this mis-timed pleasure and jollity at the hands of his people the Jewes In that day saith Esay did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with sackcloth And behold joy and gladnesse slaying Oxen and killing Sheep eating flesh and drinking wine let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dye And what was the issue It was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of Hosts surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye dye saith the Lord God of Hosts Esay 22.12 13 14. In matter of private mournings every man is allowed to be the arbiter of his own Time Place Measure manner of performance alwayes so as that he keep within the just bounds of piety decency discreet moderation as Bernard well adviseth in the like kind so punishing a Rebell that he do not destroy a subject Neither can I apprehend any reason if we entertain a well grounded sorrow Mat. 6.16 why we may not expresse it Not in an hypocritical way of ostentation as the vain Pharisees taxed by our Saviour which disfigured their countenances and did set a sowre face upon a light heart that they might appear unto men to fast but in a wise sober seemly unaffected deportment to instance in the case of the death of those to whom we have the dearest relation there can be no case wherein mourning can be more seasonable it is no lesse then a judgment that God denounceth against King Jehojakin They shall not lament for him saying Ah my Brother or Ah Sister they shall not lament for him saying Ah Lord or Ah his glory Jer. 22.18 And it was an hard word that God spake to Ezekiel Son of man behold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroak yet shalt thou neither mourn nor weep neither shall thy tears run down forbear to cry make no mourning for the dead c. Ezek. 24.16 Lo such a wise as it might have been froward disobedient unquiet it had been no greatly difficult charge to have parted with her but it seems Ezekiels was a dear pleasing loving consort even the desire of his eyes and the comfort of his life and therefore to part with her without tears must needs be a double grief to his Soul as therefore 't is unnatural and inhumane not to mourn for Parents Wives Husbands Brothers Sisters Children Friends so it cannot be unmeet to testify our mourning even by our outward habit I could never see a reason why it should not be fit to wear blacks upon funerall occasions Neither Piety nor Charity is an enemy to civill ceremonies This colour and fashion is not indecent nor justly offensive so as the mind be free from superstition and over-nice curiosity such as Balsac jeers at in his vain French Lady who affected to have not her house onely but all the vessels and utensils that belong to it put into that hew Alexand ab Alexandro Genial Dierum l. 3. c. 7. If you tell me that the Heathens mourned thus I must tell you that all did not so some Nations mourned in white others in blew others in purple and if all had done so they are no ill patterns in matters of meer civilities besides that in reason this
soul and body let it seize upon one person in a family it corrupts the whole house from thence it spreads over the neighbourhood and taints whole Towns Cities Regions as it is with certain contagious diseases that have not been bounded with mountaines or Seas It is very pregnant which St. Paul speaks of Hymeneus and Philetus whose word saith he will eat as doth a canker or a gangrene 2 Tim. 2.17 ye see how a gangrene even from the least toe soon strikes the heart and the canker from a scarce sensible begining consumes the gummes eats through the cheek eats down the nose and will admit of no limits but deformity and death thus it is with sin whether intellectuall or morall Arianisme began in a family spread over the World And Antinomianisme began in one Minister of this diocesse and how much it is spread I had rather lament then speak I doubt not but many of you who hear me this day have had lamentable proofs of this truth let there be but a drunkard or a swearer in a family how soon hath this scabbed sheep tainted the whole flock Grace and Godliness is not so easily propagated sin hath the advantage of the proclivity of our wicked nature It hath the wind and tyde both with it goodness hath both against it health doth not use to be taken from others but sickness doth Since your wickednesse is of so spreading a nature how carefull should we be to prevent and resist the very first beginnings of sin It is a 1000. times more easy to keep the flood-gates shut then to drain the lower grounds when they are once over-flown 2ly How shy and weary should we be of joyning societies with the infectious whether in opinion or in manners A man that is an heretick reject saith St. Paul Tit. 3.10 If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetuous or a railer or an idolater or a drunkard with such a one eat not 1 Cor. 5.11 withdraw your selves from the tents of these men c. into their secret c. 3ly How much doth it concern all publick persons whether ecclesiastical or civil to improve their authority to the utmost for the timely preventing of the spreading of vice and for the severe censure and expurgation of those whom the Psalmist as the original word signifies calls leavened persons Ps 71.4 The palpable neglect whereof hath been a shamefull eyesore to the conscientious beholders a soul blemish to the Gospel and a just scandal upon the Church And though another mans sin cannot infect me unlesse I do partake with him in it yet a true Lot will vex his righteous soul with the unclean conversation of the Sodomites and even others sins may help to draw down judgments upon the community wherein they live good reason that all care should be taken for purging out the old leaven that so the old leaven being purged out the whole lump may be holy So much of the first point that sin is leaven the second followes that this leaven must be purged out if we would have any interest in Christ our passover which is sacrificed for us The inference you see doth necessarily imply so much In vain should any Jew talk of keeping a passover to God if he would eat the Lambe with Leavened bread in vain should any Christian talk of applying Christ to his soul whiles his heart willingly retains the leaven of any known sin Certainly this is a common and a dangerous cozenage whereby millions of souls cheat themselves into hell they fondly think they may hold fair quarter with Christ and yet give secret intertainment to their sins Demas thinks he may embrace the present world and yet need not leave his hold of Christ Ananias and Sapphira will closely harbour an hypocriticall sacriledg and yet will be as good professors as the best A Simon Magus will be baptized Christian yet a sorcerer still and many a one still thinks he may drink and swear and debauch and profane Gods ordinances and rob Gods house and resist lawfull authority and lie and plunder or slander his neighbour and yet hold good termes with a forward profession Yea there are those that will be countenancing their sins with their christianity as if they were priviledged to sin because they are in Christ Then which there can not be a more injurious and blasphemous fancy Certainly their sins are so much more abominable to God and men by how much more interest they challenge in a Christian profession yea if but a bare intertainment of a known sin it is enough to bar them out from any plea in Christ Vain fools now grosly do these men delude their own souls whiles they imagine they can please God with a leavened passover this is the way to make them and their sacrifices abominable to the Almighty It is to them that God speaks as in thunder and fire What doest thou taking my covenant into thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed and hast cast my words behinde thee Psal 50.16 17. To them it is that he speaks by his Prophet Esay 66.3 He that killeth an ox as if he slew a man he that sacrificeth a Lambe as if he cut off a dogs-neck Shortly then my brethren since we are now addressing our selves to this Evangelical passover if ever we think to partake of this Heavenly feast with true comfort to our souls Let us see that we have clearly abandoned all the sowre leaven of our sins let us come with clear and untainted souls to this blessed feast and say and do with holy David I will wash my hands in innocency O Lord and so will I go to thine altar Ps 26.6 Thus long we have necessarily dwelt upon the inference and contexture of this scripture we now come to scan this divine proposition as it stands alone in it self wherein our meditation hath four heads to passe thorough 1. That Christ is a passover 2. Our Passover 3. Our Passover sacrificed 4. sacrificed for us To begin with the first The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we find is derived not from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to suffer as some of the Latine fathers out of their ignorance of Language have conceived but from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a transition well turned by our language into Passe-over For here was a double passover to be celebrated 1. The Angel's passing over the houses of the Israelites when he smote all the first born of Egypt and 2ly Israels passing out of Egypt The word admits of many senses sometimes it is taken for the time of this solemnity Act. 12.4 sometimes for the sacrifices offered in this solemnity Deut. 16.4 sometimes for the representation of the act of Gods transition Exod. 12.11 Sometimes for the Lamb that was then to be offered and eaten 2 Chron. 35.11 They killed the passover and the Priests sprinkled the blood from their hands Thus is it taken
in us Implying that so doth our mouth and stomach receive the bread and wine as that in the mean time our souls receive the flesh and the blood of Christ now the soul is not capable of receiving flesh and blood but by the power of that grace of faith which appropriates it But that we may clearly apprehend how these Sacramental acts and objects are both distinguished and united so as there may be no danger of either separation or confusion that which followeth in the consecratory prayer is most evident Hear us O merciful father we beseech thee and grant that we receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christs holy institution in remembrance of his death and passion may be partakers of his most blessed body and blood who in the same night that he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and gave it to his disciples saying Take eat this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me What more can be said what come we to receive outwardly The Creatures of bread and wine To what use In remembrance of Christs death and passion what do we the whiles receive inwardly we are thereby made partakers of his most blessed body and blood by what means doth this come about By virtue of our Saviours holy institution still it is bread and wine in respect of the nature and essence of it but so that in the spiritual use of it it conveyes to the faithful receiver the body and blood of Christ bread and wine is offered to my eye and hand Christ is tendred to my soul Which yet is more fully if possibly it may be expressed in the form of words prescribed in the delivery of the bread and wine to the communicant The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body soul into everlasting life and take and eat this in remembrance that Christ dyed for thee and feed on him in thine heart by faith with thanksgiving c. No gloss in the world can make the words more full and perspicuous So do we in remembrance of Christs death take and eat the sacramental bread with our mouths as that our hearts do feed upon the body of Christ by our faith And what is this feeding upon Christ but a comfortable application of Christ and his benefits to our souls Which is as the prayer next following expresses it Then do we feed on Christ when by the blessed merits and death of our blessed Saviour and through faith in his blood we do obtain remission of our sins and all other benefits of his passion and are fulfilled with his grace and heavenly benediction Or if we desire a more ample commentary upon this sacramental repast and the nourishment thereby received the prayer ensuing offers it unto us in these words We most heartily thank thee for that thou hast vouchsafed to feed us which have duely received these holy mysteries with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and dost assure us thereby of thy favour and goodness towards uâ— and that we be very members incorporate in thy mystical body which is the blessed company of all faithful people and be also heirs through hope of thy everlasting kingdome by the merits of the most precious death and passion of thy dear Son This then is to feed upon Christ Lo the meat and manducation and nourishment are all spiritual whiles the elements be bodily and sensible which the allowed homilies of the Church also have laboured in most significant termes to set forth Thou must carefully search and know saith the first sermon concerning the sacrament Tome 2. what dignities are provided for thy soul whither thou art come not to feed thy senses and belly to corruption but thy inward man to immortality and life nor to consider the earthly creatures which thou seest but the heavenly graces which thy faith beholdeth For this table is not saith Chrysostome for chattering jayes but for Eagles who fly thither where the dead body lieth And afterwards to omit some other passages most pregnantly thus It is well known the meat we seek for in this supper is spiritual food the nourishment of our soul a Heavenly refection and not earthly an invisible meat and not bodily a ghostly substance and not carnal so that to think without faith we may enjoy the eating drinking thereof or that that is the fruition of it is but to dream a gross carnal feeding basely abjecting and binding our selves to the elements and creatures whereas by the advice of the council of Nice we ought to lift up our minds by faith and leaving these inferiour and earthly things there seek it where the son of righteousness ever shineth Take this lesson O thou that art desirous of this table of Emissenus a godly father That when thou goest to the reverend communion to be satisfyed with spiritual meats thou look up with faith upon the holy body and blood of thy God thou marvel with reverence thou touch it with the mind thou receive it with the hand of thy heart and thou take it fully with the inward Man Thus that homily in the voice of the Church of England Who now shall make doubt to say that in the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist Christ is only present and received in a spiritual manner so as nothing is objected to our senses but the Elements nothing but Christ to our faith and therefore that it is requisite we should here walk with a wary and even foot as those that must tread in the midst betwixt profaneness and superstition not affixing a deity upon the Elements on the one side nor on the other sleighting them with a common regard not adoring the Creatures not basely esteeming their relation to that Son of God whom they do really exhibit to us Let us not then think it any boldness either to inquire or to determine of the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament and confidently to say that his body is locally in Heaven spiritually offered to and received by the faith of every worthy communicant upon Earth True it is that in our Saviours speech Joh. 6. to believe in Christ is to eat his flesh and to drink his blood even besides out of the act of this Eucharistical supper so as whosoever brings Christ home to his soul by the act of his faith makes a private meal of his Saviour but the holy Sacrament superadds a further degree of our interest in the participation of Christ for now over and above our spiritual eating of him we do here eat him Sacramentally also every simple act of our faith feeds on Christ but here by virtue of that necessary union which our Saviours institution hath made betwixt the signe and the thing signified the faithfull communicant doth partake of Christ in a
uncertainty still by the tradition of the Jewes either the Synagogue or the chamber is indifferently allowed to this act And why should the Sacrament of the new law be so affixed to our Churches that not necessity it self should be able to fetch these wholsom remedies home to our houses sure I am the fathers of the ancient Church were of another mind who before the fancy of opus operatum was hatched conceived such necessity of the Sacraments that Cyprian can tell you of Clinici as well as Peripateitci that others in case of extremity would have no difference made of land or water house or way bed or pavement And how is it that our liberty hath made us more strict or our straightness hath made us more free more strict for the place more free for the conceit of necessity But if privacy be so opposite to the nature of a Sacrament why may it not be avoided even in a parlour for in such a case the Church removes thither the walls you think conferr nothing the people are by the order of the Church commanded to assemble in a due frequence to the honor of either sacrament so as now I see not other difference but this Those which in the case of some private fast can be content for their preaching to change the Church into a chamber in the case of baptisme make dainty to change a chamber into a Church For geniculation in the Eucharist I am deceived if ever ceremony could complain of a more unjust displeasure or plead better desert For the Antiquity of it those that fetch it from Honorius are ill heralds They might know that Averroes an age before him could say in a misprision of the gesture Christiani adorant quod edunt and the best of the Fathers many ages before him Nemo manducat nisi prius adoraverit For the expedience what business can pass betwixt Heaven and Earth God and Man so worthy of reverence as that wherein Man receives God even the smallest gifts we receive from Princes upon our knees and now when the Prince of our peace gives himself to us shall we grudg to bow I know the old challenge Artolatry But shall others superstition make us unreverent Shall not God have our knees because Idols have had the knees of others But what do I press this to you who professed to me if I remember well your approbation hereof in our English Congregations The Sacrament is every where the same Nothing but want of use hath bred a conceit of uncouthness in that which custom would approve and commend As for confirmation by Bishops I need to say little because it little concerns you as an action appropriate to superiors neither I think do you envy it to them That the ceremony it selt is both of ancient and excellent use I know you will not deny for the one Melancton gives it the praise of Utilis ad erudiendos homines retinendos in vera agnitione Dei For the other Zuinglius can assure you Confirmationem tum fumpsisse exordium eum vulgo caeptum est infantes tingi In regard of both reverend Calvin wisheth it again restored to the Church with no small fervency all the doubt is in the restriction to Bishops wherein I will only send you to learned Bucer signum impositionis manuum etiam soli episcopi praebebant non absque ratione sive enim sit foedus Domini baptizatis confirmandum sive reconciliandi qui gravius peccaverunt sive ecclesiis ministri ordinandi haec omnia ministeria maxime decent eos quibus ecclesiarum cura demandata est This as it was done only at first by the Apostles in the case of the Samaritans so from them was by the Church derived to the Bishops as Chrysostom directs praepositis suis as Cyprian and Austin speak But what need I cite Fathers or counsels for that which worthy Calvin himself both confesses and teaches Certainly nothing but continuance and abuse hath distasted these things which if time had been their friend never wanted that which might procure them grace and respect from the World For their own sakes therefore I need not doubt to say that all these are worthy of your good intertainment much more then when they come to you with the billets of authority in their hands were they but things in the lowest ranke of indifferency the power that commands them might challenge their welcom how much more then when they have an intrinsecall worthiness to speak for them Your Letter hath well insinuated what the power of Princes is in things of middle natures whereof your Apostles rule will eternally hold not for fear but for conscience Indeed wherein is the power of royall authority if not in these things Good and evill have their set limits determined by God himself only indifferent things have a latitude allowed for the exercise of humane commands which if it might be resisted at pleasure what could follow but an utter confusion of all things This ground as it hath found just place in your own brest so were very fit to be laid by all your publick discourses in the minds of the people as that which would not a little rectifie them both in judgment and practise There is no good heart whom it would not deeply wound to hear of the least danger of the dissipation of your Church God in Heaven forbid any such mischief our prayers shall be ever for your safety but if any inconvenience should on your parts follow upon the lawfull act of authority see ye how ye can wash your hands from the guiltinesse of this evill This is I hope but your fear Love is in this sence full of suspicions and commnoly projects the worst It is Nazianzens advise Dum secundo vento navigas naufragium time tutior eris a naufragio adjutorem tibi ac sociâ—m adjungens timorem Farr farr is it from the heart of our Gratious Soveraign who holds it his chief glory to be amicus sponsae to intend ought that might be prejudiciall to your Church If his late journey his laboursome conferences his toylsome indeavours his beneficiall designes have not evinced his love to you what can do it And can any of yours think that this affection can stand with a will to hurt you I know nothing if I may except his own soul that he loves better then your Church and State and if he did not think this a fruit of his love he would be silent what shall he gain by this but that advantage which he promiseth to himself of your good in your assimilation to other churches a matter wherein I need not tell you there is both honour and strength The mention whereof drawes me towards the closure of my long letter whether to an Apology or interpretation of my self belike some captious hearers took hold of words spoken in some Sermon of mine that sounded of too much indifferency in these businesses ubi bos herbam vipera venenum
to me Let him look how in the rest he can be reconciled to himself Very shame shall at the last drive such a one if he be ingenuous from incompatible propositions In the mean time the good that he offers I will not refuse and leave the evil to his avoiding As a man that meets with a slack debtor will not be unwilling to take what small summes he can get till either more may come in or he may conveniently sue for the rest It is good to hold the ground we have got till by the power of truth we can recover more Not that I could readily take up with the palpable Equivocations of an Arrius or Pelagius No wise Chapman will suffer himself to be paid with slips Truth and Falshood will necessarily descry themselves Neither is it hard for a judicious Reader to discerne a difference betwixt yielding and dissembling Where I see a man constant to himself in a favourable assertion I have reason to construe it as a fair comming off towards reconcilement If nothing but the rigour of opinions shall be stood upon what Hope can there be of Peace To shut up therefore if what I have here meant well be as well taken and well improved I shall have comfort in the quieting of many Hearts and many Tongues If not at least I shall have comfort in the quietnesse of mine own heart which tels me I have wished well to the Church of God To whose awful sentence I do mâ—st humbly submit my self and these my poor endeavours professing my self ready to eat whatsoever word shee shall dislike and desirous to buy her peace even with blood Now the God of peace encline the hearts of men as to zeal of truth so to love of peace And since we are fallen upon those points which are disputable to the worlds end as we see in the practise both of the Romish and Germane and Netherlandish Churches the same God compose the minds of men to a wise moderation and binde up their lips in a safe and discreet silence that if our brains must needs differ yet our hearts and tongues may be ever one Amen A LETTER CONCERNING Falling Away FROM GRACE MY good Mr. B. You send me flowers from your Garden and Look for some in returne out of mine I do not more willingly send you these then I do thankfully receive the other I could not keep my hand from the paper upon the receit of your Letters though now in the midst of my attendance As my desire of your satisfaction cals me to write somthing so my other imployments force me to brevity in a question wherein it were easy to be endlesse I am sorry that any of our new Excuti-fidians should pester your Suffolk although glad in this that they could not Light upon a soyle more fruitful of able oppugners it is a wonder to me to think that men should Labour to be witty to rob themselves of comfort Good Sir Let me know these new Disciples of Leyden that I may note them with that black cole they are worthy of Troublers of a better peace then that of the Church the peace of the Christian soul they pretend antiquity What heresy doth not so What marvell is it if they would wrest Fathers to them while they use Scripture it self so violently For that their first instance of Hymeneus and Alexander how vain it is like themselves Nothing can be more plain then that those men were grosse hyppocrites who doubts therefore but they might fall from all that good they pretended to have What is this to prove that a true child of God may do so but say they these men had faith and a good conscience True such a faith and goodnesse of conscience as may be incident into a Worldly counterfeit Yea but they reply a true justifying faith I think such a one as their own rather I may say these men desevre not the praise of Himeneus his faith which is nothing in this place but Orthodoxe doctrine How oft doth St. Paul use the word so to his Timothy 1 Tim. 4.1 In the latter times some shall depart from the faith interpreted in the next words and shall give heed to spirits of error and doctrines of Devills and 2 Tim. 3.8 He describes his false teachers by this title Reprobate concerning the faith Which I think no man will expound of the grace but he Doctrine Yet say they there is no necessity binds us to that sense here But the scope of this place compared with others may evince it That which followes plainly points us to this meaning that they might learn not to blaspheme Their sin was therefore an Apostasy from the Dostrine of the Gospel and casting foul aspersions upon that profession so that an opposition to wholesome Doctrine was their shipwrack They except yet A good conscience is added to this faith therefore it must needs be meant of justifying faith Do but turne your eyes to 1 Tim. 3.9 where as in a commentary upon this place you shall finde faith and good conscience so conjoyned that yet the Doctrine not the vertue of faith is signified St. Paul describes his Deacon there by his spiritual wealth Having the mystery of faith in pure conscience No man can be so grosse to take the mystery of faith for the grace of faith or for any other then the same Author in the same chapter cals the mystery of Godlyness It is indeed fit that a good conscience should be the cofer where truth of Christian Doctrine is the treasure Therefore both are justly commanded together and likely each accompanies other in their loss and that of Irenaeus is found true of all hereticks sententiam impiam vitam luxuriosam c. Yea but Hymeneus and Alexander had both these then and lost both They had both in outward profession not in inward sincerity that rule is certain and eternal If they had been of us they had continued with us nothing is more ordinary with the Spirit of God then to suppose us such as we pretend that he might give us an example of Charity in the censure of each other of which kind is that noted place Heb. 10.29 And counteth the blood of the Testament wherewith he was sanctifyed an unholy thing and those unusual elogies which are given to the Churches to whom the Apostolical letters were directed This place therefore intends no other but that Himenaeus and Alexander which were once professors of the Christian doctrine and such as lived orderly in an unblameable and outwardly holy fashion to the World had now turn'd their copy cast off the profession which they made and were fallen both to loosenesse of manners calumniation of the truth they had abandoned For that other Scripture Rom. 8.12 13. No place can be more effectual to cut the throat of this uncomfortable heresy St. Paul writes to a mixt company it were strange if all the Romans should have been truly sanctifyed those which were yet
remainder of her life was ready to magnifie the mercy of her God in so sensible a deliverance what with the tryal of both these Hands of God so had she profited in the School of Christ that it was hard for any friend to come from her Discourse no whit holier how often have I blessed the memory of those divine passages of experimental Divinity which I have heard from her mouth what day did she pass without a large task of private devotion whence she would still come forth with a Countenance of undissembled mortification Never any lips have read to me such feeling Lectures of piety neither have I known any Soul that more accurately practised them then her own Temptations Desertions and Spiritual Comforts were her usual Theme Shortly for I can hardly take off my Pen from so exemplary a subject her Life and Death were Saint-like My Parents had from mine Infancy devoted me to this sacred Calling whereto by the blessing of God I have seasonably attained for this cause I was trained up in the publick School of the place After I had spent some years not altogether indiligently under the Ferule of such Masters as the place afforded and had neer attained to some competent ripeness for the University my School-master being a great Admirer of one Mr. Pelset who was then lately come from Cambridge to be the publick preacher of Leicester a man very eminent in those times for the same of his Learning but especially for his sacred Oratory perswaded my Father that if I might have my Education under so excellent and compleat a Divine it might be both a nearer and easier way to his purposed end then by an Academical Institution The motion sounded well in my fathers ears and carried fair probabilities neither was it other then fore-compacted betwixt my School-Master and Mr. Pelset so as on both sides it was entertained with great forwardness The Gentleman upon essay taken of my fitness for the use of his studies undertakes within one seven years to send me forth no lesse furnished with Arts Languages and grounds of Theoricall Divinity then the carefullest Tutor in the stricktest Colledge of either University VVhich that he might assuredly performe to prevent the danger of any mutable thoughts in my Parents or my self he desired mutuall bonds to be drawn betwixt us The great charge of my Father whom it pleased God to bless with twelve children made him the more apt to yield to so likely a project for a younger son There and now were all the hopes of my future life upon blasting the Indentures were preparing the time was set my suites were addressed for the journey VVhat was the issue O God thy Providence made and found it Thou knowest how sincerely Anno Aetatis 15 o. and heartily in those my young years I did cast my self upon thy hands with what faithfull resolution I did in this particular occasion resign my self over to thy Disposition earnestly begging of thee in my fervent Prayers to order all things to the best and confidently waiting upon thy VVill for the event Certainly never did I in all my life more clearly roll my self upon the Divine Providence then I did in this business and it succeeded accordingly It fell out at this time that my elder brother having some occasions to journey unto Cambridge was kindly entertained there by Mr. Nath. Gilby Fellow of Emanuel Colledge who for that he was born in the same Town with me and had conceived some good opinion of my aptness to Learning inquired diligently concerning me and hearing of the Diversion of my Fathers purposes from the University importunately diswaded from that new course professing to pitty the loss of so good hopes My Brother partly moved with his words and partly wonne by his own eyes to a great love and reverence of an Academicall life returning home fell upon his knees to my Father and after the report of Mr. Gilbies words and his own admiration of the place earnestly besought him that he would be pleased to alter that so prejudiciall a resolution that he would not suffer my hopes to be drowned in a shallow Country-channel but that he vvould revive his first purposes for Cambridge adding in the zeal of his love that if the chargeableness of that course vvere the hinderance he did there humbly beseech him rather to sell some part of that land vvhich himself should in course of Nature inherit then to abridge me of that happy means to perfect my education No sooner had he spoken those vvords then my Father no less passionately condescended not without a vehement Protestation that whatsoever it might cost him I should God willing be sent to the University neither were those words sooner out of his lips then there was a messenger from Mr. Pelset knocking at the door to call me to that fairer bondage signifying that the next day he expected me vvith a full dispatch of all that business To whom my Father replyed that he came some minutes too late that he had now otherwise determined of me and with a respective message of thanks to the Master sent the man home empty leaving me full of the tears of joy for so happy a change indeed I had been but lost if that project had succeeded as it well appeared in the experience of him who succeeded in that room which was by me thus unexpectedly forsaken O God how was I then taken up with a thankfull acknowledgment and joyfull admiration of thy Gracious Providence over me And now I lived in the expectation of Cambridge whither ere long I happily came under Mr. Gilbies tuition together with my worthy friend Mr. Hugh Cholmley who as we had been partners of one lesson from our Cradles so were we now for many years partners of one Bed My two first years were necessarily chargeable above the proportion of my Fathers power whose not very large Cistern was to feed many pipes besides mine His weariness of expense was wrought upon by the Counsel of some unwise friends who perswaded him to fasten me upon that School as Master whereof I was lately a Scholler Now was I fetcht home with an heavy heart and now this second time had mine hopes been nipt in the blossome had not God raised me up an unhoped Benefactor Mr. Edmund Sleigh of Darby whose pious memory I have cause ever to love and reverence out of no other relation to me save that he married my Aunt pittying my too apparent dejectedness he voluntarily urged and solicited my Father for my return to the University and offered freely to contribute the one half of my maintenance there till I should attain to the degree of Master of Arts which he no less really and lovingly performed The condition was gladly accepted thither was I sent back with joy enough and ere long chosen Scholler of that strickt and well ordered Colledge By that time I had spent six years there now the third year of my Bachelarship should