steppes take hold of Hell saith Salomon of the Harlot to leave a Sermon to goe to a Play is to forsake the Church of God to betake ones selfe to the Synagogue of Satan to fall from Heaven to Hell And what are they who doe nothing else all their life but warre against heaven more properly than the barbarous Scythians who thought they did it valiantly when they shot their arrowes against heaven which fell upon their owne pates the true Antipodes of God and all goodnesse that by a new found Art of memory never remember the Name of God that made them but in their oathes and blasphemies and by a new found Art of forgetfulnesse seeme to have forgotten their owne name as they say Messala did that they are called Christians that rather than faile of sinning with mutuall emulation like unhappie boyes strive who shall goe furthest in the dirt they thinke it a foule shame to be ashamed of sinne and their ambition is who shall be most famous for infamy The Jewes observe that the same word diversly pronounced Bethsheba with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shibboleth signifies the well of Oath and Bethsaba with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sibboleth the well of plentie I am sure for Oathes the Land mournes of which there is such store as if men by an easie mistake of the point used to draw and drop oathes as it were out of the well of plentie But I shall shew you greater abominations then these it is the Apostles exhortation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow peace and holinesse without which no man shall see God the word indeede is ambiguous and signifies sometime to follow and sometime to persecute the Apostle delivers this with the right hand and would have us follow and pursue holinesse as it were withdrawing our selves from earth and retiring to heaven and that apace for feare we overtake them not but many take this with the left hand and running upon a wrong sent follow neither peace nor holinesse but breake the peace by proclayming open warre and persecuting holinesse without which no man shall see God the tongue is set on fire on hell and they set their mouths against heaven and blaspheme the Saints Good Lord that ever the reformed Church should verifie that which the Poet wrote once of Rome Omnia cùm licet non liceat esse pium When it is lawfull to bee all things but to be piously disposed and these times to be the prophesie of the morall Philosopher when Honour is attributed to vice Gideon received those for his Souldiers that bowed not the knee to drink but lapt like a Dog and Iephta made that the tryall of life or death if they could pronounce Shibboleth and is not now swearing a sufficient pasport for entertainement in the world and drunkennesse as good as letters of Commendation for preferment he that is so precise hee cannot kneele to Bacchus and carouse it so hee that lispes at an oath Sibboleth and cannot thunder them out thicke and threefold with a full mouth Shibboleth dismisse him for a coward he is an Ephramite and as he was wont to doe note him in your Calendar for a Priscillianist a Puritan but they that can do both and with a grace he is a brave lad a true trojan a Gileadite For those two for the most part are companions in evill Simeon and Levi as though wine sprung out of the earth from the blood of the Gyants that fought against the Gods as they in Plutarch imagined so it armes the Tongue against God all his Saints whose persons because they are out of reach they rend and teare their names Poore blind men that offer violence to the Saints as Sampson laid hand upon the Pillars to plucke the house upon their owne heads For this I feare will be the end of this sport and I would to God onely the Princes of the Philistims as indeede they doe sate and laught at this the Poets say Iupiter never throwes his thunderbolt but when the Furies wrest it out of his hand I feare these Furies will draw Gods judgements upon us I know not what vaine hopes like false guides which set a man out of the way beare us in hand that we may goe by sinne and hell to holinesse and shut our eyes against the light of the Gospell and yet at last come to heaven the way indeede to hell is easie for as Bias scoffed the dead goe thither blindfold with their eyes closed but let no man thinke any life will bring a man to heaven as though Christ sent blood out of his side to redeeme us and not water also to purge his redeemed and wash them from their sinnes As though those whom the divell drives headlong to hell as once hee did the Gadarens hogs into the deepe had any reason to conceive they were mounting to the pinacle of the Temple to some high place in heaven who if there were as many heavens as there be dayes in the yeare as the Basilidians foolishly dreamed are not like to come to the lowest point of the lowest without more then ordinary repentance Secondly wordlings whose conversation is in earth who degenerate so far from all noble thoughts that they had rather be Terrae filii sonnes of the earth then heires of heaven which deface the Image of the heavenly Father stamped in the soule not in their coines with continuall rubbing against the earth Wormes and no men that doe not walke upright to heaven but crawle upon the earth the seede of the Serpent inheriting his curse to creepe upon their belly and licke the dust and like that better then the choice delicates the foode of Angels like the Israelites of whom Tertullian whose pallats rellish Garlick or an Onion of the Aegyptian earth better than the Angelicall viands of heaven whom the earth hathwholly swallowed up as once it did Corah who lulled asleepe with the flattering blandishment and faire entertainement they meete with in the world are nayled to the earth as Sisera was by Iael and will not so much as lift their eyes to heaven unlesse it be as the moralist observes that Hogs doe who goe nodling downe and rooting in the earth all their life and never looke upward till being ready to be kild they are laid flat upon their backe and forced so those men are all their life scraping in the dunghill and never thinke upon God or heaven till wrastling with the pangs of death they are even overcome and laid flat upon their backe then they that were prone to earthly cares like Martha like the woman in the Gospel that had a spirit of infirmitie and was bowed downeward and carelesse and supine to all heavenly things are forced to thinke of heaven but perhaps can brook them little better then Cerberus did the light at which he startled and strugled so when Hercules had brought him so farre that he had well nigh twitcht him downe backe againe
and earth III. Here is suggested the forceable motives that may perswade us to this heavenly conversation taken from 1. The excellency of heaven 2. The vanity of the world consider 1. A great estate 1. Hath scarse a shadow of happinesse 2. Brings no inward joy cordiall contentment 3. Hinders our speed in the race of godlinesse 2. A means estate 1. Puts us upon a necessity of seeking heavenly things 2. Is our best securitie against spirituall enemies 3. Dignitie of man consider 1. What dignitie nature hath conferred upon us in the 1. Frame of the heart 2. Fabricke of the body 3. Reliques of nature 2. What dignitie is confirmed upon us by grace 4. Brevitie of life which should make us 1. Not to spend our precious time on trifles 2. To use all speed and diligence 3. At least to doe as much for heaven as for earth 5. Necessitie 1 Of our times which should make us to be 1. Zealous for Religion 2. Zealous in Religion expressed in the practise of 1. Serious repentance and sincere reformation 2. Fervent and earnest Prayer 2. Of our place and calling 1. Christians they must not be all for the earth it is against their dignitie and advancement 2. Ministers they must not 1. Bury their Talent but 2. Worke for heaven 1. Draw others to heaven by diligence in preaching 2. Goe to heaven themselves by Holinesse of life FINIS Errata PAge 28. line 7. for was Read and as Ibid l. 26. for conversation communication p. 36. l. 2. for when then p. 40. l 16. for an in p. 57. l. 10. blot out did p. 111. l. 19. for men that may p. 112. l. 13. for mans is meanes p. 113. l. 5. for faults faculties p. 120. l. 17. for bitter better p. 121. l. 22. for more appeare it appeares more p. 127. l. 3. for comportures compartners p. 134. l. 17 for i of we ibid. l. 18. for absent present p. 135. l. 23. for cause case p. 176. l. 14. blot out quoad p. 184. l. 5. for law lawgiver p. 189. l. 26. for breake be onely p. 193. l. 23. for once one p. 194. l. 8 blot out by p. 195. l. 18. read did not actually p. 146. l. 23 for loathsome in effects the same in effects p. 197. l. 18. for If I p. 198. l. 21. for no a. p. 202. l. 17 for Displicere Displeasure p. 208 l. 25. for answer am sure p. 213. l. 20. for mouth moth p. 235. l. 15. for most not THE HEAVENLY Conversation PHIL. 3. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Conversation is in Heaven THe Learned Origen being at the Church in Ierusalem was requested to Preach there but opening the Booke for that purpose he fell upon those words of the Psalme But unto the wicked saith God what hast thou to doe to take my words into thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed and hast cast my Commandements behinde thee c. which awakned more the memory of his sin which was this He being apprehended and put to his choise by his persecutors whether hee would offer sacrifice to their Idols or suffer his body to be defiled with a most ugly Blackmore one hee must of force shunning the latter hee yeelded inconsiderately to the former his conscience now as it were thundering from heaven against him he could not goe on but closed the Booke againe and sate him downe with bitter weeping and lamentation all the people also out of a tender affection and sympathy of his sorrow giving as the Father speakes* a charitable contribution of teares towards the reliefe of his misery and bearing a part in the burden of his sad Song and dolefull Ditty the briefe whereof they had then heard and seene Beloved I feare that wee must either close the Booke or disclose our owne shame for this Text upbraides our times and Saint Paul for ought that I see is resolved and speakes enough to shame us all For where are the Christians now that can say the Responsall after him Our conversation is in heaven without blushing outward for shame or bleeding inward for griefe Who can behold the deformitie of his Chrystall life in this Chrystall glasse without teares such as may truely be stiled Sanguis animae the blood of the soule It is reported of one that hee was so lusty and quarrel some that hee was ready to fight with his owne Image so often as hee saw it in a glasse let us fall out with our sinnes the spots that deface the Image of God in us but God forbid that any should picke a quarrell with the glasse of Gods Word by which wee may dresse our selves to perfection of beauty wisely Socrates who commendeth the use of a glasse to all sorts as if the friend in it gave faithfull counsell in all cases Art thou beautifull and comely Cave ne animi improbitate corpus tuum dehonestes Art thou homely and deformed Facâ—ut animus virtute corpus suum consecret Art thou faire take heede thy body bee not like an Aegyptian Temple stately without but having within a soule as blacke as a Gypsie with vice Art thou foule see that thy soule within make amends for thy body without being like a rich pearle in a rude shell But most true is this of this Glasse which of all other knowes not how to flatter and who knowes whether there be not that vertue in this divine speculation to restore a man to himselfe as hee that was transformed into an Asse returned to his owne shape when hee came to behold himselfe in a Glasse the strength of the charme being wholly evacuated Well then let us behold our selves here in this Glasse if not what wee are at least what wee ought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The words looke backward to the former and that ambiguously either as part of a Collation to what is in the immediately precedent verses if you read them with the Adversative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Illi sic nos autem non sic They do thus But we doe not thus or as a ground of Illation to the 17. Verse if you read them with the Causall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Nos sic vos ergo etiam sic wee doe thus and therefore doe yee also thus Be yee followers of me and such as tread in our steps For Our coversation is in Heaven The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though it may be diversly rendred First Our Citie and so it suits best with the latter part of the Verse wherein otherwise there will be an incongruitie of Language if you referre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence wee looke a singular Relative to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Heavens a plurall Antecedent which may be salved if you referre it to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it may wel stand in that sense Secondly Our municipall state and dignity our Burgesship Thirdly Our politique bent aime fetch for I suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
thinkes it the best thrift and most saving bargaine when he can offer himselfe wholly to God a living Sacrifice pleasing and acceptable in his sight and therefore resolves with David I will not serve the Lord of that which cost me nothing and followes our Saviour whose counsell it is Let not thy right hand know what thy left hand doth doe not anxiously compute the charge of a good worke as men doe some Summe upon the fingers end consult not with flesh and blood for what can be so bard that hee is affraid to undergoe or what so sweete that he is not resolved to forgoe that he may gaine heaven The way is straight and narrow yet he will strive to enter for the way to heaven is not easie he is like to meete scoffes and scarres and a thousand Scarcrowes for many thwarting inconvenience and discouragements lie crosse in the way to heaven but hee accounts these the glory of his triumph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have fought the good fight saith the Apostle Paul as a word in a boasting it is a goodly thing to goe to heaven any way lame maimed or blind even the right foote the right hand the right eye if it offend him cut it off plucke it out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a goodly thing Burne my foote if you will that it may dance everlastingly with the blessed Angels in heaven stil'd the Martyr in Basel nobly He is a wise Merchant that can purchase heaven at any price To conclude hee knowes this life is but a way to life as the Spartan mother comforted her sonne who in a battell where hee fought valiantly had received a wound of which he was like to limpe ever after that his halting would but make him remember vertue every step so the worst that can happen to him doth but make him remember vertue every steppe that every steppe may set him so much nearer to heaven hee thinkes hee is placed in this world as in a royall Theatre the Earth the Stage the Heavens the Scaffolds round about the spectators God men and Angells himselfe an Actor his part Piety his reward Eternity his conscience alwayes prompting him behinde the Curtaine it skils not what the spectators thinke or say looke to the Iudge be ambitious to please God who beholds thee and therfore resolves though the world hisses me yet I heare I eare not so I may heare a plaudite from him Well done good servant enter into thy masters joy O blessed plaudite he stirres his hands to clappe them and droppes a crowne of life from betweene them upon my head Thirdly Actu In act for hee cannot be out of heaven whose conversation makes that place heaven wheresoever he is and that by a double Analogie and conformity with heaven of sanctity and felicitie of happinesse and holinesse First Conformit as sanctitatis a conformity of sanctitie which appeares in every part of his life as the light of the candle breakes out at every side of the Lanthorne and as the leaven in the Gospell which the woman put into three pecks of meale insinuates it selfe into his thoughts words and deedes all which it makes to rise and swell toward heaven for what shall wee say of his Heavenly Meditations in which methinkes hee resembles a Bird of Paradise so called which is reported by the Naturalists to flie continually without any rest and was never observed so much as to touch upon the earth no more doth this blessed Bird of Paradise but is alway upon the wing in divine mediâ—â—tious unlesse perhaps you may thinke he comes nearer the Phoenix which is said to beget her heire of her owne ashes to which she is resolved in her bed of spice her neast being nothing else but a pile of the most precious spices of Arabia curiously collected by her afore for that purpose and kindled by the heate of the Sunne-beames as a Christian kindles by frequent meditation the sweete notes that hee hath collected in reading or hearing which like the Angel in the sacrifice of Manoach carries him up to heaven in a flame of heavenly affection and leaves her selfe an heire behinde of her owne ashes a never failing succession of the like heavenly meditations I know this practise is not vulgar or easie for the Monke said truely that to be a Monke in outward shew was easie but to be a Monke in inward reality was hard it is no hard matter in comparison to make the outward man the visible man a Monke immure him in a Cloyster and retire him from worldly distractions nor is it any easie matter to circumscribe the infinite libertie of the inward man But a Christian labours to be the same without that he is within like the beautie of a Diamond not skinne deepe onely like the ordinary beauty for if you could have a window in his breast you should see nothing within but heavenly thoughts hee breathes not oftner than hee thinkes on God according to the Father he climbs often into Mount Nebo the mount of Meditation for a prospect of the land of Promise from whence his blessed eyes of Faith and Hope like Calib and Joshua the faithfull Spies animate him to a noble resolution by their happie tidings The land is good let us goe up and fight for it and if he chance to step aside sometime among worldly affaires you must understand he is there not as a turne-coate Traytour but as a wise Intelligencer as a Spie was the Spies that went to Iericho to avoid being snared by any ambush he returnes by the Hill-countrey that is as I interpret it improves even humane occurrences to some divine expedience and reduceth temporall occasions to spirituall use Wherefore saith Chrysostome very sweetly The literall foules of the heaven have wings and these mysticall foules of the heaven have wisedome to flie aloft that the snares and lime-twigges of the world may not entangle them surely in vaine is the net spread before the eye of all that hath wings as Salomon speakes Such in the second place is their Conversation for as our Saviour after his Resurrection conversing with his Disciples spake of such things as concerned the Kingdome of God and Moses descended from the Mount where he had conference with God brought the Tables of the Law to the people so the Law of Grace is in his lippes and out of the Abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh As the posts of the doore of the house without were sprinkled with the blood of the Lambe which was eaten within so the heart that is washed with the blood of Christ cannot be ashamed to have their lippes painted with the same It is Nazianzens comparison for this is the beauty of the Spouse in her Lords eye who like some elegant Lover makes this a great part of her commendation Thy lippes are like a threed of scarlet this is the safetie of the Spouse as the blood
sprinkled upon the Posts was the Israelites as the scarlet thread in the window was Rahabs for with the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and with the mouth man confesseth to salvation The Latines call the roofe of the mouth Coelum Heaven and the lower part Solum palati the ground of the palate The most mens speech is altogether of earth as though they had no heaven in their mouth they dash all their words against the earth like the fish in the Gospel either dumbe or nothing but gold in their mouth It is cleane contrary with S. Pauls Christian who not content to be a silent and dumbe spectatour of heaven like the fish so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so to suffer the conceptions of his minde to die there like abortive birthes smothered in the wombe but labours to bring them to the light and deliver them to others that they may also partake of his sweetnesse and so dividing himselfe betweene solitarinesse and company meditation and communication thoughts and speech that one may make the other profitable the one being begunne and inducted into the soule by the Spirit and the other having instructed others in the way of godlinesse as the Father hath it See in the last place his operation for what is his whole life but an Angels worke a continuall attendance upon God The Church is as the Father stiles it an heaven upon earth the presence Chamber of the great King how often doth hee waite there with what devotion like David according to Saint Austins Glosse I will goe into the house of the Lord as a stone in his building saith the Father like Christ himselfe his parents sought him in vaine in cognatione carnis among his kindred but found him imployed in domo Patris in his Fathers house The Sabbath is the Lords day our rest and employment then a short abridgement of the long story of eternitie is seasonable how truely doth Hee call this Day his delight how cheerefully doth he welcome in Hee commeth forth of his chamber like a Bridegroome and rejoyceth as a Gyant to runne his race like the Jew that was wont to put on his best apparell to expect the approach of this day and hasten it forward wooing with these words Veni sponsa mea Come my Spouse like the Spouse in the Canticles rather untill the day breake and the shadowes flee away I will get me to the mountaines of Myrrhe and to the hill of Frankincense he hath espoused his soule to the beauty of holinesse in these blessed ordinances and therefore his eyes will prevent the morning watch that hee may adorne and prepare himselfe be times and meete these solemnities with the sweete perfume and incence of meditation and prayer Prayer and the rest of the works of Piety are the Ladder to Heaven how often may you see him like the Angels in Iacobs vision ascending and descending by this It is a received maxime in Philosophy that Oratio is Quantitas discreta but it is a certaine truth in Divinitie that Oratio debet esse Quantitas continua according to that of the Apostle Pray continually Too much discretion in the world hath brought too little devotion and unjustly censured the heate of devotion for want of discretion But 't is not either the virulence of the tongue or violence that can make a Christian intermit this course The Angel that strove with Iacob said Let me goe for the morning approacheth forsooth afraid as the Rabbins would have it that if he were deteined any longer he should incurâ—e some censure of irregularity or be injoyned some pennance for tardinesse at his Mattins But a Christian saith indeede to his deare sinnes Let me goe sollicitous to prevent all intanglements to shake of all impediments which might hazard the least interruption of his sweet intercourse with God in prayer And to make no more particular instances the heavenly Hierarchies of Angels are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them that shall be heires of salvation or is not this the very trade and occupation of a Christian the magnificence of Piolomaeus Philadelphus I suppose gave originall to the phrase in which all noble and magnificent workes are called opera Philadelphia I dare say a Christian esteemes that his most honorable imployment when he may provoke the glory of God in the good of his brethren especially in the matter of heaven and salvation these are his opera Philadelphia workes of Charity For he holds the common truth in Philosophy the most proper worke of a living creature is to beget one in his owne likenesse to be a certaine truth in Divinitie the most specificall and characteristicall act of a living Christian is at least to endeavour to beget another in his owne likenesse to draw many to God and therefore that which Plato said divinely was the end of marriage that when out race shall be ended and we must â—radere Lampada give up our borrowed light wee may have those that may rise up in our place that may stand up in stead to serve God that the fire of his Altar may never goe out this may be truely said the end of all his commerce and converse with others Neither is he thus in these great things of the Law only but as carefull in the lesse men will not lightly lose the least ends of Gold the least Commandement observed brings a great reward and the least sinne cannot bee committed without great danger even the secret lusts and motions of the heart which cannot bee discerned for sinne otherwise when motes and atomes in the tenth Commandement as it were in the Sun-beames the point of the speare pierced our Saviours side so did the prickes of the thornes wound his sacred head and therefore though counterfeit Christians make no bones of lesser sinnes make no conscience of lesser duties like Pharoahs Magicians whose art could not reach to make such things as were lesse then a Barly-Corne and therefore failing in the production of Lice were forced to acknowledge the finger of God as the Rabbins give the reason yet a currant Christian is the same in great and lesse matters in both like himselfe if not like God himselfe of whom Austin elegantly he is so great an Artisan in great matters as that hee is not lesser in the smallest He did all with the same care and by the same rule the Iewes have a Law which enjoynes them to take up any paper which they see lying on the ground and the reason is lest happily the Name of God be written in the paper and ignorantly troden under foote the Christian is free from such superstitious curiositie yet full of religious care observes every title in Gods Word least unawares hee might dishonour the name of God and trample upon any of the least of his Commandements and therefore he hath respect to this in all his wayes this is the
to hell if the hand and the chaine that held him had not beene the stronger or as the noble King Richard the first of the name who when the rest of the Princes and Gallants travailing in the Holy Land where they then warred were come to the foote of an hill from whence they might view Jerusalem the holy Citie then possessed by Saracens without hope of recovery for the present and therefore put Spurs to their Horses every one in a youthfull contention who should be the first and have the maidenhead of that prospect Hee puld downe his Beaver over his eyes and would not gratifie them with the vaine pleasure of so sad a spectacle for God forbid said he that I should be hold that Citie though I could which though I would I know not how to rescue so is it but cold comfort to such to thinke of heaven whose life gives so weake evidence for their Title to it whose possibilities are so remote upon I know not what reversion after such and such and such a thing done which they finde then too late that they are not likely to have either space or grace or place to doe Foolish men that lay the greatest burthen upon the weakest horse and leave that one thing which is necessary to their bed when they are fit to doe nothing God called to them to hasten in their life to day if yee will heare my voyce harden not your hearts then they were loath to forsake their sweete sins as Lot to goe out of Sodome till the Angel pluckt him out then they answer coldly as Austin reports of himselfe Give Lord but not yet then they devise a thousand shifts to delay let Salomon bid them remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth they are ready to say to thinke at least as the Devills to our Saviour Art thou come to torment us before our time Whereas they are afraid if they should beginne too soone in Religion they might be Saints and happie before their time but when death comes they change their note their pulse then beates quicke and faint a dangerous symptome of Death O Lord make speede to heare us O Lord make haste to helpe us Then in haste the Minister the Sacrament their prayers then Lord have mercy upon me and so like Gallants that have lost their time in the Alehouse to make amends ride all upon the spurre suriously right Jehues march ready to overrunne the sober traveller so these runne upon the speede at last and thinke to be at heaven before those who have travelled soberly thitherward all their life but what if God should answer their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not yet time in their life with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at their death what if God should say to him as the Crabbe in the Fable to the Serpent when hee had given him his deaths wound for his crooked conditions and then saw him stretch himselfe out streight At oportuit sic vixisse It is too late now you should have lived so What if the sword of Gods Iustice seaze upon him that flies so to the Sanctuary of his Mercy as Joab was slaine even at the hornes of the Altar May not a man receive unworthily not discerning the Lords body by the eye of faith for according to the Father this is the food of Eagles not of Dawes and so eate damnation to himselfe for in this case it is not meate but a knife or sword saith Cyprian The Emperour was poysoned in the Hostie and at last a man may die notwithstanding the Sacrament as the Israelites in the Wildernesse died with Manna in their mouthes Basilides the Emperour of Russia refused a Coelestiall Globe of gold wherein the cunning Artificer as it were in emulation of God had curiously framed a modell of heaven nothing was wanting of the number of the spheares or of the life of the motion which was sent unto him as a rare present from the German Emperour for said he I doe not meane to busie my selfe in the contemplation of heaven and in the meane time did lose the possession of the earth as the German Emperours doe daily to these Turkes it may be wisely and a mâ—id laught at her master Thales the great Astronomer who gazing on the Starres on a sudden fell into a ditch 〈◊〉 thinke justly and the Iew is little pittled who let goe the helme of the ship which he steered at the first approach of the Sabbath and so suffered shipwracke for ought I know deservedly For our Conversation must he in Heaven indeede but it is not a Iacobs staffe but a Iacobs ladder will bring us thither we must behold the heaven but wee may hold the helme also and guide our course the better as Pilots doe we may looke to our estate and walke in the labours of our calling with diligence and if wee doe this with conscience every day is a Sabbath as Clemens speakes what then is to be done as Basil in a like case Let not all thy delight befor earth but minde also heaven so here we must not be all for the world nothing for heaven Suffer not the world to take up the best roomes in the heart while Christ by that meanes is shuffled into the stable but as the Aethiopian Indges in all their meetings reserve the highest seat empty for God so doe you seeke the kingdome of Heaven in the first place e That house is happy where wordly Martha complaines of heavenly-minded Mary saith the Father Happy is that soule which is so tempered that though it run betweene both yet the by as is alway drawing toward heaven that abounds so much in expressions of love that way that the world may have cause to be jealous and complaine of some neglect that feares not the feare of the worlding that if he should follow holinesse toofast he should not be able to live by the trade like the Athenians who in the Consulation whether they should admit Alexander the Great into their Calender and Canonize him for a God which he sued for at first were very zealous against his impious ambition but were soone cold upon the poliâ—icke suggestion of a crafty companion who put them in minde of the power of Alexander and wished them to consider lest while they stood so much for Heaven they were likely to lose earth so these had rather forgoe heavenly than undergoe any hazard af the losse of earthly thinga but the Christian not so but resolves Viderit utilitas let the world looke to that let the world goe as it will I will doe according to the command of my Saviour and build upon his Promise Seeke the Kingdome of God and all these things shall he cast upon you Hypocrites whose conversation is betweene heaven and earth like Erasmus as the Papists paint him like the flying Angel in the Revelation which in the Parable of the Sheepe seeke out
their goates under the cloake of Religion Gods Livery which they weare as though they served him doe but serve their owne turne like the Eagles which soares aloft not for any love of heaven her eye is all the while upon the prey which by this meanes she spies sooner and seizes upon better as Thales sometime contemplated the heaven for no devotion I wist but to picke some gaine out of it as hee did indeed for re ading thus much in the volumne of heaven that there was like to follow a scarcity of Olives he got all that hee could into his hands and so having the monopoly sold them at his own price Who would not have admired and honoured him as one sent from heaven and Gods neare familiar or intimate friend according to the phrase of Tertullian who not content to fit in the Temple of God unlesse hee were also pearcht upon the highest pinnacle of the Temple were not the fetch long since transparent to the world that he is mounted so high onely for the love of the situation and goodly prospect it hath of all the kingdomes of the world and to bargaine with the devill for them the Vicar of Christ thought he was not well advised to refuse so faire an offer at which his fingers itched as Gahazies teeth watered after the Talents and the change of raiment and I suppose he would not be troubled to weare the keyes of heaven at his girdle but that hee hath found that they will open to him the Treasures of the earth and whereforeâ— doth hee shrowd himselfe under the shadow of Peter but as they did sometime to heale and cure diseases so at least to hide and obscure the deformitie of his swelling pride and infinite ambition They say when Astraea Iustice and Piety suppose betooke her selfe from the unworthy world to heaven her veile fell from her or maske I know not well whether the onely relique and monument the earth can produce she once had her abode among men and you may remember when Elias was taken up and rode thether in his Triumphant charriot his mantle dropt from him and since that how many have masked under the veile of Piety and cozen'd the world with the mantle of Elias as the Devill once Saul with Samuels as though they came from heaven or were left sole heires to him whereas God knowes they have not the least part of the Spirit of Elias they are nothing akin unto him they never came neare heaven but ascend out of the earth as the counterfeit Samuel that cozen'd Saul the true devill under his mantle For what are their letters of credence but faire shewes good words cheape ceremonies pellucidae technae shining and perspicuous juggling who cannot see thorough these trickes the Iewes observe that the second temple came short of the glory of the first in this especially in stead of Uâ—im and Thummim it had nothing but Bach Col the daughter of a voyce and who sees not the glozing of the tongue how short it falls of the glory of truth of sinceritie when one Alexander gave it out that he was Herods sonne Augustus to discover the impostor felt his hand and by his hard rough skinne easily found that there was no gentle blood ran in those veines no noble spirit did be at in that pulse he was some handy-crafts man he was not his crafts-master and who but blind Isaac would blesse him for the first borne of God the heire of heaven whose voice is indeed smooth the voice of elect Jacob but his hands are rough with sinne the hands of reprobate Esau These Juglers cannot play their trickes so cleanly but they are perceived they dance in a net the world sees their dissembling and accounts them but like those Images which you see sometimes underpropping the beames of some great building they sweat they stoop and bow under the burden they lay their hands upon their head as it were to ease themselves as though the whole weight of the roofe lay upon them like to fall you may make children perhaps beleeve so if they should remoove never so little and not support it so these men are so busie so zealous so hot a man would thinke the Church the truth the Gospel all religion could not stand without them when indeed they doe no more then these Images like Atlas whom the Poets feigne for his skill in Astronomy to beare up the heaven upon his shoulders so every one of these would make the world beleeve he were a Pillar an Atlas of the Church and so he is indeede an Atlas but according to the Anagrammatisme of his name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a miserable prop and pillar of the Church of God Miserable man in truth whose dissembling and doubling God sees and will one day unmaske to all the world and canst thou thinke foolish hypocrite to be saved by thy booke at that triall yes get a faire Bible bind it in a Velvet case gild the leaves make much of it let all the world take notice of this in the meane time live as thou list without booke but know that booke is not subject to the Orators 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bee flattered or bribed with such a simple fee not so much as to be silent for though thou thinkest to stop the mouth for pleading against thee with such idle courtesies and content that it should countenance thee before the people as Saul would have Samuel as if it were of this familiar acquaintance whereas thou keepest it shut at home and muzzled for feare it should worry thy darling sinnes yet the bookes shall be opened one day and thou shalt be judged by that booke and condemned Or wilt thou hope to take sanctuary at the Church yes no doubt because thou hast beene diligent there to play the part of a Christian in seeming devotion and mocke God to his face because thou hast cheated the world in the Church with the shew of Pietie that thou mightest the better cheat them in thy shop thou art like to scape well enough shall I tell you how Xerxes destroyed the Temples of the Grecians because by building them they seemed to overthrow the infinitnesse of God and circumscribe him within the roofe of a Temple and God will smite thee thou whited wall whose religion is circumscribed within the walls of the Church and goes no farther All these according to the common similitude of the ferry-man looke one way and goe another they looke to heaven when they are going to hell though their forces and their footesteps seeme to stand toward heaven yet the divell drawes them to hell when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that wicked one as the Poets say Cacus used to draw the Oxen he stole by the tailes backward into his men that so men being set at a nonplus in their search by this sophistry his theft might remaine undiscovered 3. The third thing propounded was to shew the severall motives which may