thy triumph over them O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory O my soule where is all thy comfort If in this life thou art most miserable If thy life be hid with Christ in God then when Christ which is thy life shall appeare thou shalt also appeare in glory What though I mourne here I shall be comforted what though I fast here I shall be satisfied what though I be disgraced here I shal be glorified What though I am here trampled under feet I shall be there crowned What though my flesh bee eaten with wormes and these wormes turned into dust and that dust blowed by the wind over the face of the earth yet after thou turnest man to destruction Againe thou sayest Come againe yee children of men I know thou my Redeemer livest and shalt stand up at the last day and I shall see thâ—e in my flesh with these eyes and none other Lord establish this beleefe in me beat downe all the forts that naturall reason reareth against it Grant that I may every day more and more feel as the power of thy birth in my regeneration and of thy death in my mortification so also of thy Resurrection in my rising from the death of sinne to the life of grace Lord thou restoredst life to three men to one in his bed to another on the beare a third in the grave They who conceive sinne in their hearts are like him that was dead in his bed they who bring it forth into action are like him that was brought forth dead on the beare but they that continue in sinne and all impurity and putrifie in the custome therof are like him that was foure dayes dead and stanke in the grave such a one or worse am I for I have laine not foure dayes but many years in this loathsome grave and am even devoured of the worme of conscience Yet Lord this day of thy glorious Resurrection say unto mee as thou didst to him Come forth awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and I will give thee light Make this day of thy Resurrection from the death of nature the day of my rising from the death of sin and corruption first to the life of Grace and after to the life of Glory Amen MERCVRY OR A Meditation on Ascension day ACcording to my proposed method I should in this place shew how the sweet Incense of the blessed Sacrifice Christ Jesus ascended into heaven to bee as the Leviticall Sacrifices were an Oblation of a sweet savour unto the Lord for as God after the universall Deluge smelled a pleasant savour of Rest in the offering of Noah so likewise God the Father after the inundation of sin overflowing the whole world for the space of 4000. years and upwards did smell a sweet savour of Pacification Reconciliation and satisfaction in this last meritorious act of our blessed Saviour which I compare to the flight of winged Mercury who by Poets is fained to descend and ascend to keepe unity and concord between their fained gods being their observant Messenger And Christ the Angell or Messenger of the everlasting Covenant descended from heaven in the day of his Nativity and brought those blessed tidings of Salvation revealed in the Gospell to mankind and as this day ascended into heaven to accomplish the work of mans redemption but this glorious Act of our Saviour is so divinely pathetically and excellently accomplished by Mr. Austin in his divine Meditations that though I like foolish Icarus because as on this day I first drew breath received the common aire doe strive with waxen wings to take an higher flight than my learning is able to performe am so melted with the rayes of the scorching heat of his devotions that I am forced to dash out my dim taper before his bright Sonne and conclude with Master Doctor Featleyes divine Prayer saying Glorious and gracious Redeemer Lord Iesus Christ who huÌ„bledst thy selfe and didst become obedient to death even the death of the Crosse and therefore thy Father highly exalted thee above the Grave in thy Resurrection above the earth in thy Ascension above the heavens in thy session at his right hand and then He gave thee a Name above all names that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow both of things in heaven and in earth and of things under the earth I humbly bow the knees not only of my body but of my heart and soule unto thee I never heare of thee or remember never think or speak of thee but with greatest reverence and love that heart can conceive or tongue expresse I admire the mystery of thy Incarnation I tremble at the horror of thy passion I adore the power of thy Resurrection and triumph in the glory of thy Ascension My God and my Lord make me wholly thine as thou art mine Thy birth was my life thy life my merit thy death my ransome thy Resurrection my delivery out of the prison of death where thy Father laid thee for my debt thy Ascension my assurance and taking possession of an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance reserved in the heavens O Saviour if thou haddest not been borne I never had been born a new if thou hadst not dâ—ed for my sinnes I had dyed in my sins If thou haddest not risen from the dead my soule might have been with thee in Paradise but my body should not have rested in hope neither should I have seene God in my flesh If thou hadst not ascended I might have been freed from hell but I should never have had a place prepared for me in heaven O Lord when thou camest to us on earth Iohn was thy fore-runner but thou wert my fore-runner in thy returne into heaven Iohn prepared the way before thee on Earth but thou preparedst a way before me into heaven That way and those Regions in the aire which Lucifer defiled and cursed by his fall through them from heaven thou hast clensed and blessed by thy marching triumphantly thorow them into heaven O blessed Creator and Repairer of nature in thee not onely all the kindred of the Earth but all creatures under the cope of heaven are blessed and therefore they sigh and groane together with us desiring fervently thy second comming The earth was blessed and sanctified by thy birth and thy treading upon it The water by thy descending into the River Iordan at thy Baptisme and walking on the Seas Now the Aire likewise and fire expected an honour and a blessing from thee and both received it the Aire by thy Ascending thorow it the Fire by sending downe the Holy Ghost in the likenesse of fiery cloven tongues O Lord my Redeemer how excellent is thy Name in all the world Creatures without voice praise thee as the Heavens and Earth without understanding know thee as the Star that lighted the Sages to thee without will obey thee as winds and Seas without â—ares hearken to thee as the Fig-tree which
such like should all have been comprehended under that fearfull Chaos and so the Earth as it were opened should have sent forth such sulphur'd smoke furious flames and fearfull thunder as should by their diabolicall doomesday have destroyed and defaced in the twinkling of an eye not only our then living Princes and people but even our insensible Monuments reserved for future ages And so not only we but the memory of us and ours should have beene thus extinguished in an instant O Lord what wonderfull distractions and dismall confusion would have beene then in the Land when they who alone could set order in such a time were all on the sudden swept away when the blame of so horrible a Massacre should have beene laid upon the most zealous professors of the truth when the Popes Buls should have been fixed upon the Gates of our chiefest Cities exposing the lives and estates of all that had not the mark of the Beast in their forehead to spoile ruine and destruction How would Atheists Papists Banckrupts and all kind of male-contents have made havock of all things how would they have triumphed in the downefall and danced in the ashes of the Church and Common-wealth How soone would they have turned this most flourishing Island into a desert Our ancient River the river Thames into the dead Sea our land into Acheldama a field of blood our strongest Towers and most magnificent buildings into a Babel of confusion our chiefe Cities into Golgotha's places of dead mens sculs Cursed bee the wrath of all traiterous Papists for it was fierce and their rage for it was cruell nay monstrous and prodigious to cut off the root and all the branches at one blow to remove and overthrow the foundation of Religion and Policy with one lift to offer up the royall stem and the flower of all the Nobility and Gentry the Lords Spirituall and Temporall the Bishops Earles Barons Judges Knights and Burgesses as a Holocaust or whole burnt offering to the Moloch of Rome O let it not be told in Gath nor published in Askalon lest the Heathen and Infidels abhor the name of our Nation that bred up such Vipers or blaspheme the holy profession of Christians for their sakes Or if the report of such a crying or rather thundring sinne cannot but be heard to the uttermost parts of the Earth let the authors and actors be descried to be no true beleevers but Hereticks and Miscreants no servants of Christ but factors for Antichrist and let the Turks Mores and Indians and all Pagans together with seduced Papists in the world know that thou O Lord whom we worship in spirit and truth didst miraculously detect and graciously prevent this bloody design intrapping the wicked devisers in the work of their own hands and taking the Incendiary in his own traine The waters saw thee O God the waters saw and swelled against the proud Spanish Fleet the winds saw thee O God the windes saw thee and furiously blustered at it and both windes and Seas obeyed thee in dissipating and overwhelming it in the narrow Seas And now the fire and Powder saw thee O God and it flew in the eyes and faces of them that would have put out all the eyes of this Island and defaced the whole beauty of this Kingdome for ever Death received the word and destruction observed Law confusion it selfe kept order in blowing up their estates and carrying up their quarters and fixing them for a terror to all Iesuited traitors over that house and in the very place which they would have with Gunpowder sent up all the principall Members of our body Politique every eye may now see that dreadfull judgement denounced in thy Word fallen upon the eyes that waited for the destruction of our Church and Commonwealth The young Ravens of the valley peck at them and the fowles of heaven have eaten them Thus hast thou hitherto fought for thine anointed and thy dearest Spouse and thou art still the same God with whom there are Issues even out of death it selfe Wherefore we beseech thee set our affiance in Thee and fashion our love more and more unto thee imprint the memory of this wonderfull deliverance in our hearts and the hearts of our seed with the point of a Diamond that the children that are yet unborn may in succeeding ages praise thee for it Give us a sight and sence of our crimson and skarlet sinnes that brought us so nâ—ere even to the brink of so bloody a destruction and utter desolation and open the eyes of the Seens of Israel that they may in this our day looke to those things that belong to our peace and prevent the danger and hinder the growth of that Romish weed which if it be not cut off by the execution of wholesome lawes in that kinde provided in time will overrunne the Garden of thy Spouse and destroy all her pleasant plants and flowers Stir them up seriously to consider that though the match by thy providence be taken out of the hand of the Traitors that the danger is not yet past but that they must follow the traine and search the lowest and darkest corners of the Vault and dig into the Barrels of Powder and finding that it was digged out of the rock and foundation of the Iesuits Trent faith that they ought to bend all their forces and by armes and lawes suppresse it and keepe out the grand enemy of the Truth and our peace that he never get footing in this Kingdome Let no such mysts of faire glosses and pretences be cast before their eyes but that they may cleerly see that the Bishop of Rome is the Engineer of these workes Iesuiticall doctrines and perswasions are the traine disloyall hearts the Vaults seditious councels practises the Powder and idolatrous blinde zeale is the fire that hath heretofore and is alwayes ready to set all Kingdomes and States professing the truth of the Gospell in a combustion Discover O Lord more and more the man of sin and make him seeme as odious to us as he is abominable in thy sight Alter their temper or spew them out of this kingdome who are neither hot nor cold among us O let the joyfull Mattens on our fifth of November and the dolefull even-song on theirs convince all enemies of the truth that thou mightily supportest the frame and fabrick of our Sion but hast pulled downe the floore and wilt in due time the wals of their Babylon So let thine enemies perish O Lord but let them that love thee be as the Bunne that goeth forth in his full strength Amen A description of the Aequator Or A Meditation on the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary AS opposite to the foregoing Rainbow you may behold the Aequinoctiall which I have placed as in the North side of this Court. Now the Reasons why I name this dayes commemoration a description of the Aequator are first because as the Aequator or Aequinoctiall is a line drawne in
and temporâ—ll conferred upon me purchased by thy sufferings ad this one above the rest the special gift of remembrance of these thy sufferings that wheresoever I am whatsoever I doe I may have thy passion in my heart and thy wounds bleeding a fresh in my minde with an infinite hatred of sin that procured them and love of thy goodnesse who enduredst them for me Thy Church since thou leftest her is a widow and I am as one of her dead children not as the Samaritan was hâ—lfe dead but wholly dead in my sins and transgressions Thou Lord art the true Elias who raisedst and doest raise from death this widowes children to life by stretâ—hing thy body over them O my gracious Lord apply thy body stretched this day on the crosse to me Lay thy head to my head thy hands to my hands thy feet to my feet and thy heart to my heart that I may receive warmth from thy blood and ease from thy stripes health from thy wounds and spirit from thy breath and strength from thy grace to stand up from the dead and walke with thee henceforth in newnesse of life So be it Amen IVPITER OR a Meditation on Easter-day WHen I did first compose this Annuall world my thoughts were so presumptuous as to promise to my unlearned selfe a power and faculty to fit every dayes meditation to the resemblance which I first propounded in the entrance into this Tabernacle but as I have come farre short in the precedent expressions so I feare I shall come much more behinde in the subsequent meditations Yet I will adventure to show that the Sacrifice which was offered unto God upon the Altar of the Crosse on Goodfriday for the expiation of the sins of mankinde is truly exhibited to every worthy receiver in the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist or Lords Supper And therfore the Christian Church in all ages hath piously appointed this yearely feast of Easter to be by every one of her members solemnely observed instead of the Jewes Passeover whereby every beleeving soule may be assured that if he finde the blood of that most immaculate Lambe sprinkled upon the doore post of his heart the destroying Angell shall have no power to enter therein Which assurance that he may obtaine first before hee receive these sacred mysteries he ought to be fitted with the preparing graces of true sorrow and hearty contrition of spirit for sinnes past joyned with penitent resolutions and endeavours to lead a new life in time to come perfect love and charity with all men joyned with longing desires to participate the benefits of Christs passion and humility of spirit joyned with holy revâ—rence and godly devotion Secondly in receiving he ought to be indued with the comprehensive grace of a true lively and justifying faith And last of all he ought to have the reteining graces of hearty praise and thanksgiving for all Gods inestimable benefits especially for the Word and Sacraments joyned with joy and cheerefulnesse in the service of God and constant perseverance in all these heavenly graces to his lives end The man that is thus qualified for the reception of this heavenly repast may with aged Simeon take into his hands his Lord and Saviour yea and see him with the eye of his faith take with a pure hand eat with a clean mouth and keep in a sanctified heart this sacred bread this chosen Manna the word of life and food of Angels for by and with the sacred elements though not in or under them he doth partake of the flesh of God spiritually for his words are spirit and life yea truly in very deed for he is the living bread that came downe from heaven his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed As at sumptuous feasts where curious services are we see the proportion and shape of the Deer or Fowle set out in gold and colours on the outside or lid of those baked meats which are truly contained under it and to be eaten so if we may draw a resemblance of so high and divine a mysterie from an earthly and humane repast under the figures of bread and wine as it were the printed lid or cover thou O devout soule feedest on the meat of Angels the dainties of heaven and flesh of thy Saviour who is there described in thy sight and before thee crucified That which is represented in the signe to the eye of the body is presented in the thing signified to the eye of the soule and hand of thy faith what is shadowed in the Sacrament is truly also exhibited by it If thou beleevest that thou eatest thou eatest that thou beleevest Let no hereticall Harpies pluck from thee this heavenly dish or meat as Celaeno did Aeneas's Beware of two sorts of heretiques especially those that seeke to beguile thee in the Sacrament or rather of it viz. The Sacramentaries and Papists the one denying the signe the other the thing signified the one offereth thee a shadow without the body the other the body without the shadow or resemblance and consequently neither of them giveth thee the true Sacrament to whose nature essence both are requisite The Sacramentaries would rob thee of the Iewel the Papists of the Casket Lay thine hands on both hold both fast as thou seest the one so beleeve the verity substance of the other as thou takest the one receive the other as thou handlest the one apprehend the other as thou feedest with thy mouth on the one feed in thy heart on the other And as truly as the one nourisheth thy body to a temporall the other shall preserve thy soule to eternall life For it is the tree of life which growes in the midst of the Paradise of God his Church on earth The way to the mysticall tree in Paradise was guarded by an Angell waving a flaming sword the way to this in like manner is fenced there stands an Angell at the Table Gods minister brandishing the sword of the Spirit and forbidding under paine of death any to eat of this fruit that have their teeth set on edge with the Apples of Sodome and Grapes of Gomorrah Other fruits and meats are prepared for us but we must be prepared for this before we eat it the bread of the earth cannot feed when thou eatest it till it be changed into thy body because thou art more excellent then it but this bread which came downe from heaven is more excellent then thou art and therefore thou must be changed into it before it nourish thee All other meat is received as it is in it selfe and no otherwise but this is divers as it is received other meat affecteth and altereth the taste but here the taste altereth the meat for if it be worthily received it is the body and blood of Christ if unworthily it is but bare bread and wine If it meet with a spirituall taste and appeâ—ite and stomack purged and prepared it proveth the food of life
thou cursedst and it withered without naturall affections bemoane thee as the stones that clave the veile that rent and the earth that quaked at thy Passion without wil voluntarily offer thee service the Foale to beare thee the Dove to manifest thee the Fish to discharge thee the Sunne to hide thy ignominy among men and here the Cloud to veile thee from mortall eye and transport thee into heaven O Lord my Redeemer how excellent is thy Name in all the world Thou makest the Light thy Garment the Angells thy Messengers the Aire thy race the Clouds thy Chariot and flyest upon the wings of the wind into heaven Thou art ascended up on high thou hast led Captivity captive In thy Passion thou wast Deaths death and killedst it In thy buriall thou wast the Graves grave and destroyedst Destruction And now in thy Ascension thou conqueredst Conquest it selfe and ledst Captivity captive and receivedst Gifts for men for the whole Church and every beleever O Lord bestow these Gifts liberally upon me that I may grow in grace and the knowledge and love of thee This day thou liftedst up thy body from the earth lift up my heart from it This day thou transportedst thy body to heaven transport my desires thither This day thou setledst thy self in thy Throne at the right hand of thy Father fix my thoughts and settle mine affections on thee in heaven and on heaven for thee Amen VENVS OR A Meditation on Whitsunday IN the old Testament I find that two several times fire descended from heaven upon sacrifices prepared for offrings of a sweet smelling savour unto the Lord. The first was when Manoah the father of Sampson at the commandement of the Angel offered a Kid upon a stone Then did he whose name is marvellous do wondrously and ascended in the flame up into heaven for the strengthning of Manoahs faith and for the confirmation of the truth of his promise The other was when Eliah for confirmation of the true religion and extirpation of idolatry called for fire from Heaven which consumed the sacrifice and licked up the water in the Trench round about the Altar Then did the Lord manifest himself to be the only God that all superstitions and will-worship is the invention of mans braine And in the New Testament I reade that as on this day the Holy Ghost the third person in the blessed Trinity descended from heaven and sate upon the heads of 120 men and women assembled and prepared as a sacrifice acceptable to God with unity charity and devotâ—on in the likenesse of cloven fiery tongues then did God the Sonne worke wonderfully in performing his promise by sending his dejected Disciples a holy Comforter by whose comming besides the internall joy and incredible alacrity and exultation of minde they received also fortitude and audacity to goe forth into the world They received the gift of tongues enabling them to converse and deale with all sorts of people They received wisdome and learning with most powerfull illumination in highest mysteries whereby to preach to teach and convince their adversaries They received the gift of prophesie to foretell things to come together with the power of working signes and miracles whereby the whole world remained astonied and for a taste or earnest penny of that which should ensue concerning the infinite increase of that little congregation they saw 3000 of their adversaries converted to them in one day by a Sermon of S. Peter But all the parâ—iculars of this story is so divinely performed by M. Austin that in his work as in a glasse I perceive my gifts of learning and devotion are as farre inferiour to his as the frothy filthy and carnall love in Venus is inferiour to the holy Spirit of Gods love Yet because I have oft found in Scripture that the Lord is pleased for the illumination of mans dark understanding to speake of himselfe as of a man attributing to himselfe eyes nose mouth armes hands feet c. And affections also as anger zeale joy love c. whereas these qualities are not properly in God for he is voide of corporeall habit being of an infinite and incomprehensible essence Therefore I was so presumptuously bold as in my former expressions to demonstrate the meritorious actions of our blessed Saviour by those forenamed Planets so in this day to write of this blessed spirit of Gods love as it hath correspondency with mans but finding my ability to be insufficient for such a work I conclude with the prayer for the day in these words Incomprehensible Spirit the third person in the blessâ—d and glorious Trinity who after the Father had manifested himselfe to the world in the works of creation and the sonne in the works of Redemption finished in the flesh diddest manifest thy selfe on this day in a wonderfull manner by the sound of a â—ushing winde and the light of fiery tongues manifest thy self most powerfully and gloriously in the universall Church by enlarging her bounds and making up her breaches by hallowing her assemblies and furnishing her Pastors and knitting the hearts of all her members in true love the bond of perfection perfect the work of sanctification in thine elect manifest thy selfe also gloriously this day declare thy gifts in the tongues of thy Preachers and eares of the hearers and the hearts of all the congregation Direct the mouthes of thy Preachers that they may skilfully sow the seed and open the eares and mollifie the hearts of the hearers that they may receive it profitably bring forth the fruits of the Spirit abundantly which are love joy peace long suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance c. O eternall and infinite Holy Ghost the love of the Father and the Sonne who diddest descend upon our Saviour in the likenesse of a Dove without Gall purge out of my conscience all gall of malice and bitternesse and grant that with meeknesse I may receive the ingrafted word which is able to save my soule O holiest Spirit eternall breath of the Father and the Sonne and former of the word in the womb who camest with a sound come downe upon me in the sound of thy word preached though not in extraordinary gifts of Prophesie tongues and he ling yet in the ordinary graces of faith hope and charity the spirit of supplication and prayer of wisdome and spirituall understanding of power and ghostly comfort O heavenly Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Sonne who descendedst from Hâ—aven like a mighty rushing winde throw me downe to the ground inhumility and prostrate my heart soule before thee Bâ—at downe all strong holds of 〈…〉 nall maginati 〈…〉 and worldly thoughts resisting thy grace chase away all clouds of error out of my understanding cleare my wil from all fogs of noisome desires coole and refresh me in the heat of persecution fill the sailes of my affections and drive me speedily into the faire haven where I would be O divine fire burning continually
governes his chosen with the sweet influences of his grace but if opposed by malicious wicked hearts hee turnes into a consuming fire Hee is as a good Captaine over his souldiers to keepe them in good order as a shepherd over his flock to bring those that obey him into a safe harbour and pleasant pastures But proves a severe Judge against those that will not be governed by him And lastly though the Planet Mars be never so much opposed doth not give over his race but holds out to the end so Christ notwithstanding all opposition that ever could be made against him by men as Jews Priests and Herod or devils as on this day yet hee continued his course and vanquished and runne over all even sin death and hell For the Fast of Christ at this time is so well and learnedly written by many that should I adventure to write any thing thereof or any thing else but what I find writ in learned Authors I should too much blaze my owne ignorance Therefore I will briefly write of the Life and Actions of Christ as they are learnedly described for the confirmation of the Truth in these words And first touching the things done by him after his comming out of Aegypt which might bee about the sixth or seventh yeare of his age untill his Baptisme by Saint John which was the thirtieth and as some affirme upon the seventh of October in the middle of the last weeke spoken of by Daniel cap. 9. there is little recorded either in Prophane or Ecclesiasticall Writers for that as Saint Iustine Saint Chrysostome Saint Augustine and others doe write he bestowed that time in the common exercise and labors of mans life thereby to shew himselfe true Man and give demonstration how much he detested hated idlenesse But after his Baptisme viz. when he was past thirty yeares of age for hee was full thirty the twenty five of December because it was not lawfull for any to be admitted into the ministry before they were so old Num. 4. he began to preach in the moneth of January and February and his whole doctrine was directed to the manifestation of his Fathers will and amendment of mans life It tendeth all to this one ground and principle Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soule and thy neighbour as thy self It was plain easie perspicuous and evident though it treated of most high mysteres It had neither pompe nor pride of rhetorical words nor flattering of mans wickednesse as the doctrine of many Philosophers had neither consisted it in unprofitable externall ceremonies as the later observation of the Jewish Law did nor was fraught with carnality and spirit of this world as the Turkish Alcoran and other sectaries doctrine is But all was simplicity all was spirit all was truth all was honesty all was humility all was charity It tooke away or disanulled no one perfect or spirituall point of Moses Law but rather revived interpreted fulfilled and made perfect the same For whereas that commanded external observance this addeth also internall obedience whereas that said Love your friends this adjoyneth Love also your enemies wheras that commanded wee should not kill this further commandeth to speake no angry words whereas that prohibited actuall adultery this also forbiddeth to coyet in the mind whereas that sayd Take no interest or usury of a Jew that is thy country man this saith take it of no man whatsoever whereas that accounted every Jew onely to be thy neighbor this teacheth every person living to be thy brother whereas that taught thee to offer up a calfe a sheepe or an oxe for thy sins this instructeth thee to offer up a contrite heart by faith in the blood of him that dyed for all with a firme and resolute purpose of amendment of life And finally this doctrine tendeth wholly to the true sincere and perfect service of God thy Lord that made and redeemed thee to the exaltation of his onely Name Power Goodnesse and Glory to the depression of mans pride by the discovering his misery to the contempt of this world and vaine pompe thereof to the mortification and subduing of our fleshly appetite to the true and unfained charity of our neighbour to the stirring up of our spirit to celestial cogitations to peace of conscience tranquillity of minde purity of body consolation of our soul and in one word to reduce mankinde againe to a certaine estate of innocency simplicity and Angelicall sanctity upon earth with his eye fixed only in the eternall inheritance of Gods kingdome in heaven This was the doctrine delivered by Jesus which is the same that the Prophets foretold should be delivered by the Messias And for his life and conversation by the testimony of his greatest adversaries it was more admirable then his doctrine his life being a most lively table wherein the perfection of all his doctrine was expressed a man of such gravity as never in his life was noted to laugh of such humility as being the Son of God he scarce used in this world the dignity of a servant of such sweet and milde behaviour as all the injuries of his enemies never wrested from him one angry word Finally he was such an one as he was described by Esay many ages before he was borne in these words he shall not cry nor contend neither shall any man heare his voice in the streets a bruised reed he shall not breake nor the smoking flax hee will not quench c And as his life and conversation was foretold by Prophets so his miraculous works also were foretold by the Prophet Esay others w th did consist of internall and externall acts For first the calling and retaining of his Apostles and other followers who were of divers callings states conditions trades and occupations in the world And yet all upon the sudden left both father and mother wife children and other temporall respects and followed him who had nothing to give or promise them in this world A man that never spake them fair or uttered doctrine that was not repugnant to the sensuality of this life as may appeare by their owne writings and testimonies of him A man that was contemned by the better sort as then it might seeme that is by the wise and learned of that countrey and especially disliked by them that were in government as a dangerous and troublesome man to the state one that had neither friends to beare him out nor a house to put his head in And yet notwithstanding all this that worldly men and women and some such also as were great sinners loose livers before should leave all their worldly hope stay and condition to follow such a man with so great inconveniencies losses dangers and disfavours as they did and should continue with him in all his afflictions and be content to dye and lose their lives rather then forsake him or abondon his service This I say is such a miracle as never in the
dust and ashes dare speak unto him for my sins cry for vengeance and shall I be silent for pardon Gracious God either silence them or heare me If thou wilt not heare the voice of my words heare the voice of my tears if thou wilt not heare them heare the voice of thy sonnes blood which speaketh better things then the blood of Abel I confesse I have sorely displeased thee but it troubleth me that I have so incensed thee I have grieved thy Spirit but it grieveth me that I should be so gracelesse as to grieve that Spirit of grace which sealeth thy chosen to salvation I deserve that thou shouldest even abhorre me for my sinnes but I abhorre my selfe for them in dust and ashes I have offended thee in gluttony but I now fast for it in pride but I humble my selfe in laughter and sports but I weepe for it in sinfull joyes but I mourne for it I have wallowed in filthy pleasures but I wallow for it in dust and ashes I have broken all thy Comman dements but I have broken my heart in true contrition for it Thou didst not break a bruised reed wilt thou grinde to powder a broken heart What profit is in my blood O Lord when I goe downe into the pit Nay what profit is in thy blood O blessed Redeemer if they for whom it was shed goe downe into the pit of destruction shall the dust give thanks unto thee O Lord or the ashes and cinders of hell praise the God of heaven Heare O Lord and have mercy upon me thou that healest those that are broken in heart and givest medicine to cure their sicknesse raise up my prostrate and dejected soule Why diddest thou hunger O Lord but to satisfie for my gluttony why didst thou thirst but to satisfie for my drunkennesse why didst thou weepe but to satisfie for my sinfull joyes why didst thou endure unspeakable torments but to satisfie for my lewd pleasures why didst thou dye an ignominious death but to satisfie for my sinfull life why didst thou shed thy blood but to satisfie for my crimson sins Adam our first parent did eat the forbidden fruit and all our teeth are set on edge but thy fasting forty dayes hath fully satisfied for his eating But I renew my sins daily and thou renewest thy mercies The guilt of my sinne is great but the price of thy blood is greater I have offended an infinite Majestie but satisfaction hath beene made by an infinite Majestie My wickednesse cannot exceed thy goodnesse for my power of sinning is finite but thy faculty of pardoning is infinite Wherefore sith my sinnes be they never so many never so weighty fall within the measure of thy mercy and compasse of thy goodnesse and sith it is all one with thee to give what I ask and to incite me to aske to heale my wounds and to make me feele the smart of them Lord who hast given me the one deny me not the other rebuke the surges of temptations and quiet my soule Thou who in the dayes of thy flesh offeredst up prayers with strong cries here the strong loud cries of a penitent sinner Thou who tookest upon thee our infirmities take pity upon them thou who wert in thine agony stricken with horror and unutterable griefe allay the troubles of my affrighted conscience Thou who fastedst forty dayes accept of my humiliation these forty dayes and grant that my stomack may not onely fast from accustomed meats but all my sences from their usuall delights and most of all my heart from worldly comforts and contentments Let no sight delight me till I see my sins removed like a mist and thy countenance shine upon mee Let no sound or voice delight me till I heare thee by thy Spirit to speake peace to my conscience and say to my soule I am thy salvation Let no pleasant fields and gardens delight me till I have gathered red flowers out of that garden which was watered with thy blood Let no fruit delight me till I have fully tasted of the fruit of the tree of thy crosse Let no meat delight me till with the sowre hearbs of sorrow and anguish of heart for my sin I have eaten the Christian Passeover the flesh of thee that immaculate Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world Heare me blessed Redeemer and as thou wrotest in dust when thou tookest the woman in adultery so I beseech thee write my sins in dust bury them all in the ashes of oblivion So be it Amen SATVRNE OR a Meditation on Goodfriday HAving in the former meditations shewed you an immaculate Lambe and the first fruits of the meritorious blood thereof then how the said Lambe was prepared to be a fitting Sacrifice for the expiation of the sins of the whole world Now I should according to my promise in the entrance of this work show you how this Sacrifice was laid upon the Altar of the Crosse as on this day under the metaphor of the Planet Saturne But herein I perceive my owne inability and presumption that I should dare to adventure upon such holy things in such vile comparisons for the expulsion of Saturne out of his kingdome by his brother Titan and sonne Jupiter is no way equivalent to the malice of the Jewes against our blessed Saviour For Saturne broke covenant with his brother and kept three of his male children alive contrary to the condition which he held his kingdome by And therefore Titan had just cause to make warre against him and recover his inheritance due to the first borne And Jupiter likewise did expell his father out of his kingdome because his father threatned to kill him But Christ had done offence to none he had broken no bonds but rather made up the breach hee was so farre from destroying that he came on purpose to save and redeeme that which was lost And what were the troubles of Saturne King of Creet to the unsupportable sufferings of Christ the King of glory Nay what were all the troubles of all the men that are or ever were in the world to the troubles of our blessed Saviour And where is the patience of Saturne Iob or any other that was in Christ For as the light of the natural Sun is darknesse to the Splendor of the Sunne of Righteousnesse so all the excellency and worth that is in all mankind is not able fully to demonstrate the excellencie that is in Christ yet because Saturne was imprisoned by his Brother and driven out of his Kingdome by his own sonne I did intend to shew how our blessed Saviour as on this day was bound imprisoned by the cruell Jews his brethren according to the flesh of the Virgin Mary and driven out of the Kingdome of this world by those which should as obedient children to the cōmands of God their Father have kept their hands from killing the innocent But being conscious of my owne insufficiency for the performance of such a work it being excellently
nay of immortalitie if otherwise it turneth into deadly poyson for hee that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himselfe not discerning thâ— Lords body Now the only reason why I do compare the meritorious action of our blessed Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus on this day to Jupiter who as the Poets feine him was Lord of Heaven and Earth is for that as he overcame the malicious and revengefull Titan and all those monstrous and cruell Giants his sonnes called the Titanes and victoriously triumphed over theÌ„ so likewise Christ the Lord of glory and King of Kings as on this day being then the fifth of Aprill and first day of the Jewish weeke having overcome the dreadfull and spitefull Serpent the old Dragon in the Revelation according as it was prophesied of him Gen. 3. 15. and all those fiends that follow him sinne death and hell according to another prophesie in Hosea and having by his divine power raised himself from death to life as David long agoe foretold that God would not leave his soule in hell nor suffer his holy one to see corruption but that according to another prophesie of Hosea in the person of the children of Israel After two dayes he will revive in the third day raise up that we may live in his sight which is the same with the Sybils in these words He shall end the necessity of death by three dayes sleepe and then returning from death to life againe he shall be the first that shall shew the beginning of the resurrection to his chosen for that by conquering death he shall bring us life And last of all having according to his own promise which he oft times made to his Disciples That as Ionas was three dayes and three nights in the whales belly so should he be three dayes and three nights in the heart of the earth destroy this Temple and in three dayes I will raise it up are his owne words in another place meaning the temple of his body And that the Sonne of man shall be delivered into the hands of men and they shall kill him but the third day he shall rise again in another place fast bound the Dragon in the bottomelesse pit and taking away the sting of death which is sinne gloriously triumphed over the enemies of mans salvation and rising out of the Sepulchre of death confounded the souldiers that were his guard with amazement caused the earth to quake and the Angels of God to descend from heaven to attend upon his triumphs did forty dayes walke upon the earth in this triumphant manner and made twelve apparitions to his Disciples and others The first was to Mary Magdalen alone Iohn 10. 14. The second to all the women together as they returned homewards Matth. 20. 9. The third was to Simon Peter alone about noone 1 Cor. 15. 5. Luke 24. 34. The fourth was in the afternoon to the two Disciples as they went to the Castle of Emaus which was some eight miles from Jerusalem the ones name was Cleophas and brother of Joseph who brought up our Saviour and the other as may be gathered by the circumstance of the story was Luke because he hath set it downe so exactly Luke 24. The fifth was after he returned invisibly from Emaus to Jerusalem where when the doores were all shut and his Disciples were assembled together for feare of the Jewes he came and stood in the midst of them Iohn 20 19. And all these apparitions were in one day which was called the first day of the weeke The sixth apparition was eight dayes after his resurrection being the twelth of Aprill to all his Disciples Thomas being then present and the doores shut That he might make evident that his omnipotency was not tyed to any secondary causes or hindred by the property of any naturall bodies which according to S. Austine was so much the more wonderfull because hee appeared unto them substantially and effectually not as a phantasma or shadow which vanisheth away and is without any corporâ—all substance but did eat and drink and suffered his body to be handled by his Disciples The seventh apparition was to Peter Thomas Nathaneel the sons of Zebedeus and other two Disciples as they were fishing upon the shore of Tiberias which stood 36 miles from Ierusalem Northward betweene Bethsaida and Capernaum Iohn 21. The eighth was to the eleven Apostles on Mount Tabor in Galilee The ninth was to more then five hundred brethren at one time as S. Paul witnesseth The tenth was to James the son of Alpheus for he had beene seene before by Iames the son of Zebedeus but the certaine time of these foure last apparitions is not set downe But on the fourteenth day of May which was forty dayes after his resurrection he appeared to all his Apostles Disciples and friends together on Mount Olivet And in their sight with great triumph and joy he ascended into Heaven And last of all after his ascension he appeared to S. Paul as himselfe relates Thus as Luke affirmeth he shewed himselfe alive by many arguments for the space of forty dayes together and reasoned with them of the kingdome of his father Why then should any man mistrust the testimony of these men which saw him ate with him dranke with him touched him and heard him speak and whose entire estate and welfare depended wholly of the certainety thereof For what comfort had it beene or consolation to those men to have devised of themselves those former apparitions what encouragement might they have taken in these dolefull times of desolation and affliction to have had among them the dead body of him on whose only life their universall hope and confidence depended The Scribes and Pharisees being astonished at the sudden news of his rising againe confirmed unto them by their owne souldiers that saw it found no other way to resist the fame thereof but only by saying as their posterity do at this day that his Disciples came by night and stole away his body while the souldiers slept But what likelyhood or possibility can there be in this for first it is evident to all the world that his Apostles themselves who were the heads of all the rest were so dismaied discomforted and dejected at that time as they durst not once goe out of the doore for which cause only those silly women who for their sex esteemed themselves more free from violence presumed alone to visit his Sepulchre which no one man durst doe for feare of the souldiers untill by those women they were informed that the foresaid band of souldiers were terrified and put to flight by Christs resurrection And then how was it likely that men so much amazed and overcome with feare should adventure to steale away a dead body from a guard of souldiers that kept it or if their hearts had served to adventure so great a danger what hope or probability had there beene of successe especially considering the said body lay in