eye-bals well-neere to pinnes-heads with weeping as a Barber wasteth his Ball in the water a further depth of dolour would I sound mine eyes more would I wast so I might waste and wash away thy wickednesse So long haue I wasted so long haue I washed and embained thy filth in the cleare streames of my braine that now I haue not a cleane Teare left more to wash or embaline any sinner that comes to me The fount of my teares troubled and mudded with the Toade-like stirring and long-breathed vexation of thy venimous enormities is no longer a pure siluer Spring but a miry puddle for Swine to wallow in Black and cindry like Smiths-water are those excrements that source downe my cheekes and farre more sluttish then the vgly oous of the channell T is thou alone vlcerous Ierusalem that hast so fouled and soyled them In seeking to gather fruite of thee I gather nothing but stayning Berries which embrued my hands and almost poysoned my hart Neuer wold I mention this or mone me if thou hadst not embrued or brawned thine owne hands not in Berries but in blood and more then almost poysoned thine owne hart What talke I of poyson when it is become as familier to thee as meate drinke Thou hast vsed it so long for meate and drinke that true nourishing meate and drinke thou now takest for poyson Consuetudo est altera natura Custome hath so engrafted it in thy nature that now not onely poyson not hurts thee but fostereth and cherisheth thee What-soeuer thou art is poyson and none thou breathest on but thou poysonest With Athenagoras of Argus thou neuer feelest any paine when thou art stung with a Scorpion Thou hast no sting or remorse of conscience Thy soule is cast in a dead-sleep and may not be awaked though Heauen Earth should tumble together For discharge of my duty and augmentation of thine euerlasting malediction since Teares threats promises nor any thing will peirce thee heere I make a solemne protestation what my zeale and feruent inclination hath beene euer since thy first propagation to win weane thee from sathan and notwithstanding thou stonedst my Prophets and slewest them I sent vnto thee I stil assayed to reuoke thee bring thee back againe to thy first image not once or twise or thrise but I cannot tell how often I would haue gathered thee euen as a Henne gathereth her Chickins vnder her wings butthou wouldest not Blame me not though I giue thee ouer that hast giuen mee ouer long patience hath dulled my humour of pitty No sword but will loose his edge in long striking against stones My leane withered hands consisting of nought but bones are all to shiuerd and splinterd in their wide casos of skinne with often beating on the Anuile of my bared breast So penetrating and eleuatedly haue I praid for you that mine eyes would tayne haue broke from their anchors to haue flowne vp to Heauen and mine armes stretcht more then the length of my body to reach at the Starres My heart ranne full-butt against my breast to haue broken it open and my soule flutterd and beate with her ayry-winges on euery side for passage My knees crackt and the ground fledde back Then O Ierusalem would I haue rent my body in the midst like a graue so I might haue buried thy sinnes in my bowels And had I been in heauen as I was on Earth the Sunne should haue exhalted from thee all thy trespasses as meteors which the clowdes his Cofferers receiuing might foorth-with haue conduited downe into the Sea and drowned for euer Fooles be they that imagine it is the Windes that so tosse and turmoile them in the deepe they are no winds but insurrectiue sins which so possesse the waues with the spyrite of raging I drowned all the sinnes of the first World in water all the sinnes of the first World now welter souse and beate vnquietly in the Sea whither the World of waters was with-drawne when the Deluge was ended And as a guilty conscience can no where take rest so no more can they in the Sea but embolning the billowes vppe to the ayre with roring and howling darte them-selues on euery Rocke desiring it to ouer-whelme them and because they know they can neuer be recouered with the same enuy which is in the diuels they seeke to drowne and ramuerse euery ship that they meete If happily there be a calme it is when they are weary of excruciating them-selues I that was borne to suppresse treade downe sinne vnder foote in the night time when that sinne-inhabited element is wont to be most lunaticke walke on the crests of the surges as on the dry land Another cause why the Sea so swelleth barketh of late more then ordinary is for when I sent the diuels into the Heard of Swine they carried them head-long into the Sea where they drowned and perrisht them and then loth to come to land to be controlled and dispossessed againe by mee they entred and inhabited the Sea-monsters such as the Whale the Grampoys the Wasser-man whome they haue suborned and inspyred to lye in waite for Ships-wrack Sinne takes no rest but on earth and on earth no rest in the night but the day The night is blacke like the diuell then hee may boldly walke abroade lyke the Owle and his eyes nere be dazeled Solus câ—…m solo hee may conferre with his subiects tempt terrifie insinuate what he will Hee knowes that God hath therefore hydde all other obiects from mans sight in the night that then he should haue no occasion to gaze elswhere but full leysure to looke into himselfe In which regard least he shold looke into him selfe and so repent hee will not let him see with his owne eyes but lendeth him other eyes of despaire or security to see withall If of security then either hee perswades him there is no God and that Religion is but subtile Lawgyuers policy to keepe silly fooles in awe with scare-crowes or that if there be a God he is a wise God and like a wise Counsailer troubles not himselfe with euery vaine twittle twattle of this man or that man but considers wherefore we are made and beares with vs thereafter Yea which is horrible hee sootheth him vp that if God would not haue had him sinne hee would neuerhaue giuen him the partes or the meanes to sinne with If he be a whore-maister hee remembreth him how Abraham went in to his mayde Hagar How Lot committed incest with his Daughters How Dauid lay with Berseba and slew Vrias And how I my selfe woulde not let the woman that had committed adultery bee stoned to death but bidde her goe home to her house in peace sinne no more If he be a drunkerd Noah was drunke the fore-named Lot was drunke and Dauid mencioned before likewise made Vrias drunke Yet all these were men that God delighted in If hee bee a periurd person why Peter for-swore himselfe
wee put our selues to in purchasing earthly wealth we may purchase Heauen Welth many times flyes from them that with greatest soilicitude greedines seek after it For Heauen it is no more but seeke and it is yours knocke and it shall be opened With lesse sure I assure you is the kingdome of Heauen obtained then a sute for a Pension or office to an earthly King which though a man hath 20. yeares followed and hath better then three parts and a halfe of a promise to haue confirmed yet if hee haue but a quarter of an enemy in the court it is casheird and non-suted God will not be corrupted he is not partiall as man is he hath no Parasites about him hee seeth with his owne eyes and not with the eyes of those that spake for bribes Hee is not angry or commands vs to bee driuen backe when we are importunate but hee commands vs to bee importunate and is angry if we be not importunate In the Parable of the godlesse Iudge and the importunate Widdow hee teacheth that importunity may get any thing of him So in the similitude of the man that came to his friend at midnight to desire him to lend him three loaues and his friend aunswered him His doore was shut his children and seruants in bedde and hee could not rise himselfe to giue them him at length hee still continuing in knocking that for him neither he not his might rest to be rid of his importunity not for he was his friend he rose vp and gaue him as many as hee needed How much more shall our GOD giue vs what wee aske that asketh no other treuage at our handes for giuing but asking and thanksgiuing We must hunger and thirst after righteousnes and we shall be satis-fied Hunger and thirst makes the Lyon to rore the Wolues to howle Oxen and Kine to bellough and bray and Sheepe of all Beastes the most selie and timorous to bleate and complaine Can man then that in spyrite and audacitie exceedeth all the beasts of the field hungering thirsting after righteousnesse hold his peace Would God euer haue encouraged him with a blessing to hunger and thirst but that the extremity of hunger and thirst might driue him to the extreamity of importunity and prayer I cryed vnto the Lord saith Dauid and he heard me Hee did not coldly bashfully or formally onely cry to the Lord as not caring whether hee were heard or no but hee cryed vnto him with his whole hart euen to the Lord he cryed and he heard him Ezekias cryed vnto the Lord and he heard him The blood of the Saints vnder the Altar as all blood is sayd to cry vnto the Lord for vengeance Thy brother Abels blood hath cried vnto me sayd God to Caine. The prayer of the fatherless and Widdow which God heareth aboue al things is called a cry Vsurers you are none of these cryers vnto God but those that hourely vnto God are most cryde out against God hath cryde out vnto you by his Preachers GOD hath cride out vnto you by the poore Prysoners on their death-beds haue cride out of you and when they haue had but one houre to intercessionate for their soules and sue out the pardon of their numberlesse sins the whole part of that howre sauing one minute when in two words they cryde for mercy haue they spent in crying for vengeance against you After they were dead their Coffins haue beene brought to your doores in the open face of Cheapside and ignominious Ballads made of you which euery Boy would chaunt vnder your nose yet will not you repent nor with all this crying be awaked out of your dreame of the Diuell and Diues Therefore looke that when on your death-beddes you shall lye and crye out of the Stone the Strangullion the Gout you shall not be heard your paine shall be so wrastling tearing and intollerable that you shall haue no leisure to repent or pray no nor so much as lift vppe your hands or think one good thought Euen as others haue curst you so shall you be ready to curse God desire to be swallowed quick to excorse the agony you are in As the deuill in the second of Iob being asked from whence he came answered From compassing the earth so you being askd at the day of iudgement from whence you come shall answer From compassing the Earth For Heauen you haue not compast or purchast therfore shall Hell-fire be your portion Euery man shall receiue of God according to that in his body he hath wrought If in your bodies you haue done no good works of God you shall receiue no good words The words of God are deedes he spake but the word and Heauen Earth were made He shall speake but the word and to hell shal you be had Good deedes deriued from faith are Rampiers or Bulwarkes raised vp against the deuill he that hath no such Bulwarke of good deedes to resist the deuills battery cannot chuse but haue his soules-citty soone raced Good deeds are a tribute which we pay vnto God for defending vs from al our ghostly enemies planting his peace in our consciences In stead of the ceremoniall Lawe burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices which are ceased God hath giuen vs a new Law To loue one another that is to shew the fruites of loue which are good deedes to one another The Widdowes Oyle was increased in her Cruse and her Meale in in her tubbe only for doing good deeds to the prophet of the Lord. Few be there now-a-dayes that will doe good deedes but for good deedes that is for rewardes If seates of iustice were to be sould for money wee haue them amongst vs that would buy them vp by the whole sale and make them away againe by retaile Hee that buyes must sell shrewd Alcumists there are risen vp that will pick a merchandise out of euery thing and not spare to set vp their shops of buying and selling euen in the Temple I wold to God they had not sould and pluckt downe Church Temple to build them houses of stone God shall cutte them off that enritch themselues with the fatte of the Altar Oues pastorem non iudicent saith an antient writer quia non est Discapulus supra Magistrū multo minus deglubent Let not the Sheepe iudge their shepheard because the scholler is not aboue his maister much lesse are they to pluck from their maister the Shepheard to shaue or to pelt him to the bare bones to whom for feeding them they should offer vp their fleeces Diis parentibus et Magistris sayth Aristotle non potest reddi equiualens To the Gods our Fathers and our Schoolemaisters can neuer bee giuen as they deserue Hee was an Ethnick that spoke thus wee Christians onely because he hath spoke it will do any thing against it From God our Parents and our Schoole-maisters which are our Preachers say we can neuer bee pluckt sufficient To make our selues
thousand Plagues Him as a timerous milke-soppe we deride that takes any antidote against it Vpon the poynt of Gods sword wee will runne as he is in stryking rush into houses that are infected as it were to out-face him My sonne sayth the Apostle dispise not the chastisement of the Lord. The Lords chastising we thinke to escape by despysing it Quod in communi possidetur ab omnibus negligitur That which is disperst of all is despised Est tentatio adducens peccatum et tentatio probans fidem There is a temptation leading to sinne and a temptation trying our fayth The temptation of this our visitation hath both ledde vs to sinne and tryed our fayth It hath ledde vs to sinne in that it hath hardned our harts we haue not humbled our selues vnder it as wee should It hath tryed our fayth to be a presumptuous and rash fayth and that it is built on no firme foundation Blessed is the man saith Iob whom God correcteth Cursed are we for God correcteth vs and we regard it not As the holy Ghost willeth vs not to despise the chastising of God so he would haue vs not to faint when we are rebuked of him and therefore hee giueth a reason For whom the Lord loueth he chastiseth and hee scourgeth euery sonne he receiueth As there be drunken despysers of Gods present chastisement so are there them that faint too much vnder it that thinke it lyes not in the Lordes power to restore them that no prayers or repentance may repriue them that imagine since GOD in this world hath forsooke them he wil for euer forsake them Thus they argument against themselues He that denieth vs a small request of the prolongment of a few earthly dayes he will surely stoppe his eares when in a greater sute for the life eternall we shall importune him O no foolish men you erre though long life on earth be a blessing yet it followes not by contradiction that GOD curseth all those whose daies hee shortens Many except their dayes were shortned would neuer be saued Many in their prime and best yeares are raught hence because the world is vnworthy of them and they are more worthy of heauen then the world The good King Iosias was taken away in his youth Our Sauiour was taken vp in his best youthly age Others fortheir sins the Lord by vntimely death punishethin this world that they may bee absolued in the world to come A large account of them shall he demaund to whom he lendeth long life Whome God chastiseth or cutteth off he loueth halfe his account he cutts off Euery son he scourgeth that he receiueth Hath GOD chastised or scourged such a man by the sicknes he is not a greater sinner then thou whō he hath not chastised but he loueth him better then thee for in his chastising he hath shewed more care ouer him then he hath ouer thee Few men defamed with any notorious vice can I heare of that haue dyed of this sicknesse God chastiseth his Sonnes and not bastards No Sonnes of God are we but bastards vntill we be chastned The Fathers of our earthly bodies for a few daies chastise vs at their pleasure but God chastiseth vs for our profite that we may be partakers of his holines The Fathers of our earthly bodies though they beate vs and chastise vs yet cannot for all the paine they put vs to enfeofe vs in glory perpetuall for how shoulde they doe that for vs which they cannot doe for them-selues Onely because they are to benefite vs with a litle transitory chaffe they tyrannise and raigne ouer vs and therefore more austere are they to keepe vs in obedience for we should not after their death lauishly mispende the labours of their parsimony The guerdon they giue vs for all their inflicted sorrow and smart is that which they must leaue in spite of their harts and cannot themselues keepe any longer They giue vs place that in selfe-same sort wee may giue place to others But God our Redeemer Chastiser and Father corrects vs that wee may receiue no corruptiue inheritance such as in this life we receiue by the wayning of our earthly Fathers but a neuer fayling inheritaunce where wee shall haue our Father himselfe for our inheritance O what a blessed thing is it to bee chastised of the Lord Is it not better O London that God correct thee and loue thee then forbeare thee and forsake thee He is a iust God and must punish either in this life or in the life to come Though thou considerest onely the things before thee yet he being a louing fore-seeing father for thee and knowing the intollerablenesse of the neuer-quenched Fornace which for sinne he hath prepared will not consent to thine owne childish wishes of winking at thee heere on earth where though he did spare thee thou shouldst haue no perfect tranquillity but with a short light punishment acquitteth thee from the punishment eternall eternally incomprehensible tortorors When Preachers threaten vs for sinne with this adiunct eternall as paynes eternall eternall damnation eternall horror and vexation we heare them as words of course but neuer diue right downe into the bottomlesse sence A confused modell and misty figure of Hell haue wee conglomorate in our braynes drowsily dreaming that it is a place vnder earth vncessantly vomiting flames like Aetna or Mongibell and fraughtfull of fire Brimstone but we neuer follow the meditation of it so farre were it nothing els as to thinke what a thing it is to lyue in it perpetually It is a thousand thousand times worser then to be staked on the toppe of Aetna or Mongibell A hundred thousand thousand times more then thought can attract or supposition apprehend But eternally to liue in it that makes it the hell though the torment were but trifling Signified this word eternall but some sixe thousand yeeres which is about the distance from Adam in our comprehension it were a thing beyond mind inso much as wee deeme it an impatient spectacle to see a Traytour but halfe an houre groning vnder the Hangmans hands What then is it to liue in threescore times more grinding discruciamēt of dying a yere a hundred yeere a thousand yeere sixe thousand yeere sixty thousand yeere more thousands then can bee numbred in a thousand yeares so much importeth this word eternall or for euer Though all the men that euer God made were hundred handed like Briareus and should all at once take pennes in their hundred handes and doe nothing in a whole age together but sette downe in figures characters as many myllions or thousands as they could so many millions or thousands could they neuer set down as this worde of three sillables Eternall includeth an Ocoan of yncke would it draw dry to describe it Hell is a circle which hath no breakings of or discontinuing Hence blasphemous Witches and Coniurers when they raise vp the deuill draw a ringed circle all-about him that hee
Mountaines by the Sunne is resolued to water the Sonne of GOD hath sought to resolue thy snow-colde hart into water but he could not for thou wouldst not Ouer thy principall gates and the doores of thy Temple let therefore this for an Emprese be ingrauen A kind compassionate man who grieuing to see a serpentine Salamander fry in the fire so pitteously as it seemd cast water on the raging flames to quench them and was by him stung to death for his labour The most or word thereto ATNOLVISTI but thou wouldest not As who should say thank thy selfe though thou still burnest I would haue ridde thee out of the fire but thou wouldst not By stinging mee mortally thou disturbest me On thee Salamander-like Ierusalem haue I cast the coole water of my teares to keepe Hell fire if it might be from seeding on thee and inwrapping thee but thou delighting like that chilly Worme to liue in the midst of the fornace or as the foolish Candle-flie to blow the fire with the beating of thy winges neere vnto it that must burne thee hast spit thy poyson at me when I sought to preserue thee More agreeing is it to thy nature to fry in the flames of thy fleshly desires which is but a short blazd straw-fire to tinde or inkindle Hell-fire then to liue temperately qualefied midst Insulae fortunatae the fortunate Ilands of Gods fauour For this shalt thou be consumed with fire Thy house shall be left desolate vnto thee Hetherto with Ieschaciabus thou hast had nought but a plaister of drye-figges layd to thy byle thou hast beene chastised but with wanton whips but loe shortly the time comes thou must be scourged with Scorpions a hooke shall be cast into thy iawes and a chaine come through thy nostrils I now but foretell a storme in a calme but when the Leuiathan shall approach that with his neesings chaseth Cloudes and you shall see lightening and thunder in the mouthes of all the foure Windes When Heauen in stead of starres shall bee made an Artillery-house of Haile-stones and no Plannet reuolue any thing but prostitution and vastity then shall you know what it is by saying you would not to make your house vnto you be left desolate With the foolish builder you haue founded your Pallaces on the sands of your own shallow conceits had you rested them on the true Rock they had been ruine-proof but now the raine will rough-enter through the crannies of their wauering the Windes will blow and batter ope wide passages for the pashing shoures With roring and buffetting lullabies instead of singing and dandling by-os they will rock them cleane ouer and ouer The onely commodity they shall tithe to their owners will be by their ouer-turning to afford them Toombes vnaskt Great shall be the fall of thy foolish building O Ierusalem like a Tower ouer-topt it shall fall flatte and be laid low and desolate In the Hauen of Ioppa shall ariue as many shippes as would make a Marine-cittie in bignesse no lesse then thy selfe The Helle-spont by Xerxes was neuer so surchargd as it shall bee All Galile from the land of Nepthali vpwards shall bee but a quarter for their Pioners and a couch for their baggage From Ierusalem to the plaine of Gibeon which is fifty miles distance the infinite enemy will depopulate and pitch his Pauillions Man woman child he shall vnmortalize and mangle Oxen Sheepe Cammels idely engore and leaue to putrifie in the open Fieldes onely to raise vp seed to Snakes Adders and Serpents The Mount Tabor whose height is thirty furlongs and on whose toppe is a playne twenty-three furlongs broade shall haue all the starre-gazing Townes on it scituate iustled head-long downe from the heigth of his fore-head and breaking their backes with their stumbling rebutment tumble in the ayre like Lucifer falling out of heauen into Hell Yea their Firmament-propping foundation shall be adequated with the Valley of Iehosaphat whose sublimity whiles it is in beheading the Skye shall resigne all his Clowdes to the Earth and light-wing'd dust dignifie it selfe by the name of a meteor From that blind-dispersed night of dust shall many lesser Mountaines receiue their lofty mounting and part of it being wind-wafted into the Sea insert floating Ilands midst the Ocean None shall there bee left to fight the battailes of the Lord but those that fight the battailes of their owne ambition By none shall the Sanctuary be defended but those that wold haue none destitute it or defloure it but themselues The feast of Tabernacles the feast of sweet Bread and the feast of Weekes shall quite bee discalendred Your Sabaothes and New-moones shall want a Remembrancer Your Peace-offerings and continuall Sacrifice a thousand two hundred and ninety dayes as Daniel prophecied shall be put to silence The abhomination of desolation shall aduaunce it selfe in your Sanctum sanctorum Vpon your Altars in stead of oblations your Priests shall be slaughtered Not so much as the High-prieste the vnder-god of your Citty but shal be hanged vp es a signe at the doore of your Temple The particularity of your generall fore-spoken woes would worke in me a Tympany of Teares if I should portrayture it I haue pronounst it and your House vnrepriueable vnto you shall bee left desolate The resplendent eye-out brauing buildings of your Temple like a Drum shall be vngirt vnbraced the soule of it which is the fore-named Sanctum Sanctorum cleane shall bee strypt and vnclothed God shall haue nere a Tabernacle or retyring place in your City which he shall not be vndermined and desolated out of The Sunne and Moone perplexed with the spectacle shall flie farther vpward into heauen and bee afraid least when the besiegers haue ended below they next sacke them out of their sieges and circuits since they haue had God their common-Creator so long in chase Ierusalem euer after thy bloudy hecatombe or buriall the Sun rising and setting shall enrobe himselfe in scarlet and the mayden-Moone in the ascension of her perfection shall haue her crimson cheeks as they wold burst round balled out with bloud Those ruddy inuesturings and scarlet habilements from the clowde-climing slaughter-stack of thy dead carkases shall they exhalingly quintessence to the end thou maist not onely bee culpable of gorging the Earth but of goring the Heauens with bloud and in witnes against thee weare them they shall to the worlds end as the liueries of thy wayning Not Abrahams sonnes are you but the sonnes of bloud for in nothing you imitate Abraham but that he hauing no more saue one onely sonne would haue sacrific'd him so GOD hauing no more but one onely Sonne you lyein waite to crucifie and sacrifice him For thine owne destruction disgraded daughter of Syon thou lyest in waite in laying waite for mee that which I hunger and thirst after is thy saluation in my destruction I am enamoured of my Crosse because it is all ages blessing not a nayle in it but is a necessary
and fiue besides many thousands that in the streetes and Temple lay vnburied and were cast downe into the Brooke Cedron The whole Bil when the siege was concluded came to eleuen hundred thousand all which in foureteene monthes misfortuned Sixeteene thousand Titus led prisoners to Rome those omitted which vnder Eleazers conduct perished The Sanctum sanctorum was set on fire and the Priestes therein smothered All the Antique buildings were burnt and beaten downe Of Dauid Salomon or the old Kings of Israell was there no Trophy remaining no stone but discituate Ierusalem was left not as Ierusalem but a naked plot of ground And as it was said of Priams Towne Iam seges est vbi Troia fuit now is that a Corne-field that was erst called Troy So that is now a Mount of stones that in yeares past was intituled Ierusalem O Ierusalem Ierusalem what shall I say to thee more but Christ fore-told thy House should be left desolate vnto thee and loe as he fore-told it is falne out Of all thy gates that were plated ouer with siluer is there not so much as one nayle remaining Thy streets were paued with Marble and thy houses ietted out with Iaphy and Cedar that pauement those houses thy habitation like dust engrauen Letters is quite abrased and plowed vp Thine enemies on thy Sanctury tooke compassion beholding the glory of it thou took'st none Titus an Infidell vnderstanding the multitude of thy prophanations and contumacies was affraid hauing entred thee to stay in thee saying Let vs hence least their sinnes destroy vs. Nothing thou feared'st in Old-wiues fables thou beleeued'st with Th'almudisticall dreames that thy Temple after her destruction should be built vp in a day thy selfe thou deludest And whereas thou hadst a Prophecy that thy Sanctuary should not be prostituted till out of thy quarters sprung a Monarch of the whole Earth thou wert blinded and wantedst the sence in Vespasian to picke out his expletement For hee comming into Iudea but as a subiected Generall to the Romane Empire by his owne Souldiers against his will was there consecrated Emperour and so out of thy dominions or quarters departed he leauing his sonne Titus behind him to sacke thee See with how many deceits thou art circumuented for calling Christ a circumuenter and deceiuer For stoning him and his Prophets and vsing such great in-iustice to S. Iames his Cosen according to the flesh Iosephus Eusehus agree all those plagues were laid vpon thee But to the imprecation ascribe I it rather where-with when Pilate washed his hands thou cursedst thy selfe saying His bloud be vpon vs and our children Inhumane policy another cause I coniecture Thoulers Eleazer a priuate man take the sword of thy freedome into his hands vnauthorized Thou suffredst him vnpunished to resist the Romane Prouinciall Plorus Ill didst thou therein for in gouernment though it be to resist publique violence it is not safe to suffer a priuate man to vnder-take Armes as generall The reasons hereafter I will open in some other discourse treating wholy of those matters The chiefe reason of thy confusion was the ripenesse of thy sinnes which were seeded for want of Gods putting his sicle into them Ierusalem If I were to describe Hell some part of thy desolation description would I borrow to make it more horror-some Eleuen hundred thousand for these few words but thou wouldst not most wretchedly lost their liues If but one line thy House shall be left desolate vnto thee included all this what doth the whole Scripture include Not a peece of a line in it that talkes of the Lake of Fire and Brimstone but by a hundred thousand parts more importeth It is a quiuer of short Arrowes which neuer shew their length till they be full shot out a ball of Wilde-fire round wrapt vp together which burneth not but cast forth a close winded clue conducting those that deale vnaduisedly with it into the Minotaurs Laborinth of paine euerlasting I would wish no man to be too milde in expounding it It hath more edges to smite with then it shewes It is not sely in operation though it be simple in apparance Ierusalem not all thy seuenty Esdrean Cabalizers who traditionately from Moyses receiued the Laws interpretation could euer rightly teach thee to diuine of the crucified Messias The Scripture thou madest a too-to compound Cabalisticall substance of by canonizing such a multifarious Genealogie of Comments HEtherto stretcheth the prosecution of thy desolation Now to London must I turne mee London that turneth from none of thy left-hand impieties As great a desolation as Ierusalem hath London deserued Whatsoeuer of Ierusalem I haue written was but to lend her a Looking-glasse Now I enter into my true Teares my Teares for London wherein I craue pardon though I deale more searchingly then common Soule-Surgions accustome for in this Booke wholy haue I bequeathed my penne and my Spirit to the prosternating and enforrowing the frontiers of sinne So let it be acceptable to God and his Church what I write as no man in this Treatise I will particulerly touch none I will semouedly allude to but onely attaint vice in generall Pride shall be my principall aime which in London hath plat-formed another Sky-vndersetting Tower of Babell Ionathan shot fiue Arrowes beyond the marke I feare I shall shoote fifteene Arrowes behind the mark in describing this high-towring sinne O Pride of all Heauen-relapsing premunires the most fearefull thou that ere this hast disparradiz'd our first Parent Adani and vnrightuouz'd the very Angels how shall I arme mine elocution to breake through the rankes of thy bily stumbling blocks After the destruction of Antwerpe thou being thrust out of house and home and not knowing whither to betake thee at hap hazard embarkedst for England Where hearing rich London was the ful-streamed wel-head vnto it thou hastedst and there hast dwelt many yeares begetting sons and daughters Thy sonnes names are these Ambition Vaine-glory Atheisine Discontent Contention Thy daughters Disdaine Gorgeous-attire and Delicacy O had Antwerpe still flourished that thou hadst nere come hither to mis-fashion vs or that there were any Citty would take thy children to halfes with vs. Thy first sonne Ambition is waxt a great Courtier and maketh him wings of his long Furies haire to flie vp to Heauen with hee hath a throne raysed vp vnder his heeles in euery start-vp he treads on His backe bandieth colours with the Sunne The ground he thinketh extremely honoured and beholding to him if he blesse it but with one humble looke Nothing he talks on but kentals of Pearle the conquering of India and fishing for Kingdomes Fame he makes his God and mens mouthes the limite of his conscience So many greater as there are then himselfe so many griefes he hath The deuill may command all his heart and soule if hee will rid him but of one riuall Hee that but crosseth him in the course of his ascension either killeth him out-right if he be aboue his
occasioneth a number of young hypocrites who else had neuer knowne any such sinne as dissimulation and had beene more knowne to the Common-wealth It is only ridiculous dull Preachers who leape out of a Library of Catechismes into the loftiest pulpits that haue reuiued this scornefull Sect of Atheists What Kings embassage would be made account of if it should be deliuered by a meacock and an ignorant Or if percase he send variety of Embassadors and not two of them agree in one tale but be deuided amongst themselues who will harken to them Such is the deuision of Gods Embassadors here amongst vs so many cow-baby-bawlers and heauy-gated luâ—…berers into the Ministry are stumbled vnder this Colledge or that Halls commendation that a great number had rather heare a iarring blacke-sant then one of their balde Sermons They boldly will vsurpe Moses chaire without anie studie or preparation They would haue their mouthes reuerenced as the mouthes of the Sybils who spoke nothing but was registred Yet nothing comes from their mouthes but grosse full-stomackt tautologie They sweat they blunder they bounce and plunge in the Pulpit but all is voyce but no substance they deafe mens eares but not edifie Scripture peradventure they come off thicke and three-folde with but it is so vgly daubed plaistred and patcht on so peeuishly speckt and applied as if a Botcher with a number of Satten Veluet shreds should clout and mend leather doublets and Clothbreeches Gette you some witte in your great heades my hottespurd Deuines discredit not the Gospel if you haue none damme vp the Ouen of your vtterance make not such a bigge sound with your empty vessells At least loue men of witte and not hate them so as you doe for they haue what you want By louing them and accompanying with them you shall both doe them good and your selues good They of you shall learne sobriety and good life you of them shall learne to vtter your learning and speak moouingly If you count it prophane to arte-enamel your speech to empeirce and make a conscience to sweeten your tunes to catch soules Religion through you shall reap infamy Men are men and with those thinges must be mooued that men wont to be mooued They must haue a little Sugar mixt with their soure Pills of reproofe the hookes must be pleasantly baited that they bite at Those that hang forth their hookes and no bayte may well enough entangle them in the weedes enwrap themselues in contentions but neuer winne one soule Turne ouer the auncient Fathers and mark how sweet and honisome they are in the mouth and how musicall and melodious in the eare No Orator was euer more pleasingly perswâ—…siue then humble Saint Augustine These Athists with whom you are to encounter are speciall men of witte The Romish Seminaries haue not allured vnto them so mâ—…ny good wittes as Athisâ—… It is the superaboundance of witte that makes Atheists will you then hope to beat them downe with fusâ—…y brown-bread dorbellisme No no either you must straine your wits an Ela aboue theirs and so entice them to your preachings and ouer-turne them or else with disordered hayleshotte of Scriptures shall you neuer scarre them Skirmishing with Atheists you must behaue your selues as you were conuerting the Gentiles All antique histories you must haue at your fingers-end No Phylosophers confession or opinion of God that you are to be ignorant in Ethnicks with their owne Ethnick weapons you must assayle Infinite laborinths of bookes he must runne thorough that wil be a compleat Champion in Christs Church Let not sloth-fauoring innouation abuse you Christ when hee sayd you must forsake all and follow him meant not you should forsake all artes and follow him Luke was a Phisitian and followed him Phisitians are the only vpholders of humane Artes. Paul was a Pharisie and brought vp in all the knowledge of the Gentiles and yet he was an Apostle of Iesus Christ. Though it pleased our louing crucified Lord during his residence heere vppon earth miraculously to inspire poore Fishermen and disgregate his gifts from the ordinary meanes yet since his ascention into heauen meanlesse miracles are ceased Certaine meanes he hath assigned vs which he hath promised to blesse but without meanes no blessing hath he warantized When the deuill would haue had him of stones to make bread he would in no kind consent no more will he consent of blocks and stones in these dayes to make distributers of the bread of life What are Asses that will take vpon them to preach without giftes but bread made of stones Euen as God sayd vnto Adam Hee should gette or earne his bread with the sweat of his browes so they that will haue heauenly bread enough to feed themselues and a family which is a congregation or flocke must earne it and get it with the sweat of their browes with long labour study and industry toyle and search after it No one Art is there that hath not some dependance vppon another or to whose top or perfection we may climbe without steppes or degrees of the other Humaine artes are the steppes and degrees Christ hath prescribed and assigned vs to climbe vp to heauen of Artes by which is Diuinity Hee can neuer climbe to the toppe of it which refuseth to climbe by these steppes No knowledge but is of God Vnworthy are wee of heauenly knowledge if we keepe from her any one of her hand-maydes Logique Rhethorique History Philosophy Musicke Poetry all are the handmaydes of Diuinity She can neuer be curiously drest or exquisitely accomplisht if any one of these be wanting God delighteth to be magnified in all his Creatures especially in al the excellentest of his creatures Artes are the excellentest of his creatures not one of them but descended from his Throne What saith Dauid Praise the Lord Sunne Moone praise him ye bright starrs praise him heauen of heauens waters that be aboue the heauens That is praise the Lord Metaphusicall Philosophy which art conuersant in all these matters Into the maiesty and glory of the Sunne and Moone thou seest the bright Starres predominance and moouing thou knowest the heauen of heauens and waters that be aboue the heauens in part though not at large thou comprehendest therefore praise him in all these Take occasion preachers in your sermons from the wonders and secrets these to include to extoll his magnificent name and by humaine artes abstracts to glorifie him Prayse yee the Lord thus Dauid proceeds yee Dragons and all deepes Fyre Hayle Snow and vapours stormy winds and tempests execute his word Mountaines hilles fruitfull trees and all Cedars Beasts and Cattell creeping thinges and fethered foules Princes and Iudges of the world young men and Maidens old men and Children prayse yee the name of the Lord. So that it is lawfull to execute his word that is in preaching of his word by similitudes and comparisons drawne from the nature property of all these to laud and amplifie the