them Others bestow their time in Legall and Callings vsefull to the Common-wealth but as they abuse them neyther honest nor iustifiable before God Such are our Tap-houses Gaming Innes I meane not harbouring and viatory Innes which questionless in fit places and where Iustice is neere at hand if rightly vsed are not onely lawfull and profitable but necessarie and honest for to lodge weary Trauellers as Rahab did the Spies of Israel or to let the poore labouring man to haue iust allowance of bread and drinke for his money can bee accounted no other then necessary reliefe but for our Tipling Innes in small vntract Hamlets without which our Country-Diuels of drunkenesse Blasphemy Gaming Lying and Queaning could amongst vs finde no harbor though perhaps in places of more resort they haue credit enough to be entertained in fairer lodgings they are eyther the Diuels vncleane Ware-houses for his spirituall wickednesses to trade in or in our plaine world hee hath no traffique at all The last sort of offendors against the vertue of honest Labour are our Out-of-Calling Gentlemen who in husbanding their Lands and ouerseeing their seruants and gouerning their families and in relieuing aduising and quieting their neighbours in giuing good and religious examples themselues may finde imployment enough for Gods many talents hee hath trusted them with But they neuer thinking why they came into the world when they should warme their bodies with wholesome labour take thought onely how they shall boyle them in vncleane lusts when they should wash them with the sweat of some honest Calling they with vnwash'd and durty affections swinishly wallow themselues in vnchaste intemperate vices making their Lands giuen them to set them a-work the maintainers of their idlenesse their bodies as Seneca speaks of them Cribra tantum Ciboruâ— poâ—uum Sâ—â—es onely to straine meates drinkes thorough and their seruants for want of skill to command them Lords to dispose all their Lands as they please themselues Such the Romane Common-wealth was full of in the declining periods of it as all the stories tell vs such the pride of Israel nourished iust before the captiuity of the tenne Tribes Amos the 6. the 4. 5. 6. verses such the kingdome of Iudah vnhappily swarmed with immediately before Hierusalem was set downe weeping by the waters of Babylon Ierem. 5. the 7. 8. Such alwaies the body of euery Common-wealth like ill-humours is surcharged with for the Diuine patience commonly waites for his size till sin hath fil'd vp her measure before hee giueth it a purge either by water as when hee baptized the whole world from their lasciuious running after strange flesh or by fire as when hee sent hell out of heauen against Sodom and Gomorrha or before hee lets out the inflamed bloud to quench the malignant heat of it as wee see in the Tribe of Beniamin Iudg. 20. and after in both the Lands of Israel and Iudah in the forementioned Prophets A rugged fellow and vnmannerly would our Gallants I dare say think him that with the angry Romane writing in commendation of these country labours should chide them as he does to their worke and vpbraiding their luxurious paines to wait vpon sinne after the vomit of much indignation tell them that they would when they had suckt out all health and vitall sappe from their languish'd bodies bring themselues to that passe vt in ijs nihil mors mutatura videatur That they had need to be embalm'd as well before as after their deaths or should with the Taske-masters of Pharaoh say to them as they did to stragling Israel coasting about to gather straw and stubble for their Egyptian works Ye are idle idle are ye goe now therefore and worke Exod. 5. 17. Indeed they would thinke hee knew good fashion and ciuill carriage that would aduise them to trauell with the Prodigall into some farre Countrey there to spend riotously all their goods vpon Harlots Luk. 15. 13. or if he would counsaile them to liue in the City and frequent Maskes and Tauernes Theaters or if he encouraged them to the sports of hawking and hunting and if the weather were churlish and lowring to carding and dicing or if he would wish them to follow the Court in the delights and reuells of it not in the honourable seruice and studies of one that meanes to fit himselfe for worthy imployments and actions whether in Warre or Peace But thou O maÌ„ of God flie these things in thy Christian Calling follow after righteousnesse and holinesse in thy particular vocation exercise thy self in such things as may be not only lawfull in the Common-wealth wherein thou liuest but profitable both to thy selfe others and especially in the sight of God and his Church iust and honest so that thou maist as it becommeth a Noble Christian both reproue with thy coÌ„trary practise the rich and honourable lasiness which such Lords of Idlenesse that keepe their Christmasse all the yeere count the priuiledge of their gentilitie and delight thy selfe with Isaac to sowe the seeds of thine owne labour for the obtaining of Gods blessings And the God of Peace if thou water the ground with thine owne sweat shall blesse thy labours heere a hundred fold and hereafter shal end thy labours in Rest Eternall Amen ACTS 10. 43. To him giue all the Prophets witnes I. The wisest of the heathen and all creatures are good witnesses WHen the heauens and the earth are so farre distant a sunder who would euer suppose al things on earth should draw to themselues a vitall efficacy and heauenly fertilitie from those as the Scripture cals them kind influences so farre sent except the whole world were campus dicendi a large field wherein euery plant with so many sweet flowers of naturall eloquence lessoned our reason by sence and experience to beleeue it vpon the departure of whose Summer beames all the fruite againe and comly flowishes of earthly profit and pleasure in re-interring themselues eftsoones faint and die away But this Annual resurrection of Nature we therfore see in this world which wee should neuer otherwise haue beleeued that wee might beleeue that which in this world we shall neuer see that God is to receiue vs what heauen is to earth For thogh he say of himselfe Esay 55. the 9. As the heauens are higher then the earth so are my thoghts higher then your thoughts Yet it pleases him to descend from that height in the 57. and 13. of the same Prophesie Thus saith the High and loftie One that inhabits eternitie I dwell in the high and holy Place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to reuiue the spirit of the coÌ„trite ones Earth hath no power to mooue vpwards it is beyond the sphere of her actiuitie Heauen therefore virtually descends man hath no power so much as to send a good thought vp to God God therefore bowes the heauens and comes downe in two speciall beames one of
all were beholding to him for restoring him the tenth part of his owne To conclude long prayers and building the sepulchres of the prophets which of all other were their most colourable virtues were they not indeed crying sinnes in the sight of God when they were I say not onely vtterd arrogantly in euery corner of the street that they might bee seene of men and not closeted vp for GOD alone to see them but when vnder pretence of long prayers they deuour'd widowes houses and vnder colour of building the tombes of the Prophets which were dead they had no other intent but with the more safety and lesse suspition to slay the sonne of God who was then aliue among them the Prince of the Prophets Looke then as beautifull and fayre fruit to see too yet if it be rotten at the core when the outside is par'd off hath no such goodlynesse within as outwardly appear'd but very rottennesse at the heart or to vse a more proper similitude As a piece of smooth and rotten wood if it bee set in the darke and seene onely in the night makes a great blaze and showes to bee a very lightsome body but assoone as the day rises it forfeits the flame and the rottennes of it is plainely discouered so was it with these appearing truths which the Pharisees obtruded and thrust vpon the darke vnderstandings of the common people for most heauenly lights lamps full of glory they were all but vizards of truth rotten opinions lies with painted faces And as these were the false-lights that dazeled the eyes of the wiser sort of people so there were beside these certaine coÌ„mon errors which went abroad as most receiued and graunted positions verities which all men beleeu'd as That they had good cause to reioyce who had euery mans good word for them and many friends in the world whom they might trust to That rich men were happy For they liued at hearts ease That they liued the most comfortable liues in the world that were alwayes merry hearted and were euer laughing To name no more That it was a most wretched estate not to haue sufficient meate and drinke but to liue alwayes as in a famine in hunger and thirst But our Sauiour as before hee extinguisht their false and pharisaical lights so in these hee opposed himselfe against their popular and common errors And therefore he sayes not as they Reioyce because ye haue many and great friends in the world and because you haue euery mans good word for you but the playne contrary Reioyce and bee exceeding glad what when you haue many friends that speake well of you and do you good no but when you haue many enemies that shall reuile you and persecute you and say all manner of euill against you falsely for my names sake verses the 10. 11. And blessed are who the rich in estate no but the poore in spirit ver the 3. And not they who were merry hearted alwaies laughing had the most comfortable liues but blessed are they that mourne verse the 4. For they shal be comforted In a word to land my self at home vpon the present words That not they which abounded with all things and could say to their soule as Diues did Luke the 12. Soule eate drinke aud bee merry for thou hast much goods layed vp for many yeares were blessed but blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousnes For they shall bee satisfied For the truth is It was a most absurd improper soloecisme of speech when the riche foole so our Sauiour cals him and therefore I doe him no wrong bid his soule eate and drinke those goods that hee had layed vp for his body to eat drinke For the soule with such food could neuer haue beene satisfied but those soules onely shal be replenished and filled that hunger after the kingdome of Heauen and the righteousnesse thereof For as righteousnes here so the Kingdome of God hereafter as grace here so glory hereafter are the onely repaste to banquet a Soule with First therfore let vs see II. How Righteousnesse and Grace are the food of our Soules THat is properly called the food of any thing whereby it is inwardly preserued from consumption corruption and death And therfore as the Body hath something to preserue it for a time which is bodily food so must the Soule haue some spirituall repast to perpetuat and preserue it for euer For nothing beside a diuine nature can bee of it selfe aye during Let vs therfore because this paradox to a naturall man will seeme strange goe with him to his owne arte the arte of nature There we shall find these two Sanctions publisht as receiued trueths of all first â—isdem alimur ex quibus constamus Euery nature is nourished by that whereof it is first made and the second is Simile nutritur a simile Like is nourisht of like Now it is a speech of our Sauiour which it may bee euery man remembers but few men marke when after fourty dayes fast in the wildernesse he was tempted to satisfie his hunger by making bread of stones he answered That Man liu'd not by bread onely but by euery word that proceeded out of the mouth of God Which speech though a prophane Ignorant will perhaps derisonly scoffe at as thinking it impossible to liue by words yet such words as proceed out of the mouth of God haue more vitall sweetenesse and nourishable sap in them than all his corne and oyle and wine haue Was not the whole world made by the word of God Was not the soule of euery reasonable creature made by the same word and so imbreathed into the body of the first father of our humane nature and is now still infused into euery one of our bodies when they are perfectly instrumented and made fit for the soule to dwell â— This a naturall man cannot deny in reason because they of his owne â—ribe Socrates Plato Aristoâ—le and all wise men euer confest it not only to vse â—heir owne words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as some of â—hem speakes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a foris ingredi â—aelitus aduenire But proue it by necessary demonstration I will vse â—ut one argument beâ—ore I proceed to euidence it because religion shall not be beholding to a naturall man for her ground worke which Iustin Martyr one of the first penmen of God after the time of the blessed Apostles who was called by all men for his depth of Learning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vses to euiâ—ce the opposers of this truth in his time All things sayes he arose first eyther out of the power of nature or fortune of God Out of a power of nature they could not For tell mee sayes the father whom could nature by her power first bring forth Could the fruits of the earth or the foules of heauen or the trees of the forrest or the beasts of the field or the Cittizen of the world man issue
of the Lord or changed into the same Image from glory to glory euen as of the spirit of the Lord. So that as the Moon and the Starres that hauing no in-borne or inherent Light streaming from themselues and yet gathering together into their burning faces the beames of the Sun freely sent abroad and bestowed amongst them appear like so many little images of the great Lampe of day So all the Holy Lamps of Heauen made for Gods seruice haue onely the Light of Gods countenance to kindle themselues with which he out of his bounty casts abroad amongst them and they according to their seuerall capacities to fill vp their measures of glory most ambitiously vessell vp This being the Royalty of the Diuine Nature who is the spiritual sonne of eternall Essences that he beyond all other is most emissiue and communicatiue of himselfe For as Light is more visible then any colour and sends out in the eradition of it a more full and luminous species of it selfe then any other thing because it is as the Philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the colour of all colours so God who is the Light of all Lights must needs in himselfe bee most visible though neither it to the eye of an Owle nor God to the sight of our vnderstanding yet beetle-browed can so appeare But when as Dauid sings our soules shall awaken and the youth of our bodies shall be renewed as the Eagles both they with the Diuinity and these with the Diuine humanity shall be transformed into the same image of glory which they shall behold in him And though now they blinke at Sunne-shine yet then where the body of glory is thither shall the spirituall Eagles be all gathered together and there feede and fill the righteous hunger and thirst of theirs And this is the fulnesse of glory our Sauiour meanes to satisfie them in heauen with who on earth nourish in themselues the righteous hunger after Grace When the vnderstanding shall be filled with truth in which is no shadow of error the will with goodnesse in which is no mixture of euill the affections with ioy and delight in which shall be neyther defect nor end when the body shall be satisfied with Life that knowes no dying shall be quickned with health that feares no sickenesse shall be imbrightned with beautie that can neyther bee impayred with disease nor impalled by death when the whole person shall be crowned with honour glory shall be leagued in friendship with Angells and Saints shall bee vnited to Christ in body to the holy Ghost in Spirit to God in a bright similitude and likenesse of his Diuine nature in a word when they shall enioy which this world is out of hope of honor without ambition beauty without pollution glory without pride power without iniury riches without oppression all good without any end of possessing feare of losing or sinne in spending Let vs therefore quicken our drowsie spirits with IIII. A short incitement to the heauenly ambition of Gods Saints IT was a speech of the most ambitious Spirit in the world in the excuse of his high swelling thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a man would do iniurie it should bee for a Kingdome piety was to be obserued in lesse matters as hee thought but the truth is hee needed not haue supposed it to bee such a difficult thing to be perswaded to doe iniury For as the Philosopher speakes Nothing is more easie then to doe another man wrong and he giueth the Reason why Iustice although it be so beautifull a Light in the world that as he sayes of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither the morning nor the euening starre is halfe so Oriently beautiful yet so few men are in loue with it because it is the good of another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wee are all naturally engrossers of goods for our selues but wee are loth though iustly to diuide or part them with any other and therefore with more reason the religious man who is the most ambitious creature vnder heauen may whet and edge his flaming desires to goe through all the sweat and labour of righteousnesse with the same speech inuerted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a Kingdome be the reward of Piety who would not be religious But it is a myracle in reason to see that when there are three sorts of ambitious in the world Sinfull Naturall and Religious how many and those of the choicest wits offer their harts and sacrifice themselues as whole burnt offerings to the ambition of sinne and how few set their thoughts on fire with the holy ambition of Gods Saints And yet there is no difference betweene sinfull and sainâ—ly ambition for both would be like God but that the first would be like him without dependance and would be proud in being so affecting a diuine similitude beside the right meanes and beyond the due measure and the other is content to climbe by the valley of Christs humility to this mountaine of holinesse The sinfully ambitious would haue Gods glory but not his goodnes his power but not his iustice the Maiesty of his Kingdome but not the manner of his gouernment And therefore all those Angelicall stars of Light whom God in the Morning of his Works made Heauen shine with are now become through this sinfull ambition wandring Starres to whom is reserued the blackenesse of darkenesse for euer And this was it that smote not onely so many stars out of heauen but would haue struck into hel the whole posterity of Adam had not our Sauiour snatch'd vp some few of vs into heauen with him and yet how many soules still scorche themselues in these flames It was the imperious speech of the Assyrian Tyrian and Romane Princes I will be like the most high I will ascend into Heauen I will exalt my throne aboue the starres of God Esay 14. I am God Ezech 28. I sit a Queen mening as the Lady and Commandresse of the whole World and shall see no sorrow c. Alas how high this sinfull ambition would climbe in thought and indeed how low doth it fall It aspires to the sides of the North Esay 14. 13. verse And verse the 15. it is cast downe into the sides of the pit It would ascend into Heauen verse the 14. and in the next it is brought downe to hell It fancies to it selfe a high flight among the starres and Angells of God And loe the shadows of darknesse are moued from beneath to meet it and the dead ghosts are stirred vp to salute it with this derisory taunt Art thou become like vnto vs How art thou fallen from Heauen O Lucifer sonne of the Morning And these perhaps great princely and honourable Diuels of Ambition may seeme in comparison of the lesser to delude their followers with a kinde of bâ—aue and royall misery But in very truth it is a sight full of wonder to obserue the children of this generation at how small game
by the blessing of God must labour for it FOr as GOD would haue the World cost himselfe sixe daies labour though in one moment he could haue finish'd it so hee sets vs to taske by his owne example to our weekely stint Sixe dayes shalt thou labour Exod. 20. 9. and doe all that thou hast to doe Which is not to bee vnderstood as a Permission but as a Praecept as though God gaue vs onely leaue not charge to labour For hee sayes not sixe daies thou Maist labour but six daies thou Shalt labour If our mouths will eat as Salomon tels vs All the labour of a man is for his Mouth Eccles 6. 7. our browes must sweat for it For as the Heathen had a Prouerbe among them Dij venaunt omnia laboribus Their Gods they sayd sold all for labour so we may truely say of GOD indeed hee hath set the price of all his earthly blessings to be sweat In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat thy bread all the daies of thy life Genesis 3. Neither let the Master thinke to wipe off all his sweat to the brow of his seruant as though like our Gallants hee were borne onely to disport pleasure and his seruants to labour and toyle for him No euery Man is Gods Taskeman and it is as naturall for vs to labour as it is for flame to ascend so Eliphaz speaks of vs Iob. 5. ver 7. Man is borne to labour as a sparke to flie vpwards Indeed the labors of men are different some of mind and some of body some in the field some in the Citie some abroad at Sea and some at home but labour will meete a man euery where be hee where hee will It is our portion vnder the Sunne as Salomon tells vs Behold that which I haue seene sayes the wise man Eccles 5. 18. It is good for a man to eate and to drinke and to enioy the good of all his labour which he taketh vnder the Sunne for it is his portion So that euery one that would enioy the good creatures of GOD this subcelestiall happinesse which flourishes vnder the Sunne if hee would eate and drinke or enioy any good it must be of his labour his owne labour not another mans for that is to steale another mans goods and with his sweate to warme our own browes And so seuere was the holy Apostle of Christ in this point that Golden and Elect instrument of Gods grace to vs who in labours excelled them all that were hired into Christs vineyard to worke that hee would haue him starued to death that to maintain his life would not labor Hee that will not labour let him not eate sayes the Apostle 2 Thes 3. 10. It were vnnecessary to adde more out of the word of God to acquaint vs with our duety of labour the places to this purpose and the Scripture in this argument is prodigall Thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands Ps 128. 2. Ephes 4. 28. Let him that stole steale no more but rather let him labour working with his hands the thing that is good that hee may haue to giue to him that needeth Where wee see the Apostle ties not onelie euerie man to his worke but would haue him though hee labour with his owne hands to get his liuing yet to giue something to him that needeth wants hands or feete or health or strength or liberty wherby to labour Looke then as we see a field as long as it hath any heart in it if it be manured and tilled sowne and weeded and well husbanded in euery part neuer deceiues the hopes of the greedy husbandman but paies him in his own seed with the most lawfull vsury of naturall and very plentifull encrease which if it bee neuer wrought vpon with the labour of man but falls perhaps into the hands of the sluggard growes presently full of nothing but thistles and thornes ranke hurtfull weedes as Salomon tels vs Prou 24. 30. I went by the field of the sluggard and by the vineyard of the slothfull man and loe it was al ouergrowne with thornes and nettles had couered the face thereof so is it with the body of man If it be wel and faithfully laboured it is fruitfull both to himselfe his family and the whole Common-wealth but if it sleep away all his time in idlenesse hee growes not onely vnprofitable but full of noysom vices and is as the Poet cals him onely fruges consumere natus a hurtfull Vermin good for nothing but to liue vpon the spoyle Are not al things imbrightned with vse and rustied with lying still Let but the little Bee become our mistresse Is shee not alwaies out of her artificiall Nature either building her waxen Cabinet or flying abroad into the flowry Meadowes or sucking honey from the sweete plants or loading her weake thighes with waxe to build with or stinging away the theeuish Droan that would faine hiue it selfe among her labours and liue vpon her sweete sweat Ignauum fucos pecus a praesepibus arcent And shal this Little creature this Naturall good-houswife thus set her selfe to her businesse and shall we droane away our time in idlenesse and which alwaies followes it vicious liuing Shall our fieldes labour so faithfully to reward vs and shall we betray our whole liues to idlenesse and sloath Find mee but one example in the World to countenance and sample a man in his idlenesse GOD himselfe is the watchman of Israel that neuer slumbers sleepes My Father workes sayes our Sauiour and I worke The holy Angels are alwaies either ascending vp vnto God as we may see in Iacobs ladder that is lifting their thoughts vpwards to honour him in their eternall song Holy Holy Holy Lord GOD of Sabbaoth c. or descending from God to Men with his blessings as being his Ministring Spirits sent for the good of the Elect to pitch their pauillions round about and defend vs from many spirituall and blind dangers which alas our soules neuer see Not one of them all was seene to bee idle or stand still Man himselfe which is worthy our obseruing euen then when hee was first paradis'd in the Garden of pleasure yet had something to doe in it and was not suffered to walke idlely vp downe like a Loyterer or Idlesbye that had nothing at all to doe but was set to keepe it dresse it Gen. 2. Labour hee must though sweat he should not and businesse hee had to doe though sweat hee should not and businesse hee had to doe though in the doing of it he felt no wearinesse or toyle And as these most noble creatures of God Angels and man were not suffered to bee idle so if wee looke vp to the heauens themselues we shall there see there that mighty body in continuall motion neuer standing still but flying about the world with incredible swiftnesse that Dauids great Giant who euery morning like a Bridegroome comes out of his Easterne chamber delights
to run the heauenly races God hath set him with all the lesse starres of the glorious body might shed their beames vpon the Earth in the seasons of it so bring foorth hearbes and fruites for the seruice of man and beast It is indeede a naturall Truth Omne Corpus naturale quiescit in loco proprio Euery naturall body is quiescent in his owne proper place and yet wee see though all gladly rest in their owne regions and inuade not the confines of their neighbour Elements yet they are alwayes mouing and coasting about in their owne orbes and circuits thereby teaching vs to labour euery man in the circle of his owne calling and not to busie-body out abroad with other newe workes The Aire breakes not into the quarters of Heauen and yet wee see it is alwayes fann'd from place to place and neuer sleepes idly in his owne regions the reason is because otherwise it would soone putrifie it selfe and poyson vs all with the stinking breath of it did not the diuine prouidence of God driue it about the World with his Windes that so it might both preserue it selfe and serue to preserue vs which otherwise it could neuer doe And truly whether we ascend vp into Heauen or descend with Dauid into the deepe we may discerne the whole Ocean which is a farre more sluggish element then the Ayre neuer rest but euer moued either by the Windes or by a proper motion whereby naturally it ebbes and flowes to preserue it selfe sweet and wholesome for those creatures that liue in it and withall that it might by such inter-tides be the more seruiceable to the vse of man in the conueiance of commodities from shoare to shoare So that in a word euery thing moues for man should man only himselfe be idle stand still Giue mee but one example in the whole World of sloath and restiue idlenesse but one and I will giue thee leaue to keepe Holy-day and play away all thy life without sweat or labour only perhaps of a standing poole and that growes noisome that no man can endure it or of some deformed Toade and that is full swolne with rankour and poison or it may be of an idle Droane and that because it plaies in Summer dies in Winter But if wee looke vp to Heauen that will teach vs to runne the races God sets before vs with ioy and gladnesse if the holy Angels may instruct vs they will take vs out a lesson of faithfull labour both in our thoughts to God and actions to men All the Creatures of God will set vs a worke by their examples Chuse therefore whether thou wilt with thy vitious idlenesse be of a corrupted and venemous nature and so die or exercise thy selfe in the holy labours thy vocation cals thee to like the blessed Angels and all other the more noble Creatures of God And that we may see reason why wee should labour wee must know that it is both a Diuine and naturall Truth Deus Natura nihil faciunt frustra God and Nature made nothing idle It is for vs the heards of the field and the fowles of Heauen and the fish in the Seas labour to bring forth their young It is for vs the wearie Oxe is yoakt to labour and the Horse takes the bridle into his mouth to ease vs by his trauaile It is for vs the poore Silke-worm spinnes her clew and the thriftie Bee gathers her honey to the combe but as all these labour for vs so it is our labour that orders and guides them and sets them all a worke first Indeed God hath of his goodnesse made them our seruants and put our feare vpon them The feare of you shall be vpon all Creatures Gen. 9. 2. But it is not our parts to vse their labours to make our selues idle but if wee would haue them labour for vs wee must be fellow-labourers with them for our selues And indeed two speciall reasons would God haue vs labour for one to keep vs from the greene-sicknesse of Idlenes which in truth is the immediate mother of all Sinne as wee may see by Dauids Tower-walke and the other for the more full enioying of our life and health For as it is labour that procures all things necessary for our life and health as meates and drink clothing housing so it is labour that preserues our health by warming our blood that it be not gellied with vnkindly colds into rheums and dispersing those ill humors which with idlenesse would grow vpon vs and by prepuring the body more delightfully both to receiue nourishment without surfet and without disquiet rest sleepe Ye see therefore there is both great reason for vs to labour if wee would enioy our health and necessitie if we would supply the wants of our own liues and example if wee would follow either the command of God or the patterne of other the most honourable creatures God hath made Now let not here the good husbandman because he as Isaac tills his ground and sowes it engrosse all labour into his owne calling and so thinking himselfe onely the true labourer quarrell with all other professions as more idle and lesse necessarie Let the good husbandman haue alwayes his due honour reserued him but let not the good husbandman thinke all other men bad-husbands because hee is good for hee may bee a bad man though hee bee a good husbandman in so thinking For as man himselfe is diuided into seuerall respects of body and soule estate and person so euery calling that is lawfully employed in the prouiding for any of these hath in it true labouring men The husbandman indeed he sees the body the shepheard cloathes it the Architect houses it and the Physitian cures it It were a labour but to reckon vp the seuerall calling that labour about the body and indeede would passe my skill to name them so about the estates of men Iudges and Lawyers and Notaries and Officers labour and about the persons of men Princes and Magistrates labour to keepe them in ciuill order and gouernment and about the soule of man the Minister of God labours I cannot stand to euidence the labour of all these callings I will onely make it plaine because the calling of a Minister is by some slighted as a matter of no great paines and sweat That II. A faithfull Minister is a great labourer I Would not willingly make comparisons betweene him and the husbandman and say his labour is beyond theirs but this I may safely say that God himselfe compares him not onely to a husbandman but to shew the greatnesse of his labour to euery calling indeed that is most sweated with industrie and toyle I know all men thinke their owne callings most laborious but whether thinke you it easier to plow vpon hard ground or vpon hard stones whether to commit your seed to those furrowes that will return you fruitfull thankes or those that for your labor will spoyle your seed requite you
Patriarckes to Pharaoh Gen. the 47. Thy seruants are shepheards both wee and all our fathers Where we may see that Pharaoh himselfe had his heards and flocks of cattell to feed abroade in his own crowne lands and royall inheritance And among the Princes of Israel was not Gedeon taken from the threshing floore Iudg. 6. 11. Moses Dauid from the Ewes great with young to feed Israel Gods people and Iacob his inheritance Exodus 3. 1. Sam. 16. 11. may wee not meete Saul after hee was annoynted king ouer Israel following his Oxen. 1. Sam. 11. 5 and therefore the ancient phrase of the world for kings was the shepheards of people so Homer vsually stiles Agamemnon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and nothing is more frequent in the stories of elder times then to see the greatest Princes of the world taken with Cincinnattus and C. Fabricius and Curius Dentatus as they were following the plow to bee the Consuls and Dictators of Rome which was then the Queene of Nations and the Lady of the world And this not so much the necessitie of their estates droue them as the honesty delight and naturall sweetnes of these countrey and fieldlabours woed them vnto And therefore old Cato after hee had out of his censorious grauity well rated and scolded withall other pleasures as the lasciuious Mistresse of lewd youth and the onely harlots of the whole world cannot in conclusion dissemble his loue to this same countrey Galatea as Virgil cals this field-life but as soone as he begins to speake of it Redeamus in gratiam cum voluptate sayes the rough Censour of the world Let vs bee friends againe with pleasure as confessing it to be not so much a clownish labour as the most naturall and therefore lawfull delight allowed a wise man And therefore in the youthful flourish of Rome we shal finde it obserued by Columella that their faires which the Romans call Nundinae quasi nono die habitae were kept once onely in nine dayes because they would not leaue their country houses to be drawne into the idle troubles of the cittie more then needes must and if they were by exigence called to the Senate house for their aduise they had publike officers whom they called Viatores their countrey posts attending such occasions and when they gaue any man extraordinary commendation ita laudabant sayes the first Latine writer de re rustica Bonum agricolam bonumque colonum as for the generall Trade some fewer then but now so many deale with of vsury the Romane Law was sayes the same Cato Furem dupli condemnari foeneratorem quadrupli and with good reason is this Art of getting by our mony not by our labour inueighed against of all such as commend husbandry as most vnnaturall husbandry and contrary to the life they write of being as M. Varro speakes of it most hated of those who are beholding to it but for the certainty of gaine and the pietie of the getter and the safety and health of him that vses it and the apting the bodies of men military seruices in the defence of the common-wealth those haue euerbin accounted most happie sayes the same Authour Qui in eo studio occupati sunt By all which it sufficiently appeares that husbandry hath bin both an ancient and honourable meanes of life before pride and the fashion began to bee vertues of so speciall request in the world as they are now thought and that all bee in the glory of Nature before sinne had hlemisht the world we were by creation all diuines and Priests of God not to offer bloudy sacrifices but of praise and obedience which should make vs thinke honorably of that calling which we were al born to except we would cast dirt in the face of our innocent nature yet presently after the soyle of our sin had strucke barennes into the womb of our mother her brests were dried vp that suckled vs husbandry succeeded to bee the next vocation The first call was of the minde the second of the body the first of heauen the secoÌ„d of the earth the first to the glory of God the second for the necessitie of man and yet I thinke both of them may make the same complaint for themselues which Iunius Moderatus Columela does for them Sola res rustica quae sine dubitatione proxima quasi coÌ„sanguinea sapientia est tam discentibus egeat quam ma gistris Onely the Art of husbandry which doubtlesse is next and nearest a kinne to wisedome wants both schollers and teachers meeting very seldome with such religious votaries towards them as the Prince of the Latin Poets was who in his Georgicks or poeticall Husbandrie breaks out into this godly wish Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musae QuaruÌ„ sacra fero ingenti percislsus amore Accipiant caelique vias sidera monstrent Sin has non possim Naturae accedere partes c. Rura mihi rigui placeant in vallibus amnes Flumina amen syluasque inglorias No first of all O let the Muses wings Whose sacred foâ—ntaine in my bosome springs Receiue and landing mee aboue the starres Shew me the waies of heueÌ„ but if the barres Of vnkinde Nature stoppe so high a flight The Woods and Fields shall be my next delight Thus were the opinions of the old world but it is a world to see now the prodigious change of Nature when not onelie most men count Husbandrie a base and sordid businesse vnfit to soyle their hands with but some who thinkes his breast tempered of siner clay then ours of the vulgar sort call such as haue spent their times in the studies of Diuinity no better then rixosum disputatorum genus quorum vix in coquendis oleribus consilium admittit It is the speech of one Bartaeus a Germane disclaimer who was better borne theÌ„ taught more eloquent then learned against the Diuines of his Countrie too busily wrangling as he thought about the Paradoxes of Arminius who I feare will change if not his false opinion of the cause yet his prophane censure of the men nisi ipse forte inter olera sit quae in inferno sint conquenda Before our bodies were only instruments to serue our soules and wee delighted our selues in the study of heauenly diuine knowledge now our soules drudges onely vpon the bodies seruice runnes onely vpon the fleshes errands neyther is any thing more wearisom to it selfe or more out of credit in the world then a soule walking climbing vp the holy mountaines from whence commeth our saluation til it be out of breath after the knowledge of heauenly things before our labour for the body was soone dispatched when wee all went naked and the ground seeded it selfe brought forth a voluntary haruest to feede vs but now all our labour is for food cloathing as the wise maÌ„ tells vs in his Prouerbes our nakednesse was then our glory it is now our shame it was a curse
all And this was Caiphas the High-priests blind argument to proue our Sauiour the Messias It is expedient that one man should dye for the people Iohn 11. 50. In a word his Buriall in the graue of rich Ioseph is foretould by Isay 53. He shall make his graue with the rich and his Resurrection by Dauid Psal 16. 10. Thou wilt not leaue my soule in hell neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy one to see corruption For God before had made his soule an offring for sinne as Esay tells vs 53. 10. And this was the great argument of the two great Apostles wherewith they conuerted both Iewe and Gentil to the faith of Christ Acts. 2. and 13. Chapters 800. at two sermons I will not adde to these Diuine Attestations the propheticall Acrostique of Sebyd Erythcaea cited by Constantin in his oration which he intitled ad Caetuâ—â— sanctorum the 18. Chapter and translated as he sayes by Tully before our Sauiour was borne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who I doubt not not but might Prophesie of Christ as Balaam did Nor the Aegyptian crosse which among their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diuine Hieroglyphicks signified Saluation as the heathen themselues confest out of Socrates in the 5. booke of his Ecclesiasticall story the 17. Chapter Nor th' illustrious report of Iosephus in th' 18. of his Antiquities both of our Sauiour and Iohn the Baptist which the Iewes ignorantly slaunder as inserted by the Christians mistaking this Iosephus the sonne Matathias who writ in Greeke for another Iosephus of theirs who writ in Hebrew the sonne of Gorion in whom indeed there is no such report Nor the wirtie but not so weighty Arguments of some of the Fathers As of Iustin Martyr who would needs perswade Trypho and his two fellowes that the holding of Moses Armes in the figure of a crosse and the spitting of the Paschalll Lambe with the two shoulders passant prefigur'd the crucifying of our Lord or of Irenaeus speaking of the incredulous Iew who should see our Sauiour the life of the world hang before his eyes and yet obstinate his heart in vnbeleefe out of the eight and twenty of Deut. Et erit vica â—ua pendens ante oculos tuos non credes vitae tuae lib. 4. aduersus Haereses cap. 23. But if any would lay the foundation of his faith wider and hope to himselfe more Arguments to ground his beleefe vpon Let him but aduisedly thinke with himselfe how it became the Sauiour of the world to liue and what other witnesses to beare him testimony of him and then let him adde to the prophesies of his death the innocence of his life For neuer any man liued as he liu'd which of you sayes our Sauiour as to all our enemies can accuse me of sinne And to the innocence of his life the Authoritie of his Doctrine Neuer man spake as this man does say the emissary scouts sent to apprehend him And to the Authoritie of his Doctrine the power of his miracles Wee neuer saw such things in Israel say all the people and to the miracles that hee wrought the miseries that he suffered Behold and see if there were euer griefe like my griefe may our Sauiour truely say of himselfe And to the miseries that he suffered himselfe the constancy of his Appostles and Primitiue Martyres that suffered for him Who who euer had such witnesses as to kindle other men into the same faith with them would set themselues on a light fire of zeale till they were consumed for the honour of their Lord So that the first Imperious Persecutour of the Christians Nero that in humane lumpe of crueltie whom Nature for hast might seeme onely to haue curded vp into a knot of bloud guest not much amisse when anoynting their bodies of the Christians he set them burning in euery street of Rome like so many Torches to giue light to the Cittie as Tacitus reportes in the 15. of his Annales For they gaue light indeed not for awhile onely to that heathenish Cittie but to the whole Christian world for euer after Neuer was there day kindled with halfe so many beames as that night was sure neuer was there night though all the Starres in Heauen should flame out in it to make it glorious that shone halfe so brightly as did this when to meet their Bridegrome in the first watch and morning of their Gospell so many early Virgins had lighted their Lampes And to these liuing Martyres let him adde two dead witnesses the voyce of the Sonne from heauen at his exspiration when the whole world lost the day at Noone the voyce of the Earth at his Resurrection when her mouth opened and let abroad so many Saintly bodies that awakned and leapt out of their graues to tell it in Ierusalem that Christ was risen O the Diuine vertue of this celesticall body If it die heauen that enlightens all extinguishes it selfe if it reuiue the dead worke of the Graue that receiues the dying excludes the liuing and like the barren wombe of Sarah is alust to bring forth the Children of promise in testimonie of the secret influence of life it felt after Christ had layen with her And thus it became the Sauiour of the world to liue thus to be borne thus to die againe these witnesses became him these Miracles And therfore giue me leaue to vse first IIII. A free Reprehension of all fashionable Aggrippaes in faith and farther motiues to winne them to become through beleeuers AFter the voyce of so many Prophesies witnesses art thou yet an Infidell O that there were not in Christs militant Church as there were in Othoes military Campe so many men so few Soldiers so many professors so few Christians Let me but aske thee as St. Paul did Agrippa Beleeuest thou the Prophets and I would I could say as he does I know thou beleeuest but I feare I may better say as the Prophesie it selfe speakes Who hath beleeued our report And what might the reason be of so much infidelitie among so many beleeuers of vs that so many with the Roman Soldiers should kneele downe to Christ and by an open professioÌ„ of their mouthes say to him Hayle King of the Iewes with the smooth voyce of Iacob and yet with their practise and rough hands of Esau smite him on the head face and crucifie him Is it not because they liue neither as iust men by Faith nor as wisemen by reason but wholy by sence so ignorant are they like bruit Beasts before God beleeuing only what they see quae sunt ante pedes as the Oratour speakes what they must needes stumble vpon with their eyes and no more Well hast thou both thine eyes out of Faith and Reason giue me thy hand O thou reasonable Beast and follow me with that one blind eye of Sence that thou hast left thee Thou wilt not beleeue in Christ because thou didst not see the former Prophesies foretoulde of him fulfilled by
the food of our soules then our earthy diet can bee the food of our bodies because hee is euery way both in respect of himselfe and vs more preseruatiue then to bodies any bodily sustenance can be For that makes vs continue by being destroyed it selfe and destroyes vs too if it be taken in excesse though it be neuer so often vsed yet soone after we shall hunger againe and thirst againe neither can it repaire our nature in the headlong ruines of age so fast but that we must euery day forfeite a little spoile to mortality which it can no way possibly recouer and in conclusion vnable to hold out any longer it must yeeld vp the whole body as a pray to death But we cannot drinke too much of our spirituall rocke nor eate too much of our heauenly Manna which after we haue feasted our hearts with we shall find noe more hunger or thirst feele noe more iniuries of age or time feare noe more spoiles of mortality or death Neither is the soule nourished by this diuine food as the body is by wasting that whereby it selfe is preserued and consuming that to maintaine it selfe whereby it selfe is kept from corruption but as the sight of al eyes is preserued and perfected by the light of the Sunne whose beames can neuer be exhaust so our spirituall life is nourished by the participation of the life of Christ which is indeede 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 annona cali the flower of heauen neuer engrost by possessing nor lost by vsing nor wasted by nourishing nor spent by enioying but hath that heauenly and vnconsumable nature in it being to nourish immortall soules that it preserues all without decaying it selfe it diuides it selfe to al without losse or diminution of it selfe it is imparted to all and not impayred by any of those replenished soules that banquet vpon it Now if the quaere be made how our soules are thus by Christ preserued from their owne corruption and beyond their owne natural life to a life Celestiall diuine there can be no other answere giuen but by beeing implanted into the life of righteousnes which fontally is in him As if the branches of a wild oliue being cut off from the reall stocke where it grew naturally should be kept from withering and corruption by ingrassing it into the stocke of a sweet and flourishing Oliue-tree So our soules beeing created in naturall righteousnesse and holylinesse by God and being soone after by our fall cut off from that life and so remayning in the state of corruption and decay would soone wither and dye totally were they not eftsoons reymbark't and stock't againe into the Tree of life from whence they sucke a more diuine life of righteousnes then that they were created or now liue in For the natural righteousnes thogh it were in the kind of it perfect yet it was of a short continuance as nature left to it selfe alwayes is and our habituall righteousnesse though it continue for euer yet it is very imperfect like the twilight of an euening or the first breake of day in which the shadows of earth and the light of heauen are confused and therfore the soule of man vnable to liue perpetually by any of these liues which were defectiue could haue no way bene preseru'd from his owne corruption but by the participation of this diuine Righteousnesse of Christ which is infinitely more durable then Adams naturall and more perfect then our poore habituall righteousnes either is or euer could haue bin Neyther let it seeme strange to any that the Soule which dies by vnrighteousnes and sinne should be sayd by grace onely and righteousnesse to receyue againe life and preseruation Hence are those scripture phrases so frequent You are dead in your sinnes ye are strangers from the life of God of the wanton and sinfull widow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she was dead being aliue that is dead to God and the righteousnesse of Christ and aliue onely to nature and the corruption of it Hence againe on the contrary the Iust man is sayd to liue by the righteousnes of faith Hab. 2. 4. Heb. 10. 37. and therfore this life which we could not acquire by our nature because it is eternall God is said in he first Epistle of Sa. Iohn 5. 11. to haue giuen it to vs and least wee should trouble our selues to know where this life was found out for vs it is added in the same place And this life is in his Sonne Thus Saint Paul speakes Col. 3. 3. that â—ur life is hid in Christ and that it was no more he that liued but Christ that liued in him Galat. 2. 20. thus hee tells the Corinthians that wee were made the Righteousnesse of God in Christ 2. Cor. 5. 21. and 1 Cor. the 1. the 30. that Christ was made of God vnto vs Wisedome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption and therefore twice the Prophet Ieremy tells vs that This is his name wherby he shall be called IEHOVAH tsidkenu THE LORD OVR RIGHTEOVSNESSE Ie. 23. 6. and 33. 16. For as verily as our sinnes tooke away his life so assuredly shall his righteousnesse preserue ours in which because wee haue a double state one in our apprehension of it by faith the other in our comprehension of it by vision and intuition therefore here the Saints of god are sayd to be blessed onely in their hunger but hereafter they shal be happy in their fulnes here God onely feeds them with a sufficiency of grace there he fills them with such a satietie of glory in which their soules with the greatest excesse without the least surfet shall bee feasted for euer For God is not like old Isaac that hath but one blessing for his sonnes and therefore as wee must learne of S. Paul with our sufficiency to bee content My grace is sufficient for thee so let vs with him striue at least in our most heauenly thoughts get awing and rauisht into the third heauen then to behold III. What is the fulnesse wherewith those Soules that hunger after Righteousnesse shal be satisfied THE fulnesse heere meant is nothing else but a perfect expletion of all the naturall desires of Soule Body and Person according to the vttermost receptiuity of them all which their owne proper and most agreeable obiects wherein euery desire rests it self wholly acquited and filled For instance nothing can arrest the vnderstanding of man but that which is absolutely true or rather Truth it selfe For that is the most proper and agreeable obiect to our vnderstanding and who is that but Christ our Lord I am the Truth saies our Sauiour Nothing can satisfie the reasonable will of man but onely that which is perfectly good or rather goodnesse it selfe and who is that but onely God For as our Sauior speakes there is none good but God nothing can fill the restlesse affections of man but onely those fountaines of pleasure that haue in them neither defect nor end such as can be
in their spirituall riots they will play away the saluation of their soules O the cheap damnation of sinners With how seely baytes their soules are angled into eternall perdition A messe of pottage will buy away Esaus birth-right A small vineyard will make Ahab sell himself to worke sinne and forfeit his kingdome and all his posterity to the wrath of God A fayre-look'd apple pleasant to taste will hooke into the Lake of brimstone a whole world of beguiled soules The Harlots beggerly bread and water Prou. 9. 17. will get more followers then Wisedomes costly banquet choicest wines though the bread bee stollen and the waters hid If GOD should liue amongst vs thirty pence would buy him A cup of fornication is enough to make all the Kings of the Earth wait vpon the Whore the Beast And can it can it be Sathan should hyre vs to bee the seruants of sinne with such small wages and God with a Kingdome should not moue vs to be his sonnes O let not Nature in wicked and prophane vnreasonable Creatures go beyond Grace in profest Christians Balaam the Sorcerer would dye the death of the righteous the naturall good will hee bore himselfe taught him to wish it And it is the obseruation of the Philospher That all Creatures naturally desire to draw and assemble themselues as close to the diuine Being as possibly they can which hee makes to bee the Reason why there is in them all so vehement a desire which hee calls of all other the most naturall of begetting another like vnto themselues because not being able in their owne bodies to be euerliuing they deriue themselues to eternity by their issues thereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as hee sayes partaker of the Diuine being as farre as they are able This is therefore the reason why there is sowne in our Nature Tantus amor prolis generandi gloria but this naturall and lawfull ambition of glory in the Creature is most liuelie exprest in the eight to the Romans of which I spake in the former section Let vs therefore if the wicked desire the death endeuor to obtaine the life of the righteous if the whole creation grone and sigh and trauel to be deliuer'd from the corruption whereunto our sinne hath imbondaged it into the glorious liberty of the children of God at least as S. Paul speakes in the same chapter groan with them and within our selues to bee deliuered from our owne sinne and to bee made partakers of that glory which God diuides among his saints Let vs set before our eyes those Noble examples which the Scripture hath lighted vp for vs to looke vpon For this is that heauenly Countrie which Gods soiourners and Pilgrims heere on earth seeing a farre off sweetly saluted Heb. 11. 13. and trauelling as strangers thorough the world esteemed onely worthy of their ambition Thus Enoch walked with God before his death and therfore without death was translated to him being as S. Iude speakes the seuenth from Adam whom God happily sanctified to himselfe with eternall rest because he was the Sabbaoth of Men. Thus Moses preferred the naked and solitary wildernesse before the delights and treasures of Pharaohs Court and was not this the cause because he looked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the great recompence of the Reward by Faith seeing him who is inuisible Heb. 11. 27. This made Daniel esteeme the Lions Denne better then Darius Palace and the three children aduenture to meete heauen in hell God in the middest of a furnace infernally heated This made not valiant men onely but weak women fearefull by nature but resolute by faith in the midst of all their tortures not accept deliuerance but making their way through all the cruel mockings scourgings and bonds and prisons and stones and sawes swoords of wilde persecuting Tyrants passe on to the Land of promise without desire of liuing or feare of dying Heb. 11. 36. This made the olde Auncient-bearer of Valens the Emperour and elder Souldior of Christ Saint Basil in his Oration of him so much admires that signal Martyr Goelius tell the raging and menacing Prince that he knew his reward shold be greater then his torment and when the Emperour promised him very great matters to aske him smiling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether hee had any thing to giue him more worth then the Kingdome of heauen In a word this carried the heart of olde Simeon into such a holy extasie of religious delight that earth could hold him no longer but he must needs as it were breake prison and leape out of his olde body into heauen O what a desire of departure to it doth a true sight of this saluation kindle Lord saies he now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace c. for mine eyes bane seene thy saluation As if he should say Lord now the child is borne let the olde man die now thy son is come let thy seruant depart now I haue seene thy saluation O let mee goe to enioy it Now I haue beheld the humanity of thy sonne what is worth the looking vpon but the diuinity of such a person which is able to make my young Lord heere euen proud of his Humilitie For so great a ioy of spirit can neuer be thrust vp into so small a Vessell as an olde shrunke-vp body of earth is Since therefore I haue testified of thy Christ since I haue made an end of my dying note and sung thee my Christmasse song since I haue seene thee O thou holy one of Israell whom no flesh can see liue what haue I to do to liue O Lord What should I weare this olde garment of flesh any more Thou hast left thy fatnesse off O thou faire Oliue Tree and the oyle of it hath made mee haue a cheerefull countenance thou hast forsaken thy sweetnesse O thou beautifull Vine and thy fruit hath warm'd thine olde Seruant at the very hart Now therfore being thou hast powred thy new wine into this old vessell O giue the olde bottle leaue to breake O let me depart in peace for I haue enough I haue seen mine eyes haue seene thy saluation These are high-wing'd ambitious indeed whose thoughts creep not vpon the earth nor whose Honours shall be euer layed in the dust but that flye among the Starres and Angells of GOD that boast of their kinred with the Almighty and call themselues the Sonnes of God Wisd 2. whom our Sauiour hath made the fauourites of Heauen companions for his Angels co-heyres with himselfe Temples for his Spirit Parts of his Bodily and partakers of his Diuine Nature whose kingdomes end not with their liues but begin with their deaths whose pleasures vnlike to Ionathans hony kil not with tasting whose gains haue no fire-brands like Sampsons Foxes no hell in their tales whose celestiall banquets are like the feastes of Cana where their water is turned into wine al their teares into ioy not like faire Absolons a Type
of worldly courtesie to his Brother Amnon who when his heart was merry with wine slew him and fill'd his wine-bowle vp againe with his owne bloud ending all the ioy of the feast in teares and lamentation Indeede as long as they liue heere in their mortified flesh especially if the times bee clowdy the world would thinke their high mindes and abiect bodies very vn-euen matches For who if hee had met with the ancient Citizens of Heauen wandring about in sheepes-skins goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented as the Apostle speakes Hebr. 11. would not haue thought them the poorest snakes aliue But greatest spirits weare not alwaies gayest Armes nor the best Souldier the highest Crest And therefore although a man would thinke the kingdom of Heuen much dishonoured by our Sauior when he auiles humbles it in the comparison of a small Pearle and a little graine of mustard-seed yet indeed it is not discountenanced but discouered by the resemblance For though the seed be the smallest yet the plant is the tallest of all the hearbs that grow such a vitall flourish is there in the little heart of it that what Virgil speaks of the Bee may well be applied to this vigorous graine Ingentes animos angusto in corpore voluit Neyther hath the richest pearle of the Orient any better out-side then the dirty shell of an Oyster which perhaps S. Paul alluded vnto in the 2. Cor. 4. 7. where speaking of Gods Saints and this heauenly treasure in them hee tells vs wee haue this pearle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in no better than scalopshels Cleane opposite are these glories delights this ambition to those of our vnder-world Gather all the roses of pleasure that grow vpon the earth sayes not the Greek Epigram truely of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rose is faire fading short and sweet Passe softly by her And in a moment you shall see her fleet And turne a bryer They looke fairely but they are sodainely dispoiled whereas contrary all the flowers of Paradise like the Church Cant. 1. 5. 6. sun-burnt frosted with the heat and cold of this tempestuous world looke black and homely but flourish inwardly with diuine beauty and are all glorious within So that wee may well say of the Church as the Poet sings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She 's black what then so are dead coales but cherish And with soft breath them blow And you shall see them glow as bright and flourish As spring-borne Roses grow The reason of which is because the World wants God purposely so ordering it least we shold relie vpon her Egyptian reedes those two mayne iettes to sustaine her crazie buildings with which the Courts of GODS house are most gracefully pillard vpheld Selfe-sufficiency and Perpetuitie For who euer saw all the goods euen of this world meet together in one person constantly attend him to his graue Morall Vertue and Knowledge Honour Friends Riches Pleasure Health Strength and Beauty Which are therfore insufficient both because they are commōly seioyn'd one from another and haue in themselues no satisfying nature For what rich man desires not more wealth or what great man thirsts not after more honour or what scholar studies not for more knowledge But let vs grant what no man shall euer finde Knowledge Vertuous Vertue Honorable Honour Healthfull Health Strong Strength Beautiful Beauty befriended rich pleasant all these met together to blesse one subiect Yet because the Measure of them all is our Life and that is of so short a size as Dauid speakes Behold thou hast made my life as it were a span long and my daies are euen as nothing he sayes not indeede they are nothing at al but they are as neer it as may be they are euen as nothing neither doth hee say his life is a whole span-long but as it were a span lōg the word in the originall signifies but a handbreadth how can they but for want of perpetuitie fall all vpon our heads without the great grace of God make vs so much the more miserable by their losse as before in their possession we thought our selues more happy then other men Seeke we seeke we therefore the sufficiency of Grace heere and heereafter the perpetuity fulnesse of glory will succeed For as Dauid speaketh Light is sowne for the righteous and gladness for the vpright in heart The seedes of them both are sowne in our corruptible state but in the state of incorruption wee shall reape the haruest What if these ioyes cānot smile vpon as with their owne faces but are as S. Paul speakes who had seene them vnutterable in their natures as what tongues of Men and Angells can expresse musicall sounds to a deaf man or describe the glorious Light or diuine Beauty the visible and celestial bodies flame with to him that is blind yet let vs assure our selues the honour of our faith is so much the greater by how much the lesse we see to cause our beleefe and thogh Thomas was blessed in his seeing yet hee was chid for not beleeuing but vpon sight with this comfortable reprehension to vs. Blessed are they that haue not seene and yet haue beleeued For sure as I said before if the glory of GOD were not conceal'd it would neuer be knowne who would loue him for himselfe because all men would loue him for his glory GENES 26. 12. Then Isaac sowed in that Land and receiued the same yeere an hundred fold LEt vs goe on now from the spiritual haruest of our soules wherein God grant vs to be all sharers because heauen is the field and the fruit wee shall thereby reape will be eternall glory to the haruest whereby our bodies are sustained and which maintains our life heere that if wee be still earthly minded men and plow in all our hopes into these sandy furrowes yet when wee see in this story of Isaac that it is Gods blessing onely that cloaths the valleis so thick with corn that they laugh and sing for ioy as Dauid sings of them Ps 65. 13. we may if not because he will banquet replenish our soules with Diuine satiety that flourishes in heauen yet euen in meere good husbandry that hee may feed preserue our bodies with the food that growes out of the earth become religious men such as wait vpon Gods blessings in the improuement of all the labours sweate of our seuerall callings It will bee a good fruit of the earth if we vse it to carry our thoughts vp into heauen there to honour God with praise and thankesgiuing for his blessing vs heere In the generall suruey of which words after wee haue diuided them into Isaacs labour Then Isaac sowed in that Land his reward and receiued the same yere an hundred fold wee will take hold first of this one obseruation I. That euery Creature which would bee preserued in his Calling
wisely with our soules wee must looke to see that which is secret by that which is reuealed and that which is hid by that which is manifest Now the Grace of God if it be in vs reueales manifests it selfe Quis enim celauerat ignem Lumine qui sēper prodigitur ipse suo And our owne desperate and impenitent life is known to our selues and others sufficiently If the Sunne be risen wee shall finde him sooner by his beames vpon the tops of the Mountaines then in the Orient of Heauen it selfe and so the Loue of God is sooner discouered to rise in thy heart by the beames of Grace it there shows abroad then by the flame of it self that shines in his owne breast in Heauen If then Grace imbrighten thy heart thou maist from Grace assure thy selfe of Gods loue and thine own glorie but if thou findest in thy selfe an impenitent incorrigible heart thou mayst then iustly worke vpon thy selfe a sence of thy misery I dare not say thou art sure of GODS wrath but I must say except thou repent God change thy heart thou art yet in a fearefull and lost estate say not therefore thus God hath cast me out from his fauour therefore my heart is obdurate impenitent incorrigible For this is to argue from that thou knowest not whether God fauours thee or no but thus rather My heart is obdurate impenitent incorrigible therefore if I so continue God will surely cast mee out from his fauour and presence And this thou maist securely doe because thine owne conscience is both a witnesse and a iudge of thy life whether it be impenitent or not Again neuer argue thus God will saue mee therefore I shall bee sure to vse the meanes for that is to dispute ab ignoto For who knowes the will of God but thus rather I will bee sure to vse the meanes therefore I am sure God will saue mee and this is to dispute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frō things knowne For who knowes not whether hee vse the meanes God hath appointed him in his word to worke out his saluation by which that thou maist be sure of hee hath giuen thee his promise his word his oath Heb. 6. 17. 18. his writings by his Secretaries the Prophets which are the conueyances of thy heauenly inheritance he hath signed thē with two indeleble seales imprinted into thy flesh by baptisme and into his owne by his Passion and death the appointed infallible witnesses to testifie his deed His spirit thine owne thy faith and thy loue Rom. 8. 16. 1 Iohn 3. 14. and 1 Iohn 5. 10. so that although thou beest now on earth yet when thou hast thy euidence for heauen so surelie made ouer to thee thou canst not but bee most secure and sure of thy right and title if thou hast once receiued them and still keepest them in thine heart being regenerate and borne anew Vse therefore the meanes GOD hath appointed thee and then attend assuredly his promised blessing For all such promises of GOD haue some condition or other alwaies eyther implied or exprest If thou labour God will prosper thee if thou vse the right means God appoints he wil enrich thee onely the difference betweene the conditions of spirituall and temporal blessings is that he hath giuen many wicked men power in themselues to performe the condition required for these vnder-benefits but the conditions of glory which are the graces of Repentance Faith and Loue hee reserues in his owne power to bestow vpon whom only it pleaseth him being not the Steward of other mens goods as Man is but the Lord of his owne Sowe therefore the seeds of Labour and of Grace in thy Youth and looke for a haruest in thine age of sufficiency and glory But to returne to the labour which Isaac imployed his time in which was Sowing the ground wee may from thence learne that VIII Husbandry hath beene an ancient and honourable meanes of life LET not good husbandry sowing the ground and pasturage of cattell bee counted an abiect and reprochfull course of life which hath alwaies beene so ancient and honorable a meanes to keep life in the world It is true indeed Man in the nobilitie of his birth was not borne at first to this seruiceable attendance vpon the earth for both the heathen people had this tradition among them as the Poet sings nec non vllis Saucia vomeribus per se dabat omnia tellus And the word of God tels vs as much in the first of Genesis that the earth of it selfe brought forth euery seed after her kind without the labour and industrie of man and till for our sinne it was accursed by God still continued to bee selfe-fertill and to feed her children without their labour Mans speciall vocation then being the study of the creatures wherein he might behold as in so many small mirrours the wisdome and power and glory and goodnesse of God which kinde of diuine meditations Dauids Psalmes are euery where sweetly tuning to his Harp as in the 104. 19 Psalmes c. We were all borne in our innocence students of diuinitie That was the first vocation of our humane nature but the next was husbandry For so the first borne child of the nature the strength and heire of the world that was a Ruler ouer his brethren as God himselfe calls him Gen. 4. 7. was a manner of the earth and his brother Abel a shepheard to feed his flocks Neither did the world many thousand yeares after shake off this honourable simplicitie of life If wee looke into the 13. and 8. of Genesis wee shall there finde Abraham a great heardsman to liue after that fashion of life although his house were more like a Court then a Family hauing 318. trained seruants all men of armes to attend him Gen. 14. 14. and being in the estimation of those among whom he dwelt a great Lord and mighty Prince Genes 23. 6. Not long after Iob an Ismaelit as some of the Ancient thinke but as others with more ground of Scripture 1. Chro. 1. Gen. 25. one of his seede by Keturah succeeded him both in the manner of his life in the dignity of his estate nor was it a miracle to see rich mens daughters vnacquainted with new tires and most fashionable dresses busie thēselues in laborious and not curious needle work but it was ordinary in that old world to meete young and beautifull Rahel tending her fathers sheepe and watering the flocke and Rebecca with a pitcher vpon her shoulder drawing water both for her owne vse and to water the Camels of Abrahams seruant an office that our nice virgins who dresse vp themselues like so many gay silke-worms would thinke scorne of and in the second of Exodus the 16. and 17. verses we shall finde in the field seuen daughters of the Prince of Midian filling the troughs to water their fathers flockes whereof Zippora Moses wife was one It was the answer of the
witnesse of God his Word and Truth In the first and broadest walkes the heathen Idolator For diuide the World into thirty parts and he takes vp as is obseru'd by a iudicious Mathematician ninteen of them but we must vnderstand his Obseruation of the continued magnitude of the surface of the earth not of the discreet multitude of men contained in it In the next wide field of error walks the Mahumetan who dispreads himselfe into sixe parts of the thirty In the third the stragling Iew wanders who is discoasted into the bounds of all the rest And the Christian impaths himselfe in the last and least and narrowest tract holding but the proportion of fiue parts in the thirty parts The Heathen anciently mistooke the Oracles of the Diuell himselfe for the word of God and in a manner is blinded in that errour to this very day eyther by the illusision of Sathan himselfe or the collusion of his Priests The Mahumetan embraces the Alcoron for the vndoubted word of God and esteemeth that of Diuine and oracular authority The Iews retaine still the ancient word of God but they al reiect the New and are therefore called by the Fathers Archiua Christianorum The olde Records of the Christians being differenced among themselues into three Sects the first whereof are called Charraim and allow all and onely the olde Testament The second sew to the Bible all their fabulous Talmud make that of Scripture-authoritie and are therfore called the Talmudists The third defalke as much from Gods word as the second crowded to it leaue only the Pentateuch or fiue bookes of Moses for selfe-credible named by the rest Samaritans Neither can the little flocke of Christ the Catholique Church now professant in the world goe peaceably in their narrow path together but with Abrahams and Lots Heardsmen or Iacobs bretheren they will wrangling and scolding as they goe being dissundred into thirteene small or fiue maine different sects Protestants Latins Gracians Nestorians Iacobites whereof most of them darken that word of God that should enlighten themselues by carrying the Sunne in a clowd reading the Scripture in an vnknowne tongue eyther of Latine Greeke or Syriacke and so traducing all the authority of Gods Word from it self to the golden and empty Title of The Church As the Latins Nestorians Indians Iacobites the Cophti and the Mannites Some of these again spanging out of the Canon of the New Testament all the Reuelation of S. Iohn the Epistle of S. Iude the second Epistle of S. Peter the second and third Epistles of S. Iohn others farsing into the Canonicall writings Apocriphall and vnknowne Authors the Gospell of Nicodemus c. with a world of rotten and vnwriten Traditions To omit the populous Churches at this day of the Nestorians and Iacobites who commit the like error concerning the Liuing word as they doe about the written the first diuiding Christ into two Persons by a separation the second cōfounding him into one Nature by the Adunation of his Humanity and diuinity Now all these selfe-arrogating to themselues the word of God either by oracular Reuelation as the Heathen or written Tradition as the Mahumetan Iew and Christian how in such a world of open Warre and ciuil mutiny about GODS Word should blinde soules such as wee all come into the World with be euer able to center themselues immoueably in the Diuine Truth of God and not be carried about with some one winde or other of these erronious doctrines Giue mee leaue with the mighty Angell that held open in his hand the little booke of Prophecies Reuel 10. to sweare by him that liueth for euer and euer Either the means how to effect this is here set downe To him giue all the Prophets witnesse or there is none in the earth or vnder heauen For as in it selfe the least tittle of Gods word is more firmely pillard and lesse passable then the whole fabrique of heauen and earth Heauen and earth shall passe c. So to vs this certaintie can no way bee more infallibly euident then by the Prophesies that are storied in it And as the Prophesies are the greatest argument of all the rest so this is the greatest of all the rest of the Prophesies to argue by For here both Gods words are met together The dead word hath met with the liuing the old Testament kisses the New either to other one by fore-telling the other by fulfilling giue mutuall witnesse of their irrepugnable Truthes Since therefore there is so great vnitie in the words and the Prophets are all ioyned in one witnesse Christ to whom they witnesse is vndiuided I industriously spare to make any diuision either of the words or among the Prophets Only I will set this one truth in the Light That Christ is the Center to whom all of them standing round about him as a compassing clowd of witnesses draw all the lines of their Prophecies then briefly gather such Instructions as shall bee thence deducible Wee might see this golden circle of all the Prophets geaphically described by the last of the Prophets himselfe Reuel 4. and 5. chapters where in the midst of 4. Beasts and 24. Elders a glorious Lambe standeth and sends forth the 7. Spirits of God into al the Earth That Christ is the Lamb himselfe the Passeouer of the Iewes wil tell vs. And that the foure Euangelists are the foure beasts their euen number and their standing neerest the Throne as waiting immediately on the Lambe of God our Sauior and the strict keeping of decorum in figuring them like beasts such as the Lamb himselfe is sufficiently proues And doubtlesse the 24. Elders can be no other then the 24. Prophets of the Olde Testament both because they are called Elders being more ancient then the foure Euangelists and stand in a greater distāce farther off frō Christ their number being iust the very same as S. Hierome obserues And because as themselues sing to their golden Harpes the Lambe had made them Kings in matters of Life Priests in Points of Doctrine to rule the Earth hauing before redeem'd thē to God by his bloud which is not appliable to the stedfast Angels but onely to such who had beene yong sinners before they became saintly Elders And to conclude the seuen spirits sent forth into all the Earth must needs be the seuen gifts of Gods Spirit precisely set down by S. Paul 1. Cor. 12. 28. Apostles Prophets Teachers Miracles Guifts of healings Helps in gouernment Diuersities of tongues which are therefore named by Saint Iohn in the very same place seauen Lamps and the seauen hornes and eyes of the Lambe because by them Christ giues Light to his Church and exerciseth a visible power in all the Earth And heere wee see all our Sauiours witnesses are met together The twenty fower Prophets hold out the first Lights to discouer the Lamb of God least they should be obscure the Euangelists sets the truth of the story by
the wordes of their Prophecie and that Christs Church may see this truth Christ sends out into the whole earth these seauen guifts of his Spirit as Lamps to giue Light both to his Prophets and Apostles So that if any Spirit of Antichrist obtrude vpon the Catholique Church any other witnesses or blinde Light of gouernment interpretation besides these or think that Christ sent his seuen spirits forth into Rome not forth into the whole earth it is to be held a Spirit of Error and not of Truth But to close vp this generall shadow of the Prophets which I haue vnawares vnfolded beyond my first purpose and to open the particular substance of their seuerall Prophecies we shall find thē all so signally point at our Sauiour that if Moses veyle were not taken frō his face and layd vppon their hearts if they did not by a wicked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the olde Prophecies set the last comming of our Sauiour in glory before his first in humility that so they might grow proud by him who would first learne them to be humble Learne of me for I am humble they could not but now at length see him to be the Glory of Israel who hath beene so long a time already the Light of the Gentiles all the Circumstances of his Birth the Miracles Offices Doctrine and Humilitie of his life the causes manner and other cōcurrences of his death the Place of his buriall and the assurance of his rising againe being so cleerely praeassigned by their owne former Prophets liuing so long before Let vs therefore diligently search into III. The seuerall Prophecies concerning the Birth Life Death and Resurrection of the Sauiour of the world FIrst that his Mother should be a Virgin was foretold Isay 7. 14. and we shal finde it Mat. 1. 18. fulfilled Beholde a Virgin shal conceiue which the Iews most sillily translate a young woman as Trypho the Iew in his disputatiō with Iustin Martyr and Aquila and Theodotion both Iewish Proselites in their Translations But as Iustin replies it were no wonder for a young woman to conceiue whereas the Prophet speaks of it as a wonder Behold the Lord himselfe will giue you a signe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as your ancient Septuagint saith the Father reads it and not as your idle Rabbies newly translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold a young woman shall conceiue making that a very strange wonder then which nothing is more common and vsuall Besides to speake in grammer property 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alma signifieth neyther a Virgin simply nor yet a young woman but one betweene both a Virgin already espoused but not married such as Mary was to Ioseph such as Rebecca was to Isaac when she veyled her face at his sight Gen. 24. 65. and is therefore deriued from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to veyl or hide This being the maiden ceremony of the olde world for Virgins after they had once made choice of their husband to couer their faces to be Nuptae before they were Maritae veyled from al other before they married their owne man The husbands being to become the veyle of her eyes as Abimelech speaketh of Abraham to Sarah Behold he is the veyle of thine eies And this was Gods owne Argument to prooue our Sauiour his Son the Messias Gen. 3. 15. Ier. 31. 22. and in the place now cited And as the person of his Mother so the person of his Messenger was as disertly fore-told by the Prophets Esay 40. 3. Malach the 3. 4. chapters and fulfilled by Iohn the Baptist Luke the 4. who is therefore called Eliah not because he was to be person aeliter but onely personate being to come in the spirit of Eliah and in the manner of his life Eliah fasted often so did Iohn Eliah was girt with a leather girdle so was Iohn Eliah spake all his Prophesie writ none so did Iohn Eliah reproued the people openly to their faces so did Iohn Eliah was sent to renew the worship of God then defaced and changed so was Iohn Eliah told Ahab and Iesabell of their faults plainely so did Iohn Herod and Herodias painted Iesabel sought Eliahs life to slay him dancing Herodias sought and obtained the life of Iohn and slew him So that in his place and apparell in his manners and Prophecies in the prosecution of his life and persecution at his death Iohn though he were not Eliahs persō yet did throughly personate Eliah And this was Iohns crying Argument to proue our Sauiour the Messias The voyce of a Cryer in the wildernes prepare ye the way of the Lord saith Esay Who art thou say the Iewes to Iohn The voyce of a Crier in the Wildernesse prepare yee the waies of the Lord saith Iohn to the Iewes But our Sauiour as he had two Natures so hee had two Messengers Iohn was a burning shining Light on Earth but the Starre burned shined to giue him Light from Heauen A Starre shall come out of Iacob saith Balaam Num. 24. 17. Where is the King of the Iewes saies the Wise men for we haue seene his starre are come to worship him Mat. 2. 2. And this is the heathen mans argument that so much troubled Herod and all Hierusalem with him Now if we search diligently eyther the time when this starre first appeared or the place whether it led the Wise men after it had brought them out of their owne Countrey was it not in the time of the first Herod Luke 3. 1. when the Scepter was departed from Iudah Gen. 49. 10. And the Land was forsaken of both her Kings Esay 7. 16. And this was olde Iacobs argument to proue Iudahs sonne the Messias The Scepter shal not depart from Iudah till Shiloh that is his Sonne come And went it not with them directly to a little Bethleem foretold by Micah the 5. the 2. and in the 2. and 5. of Mathew interpreted by the chiefe Priests and Scribes and people all gathered together at the commmand of Herod to this very purpose who making this quiry Where Christ stould be borne receiued this answere In Bethleem of Iudah And thou Bethleem art not the least among the Princes of Iudah for out of thee shall come the Gouernour that shall rule my people Israell And this was the Argument of all our Sauiours enemies met together against him Herods the chiefe Priests the Scribes and the Peoples to proue him the Messias Wee might now take our Sauiour out of the Cradle of his birth and looke vpon him in the Miracles Offices Doctrine and Humanity of his Life all which wee shall finde curiously foretold by Moyses Dauid Esay Zachary and witnessed not onely by the mouthes of Children and Wise men but forcibly arrested by the Peoples Pilates and the voyce of the very Diuells themselues crying Wee know thee what thou art euen the Holy one of God but because the great Rocke of Scandall whereat both the obstinate Iew
him That thou mayest see then what thou shouldest beleeue now beleeue those Prophesies which are yet to be seene Thou sawest not perhaps the comming of Christ in humilitie foretould by the foregoing Prophet but that which was foretould by his following Apostles thou maist yet see◠the comming of Antichrist in pride Thou couldst not see Ierusalem destroy the Temple of Christs Body foretould by the former Prophets but our Sauiour himselfe Prophesied of the destruction of Ierusalem and that is yet to be seene Thine eyes cannot behold the spirituall Kingdome of Christ because it is of another world and beyond thy eye sight but the power of this Kingdome which was to breake in pieces the former great Monarchies of the world and it selfe to remaine vnshaken for euer Prophesied twice by Daniel in his 2. and 7. Chapters if thou wilt but open thine eyes thou canst not but behold The Diuine image of the inuisible God dwelling bodily in the humane Nature of our Sauior prophesied in Esays Immanuel is to diuinely subtile for his owls eies to looke vpon but it is visibly to be seene by thee that the false image of the heathen like Dagons Idol before the Arke are fallen downe and by the power of Christs Kingdom beaten to the ground Prophesied in the second of Esay and Dauid and diuerse of the Prophets How the Kings of the earth and the Rulers banded themselues together against the Lord and against his Christ to extinguish his Church in the very Cradle of it Prophesied by Dauid was thou wilt say before thou were borne to see it but happy happy art thou that thou art borne to see now Kings to be the Noursing Fathers Queenes the Nursing Mothers of his Church Prophesied by Esay Es 49. 23. Thou seest not the whole world Iew and Gentil forget themselues and rebell against the Lord denying his Kingdome or to be gouerned by him We haue no King but Caesar But thou seest now the Kingdome is the Lords and he is the Gouernour among the Nations and that all the ends of the earth hath remembred themselues turned vnto the Lord Prophesied by Dauid Psa 22. 27. Briefely thou seest not the Resurrection of our Sauiour in glory among the Iewes Prophesied by Dauid but thou seest that which was immediately to follow among the Gentiles the Resurrection of grace foretold by all the Prophets Neither canst thou see now the Iewes crying crucifie him crucifie him But thou maist yet see that which instantly followes His bloud be vpon vs and vpon our Children Since therefore thou hast lying before thine eyes by the power of Christs kingdome the 4. great Monarches of the world broken in peeces by the diuine Image of God the false images of Heathen beaten downe the destruction of that citie that destroyed him and the dispersion of that People that scattered his the rebellious Gentiles his seruants and the persecuting Kings his Subiects if thou wilt not be among those whom our Sauiour blesses Blessed are they that haue not seene and yet haue beleeued be at least one of Saint Thomas his Disciples vse thine eyes as he did his fingers and be not faithlesse but beleeue For I will not feare to say that the certainty of our faith arising from the Prophecies is more powerable to perswade thē if it were by an ocular demonstration now before our eies miraculously cōfirmed then if one should rise from the dead to instruct vs then if GOD himselfe should descend speake to vs from heauen A great audacitie of speech will some say I and a proude hyperbole of Truth but such as the Scripture vses They haue Moses and the Prophets sayes Abraham let them heare them And though such purple-habited and high-dieted Epicures as are already in the state of the damned though they liue in the world among vs foolishly suppose that of one should rise and come to them from the dead they should presently beleeue yet the Father of the faithfull who knew better how faith was begotten tells vs plainely if they will not heare Moses and the Prophets neyther will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead And what sayes Saint Peter who himselfe heard the voyce of God immediately and gloriously speaking to him from heauen This is my Well-beloued Sonne heare him We haue sayes he a more sure word of Prophecie whereunto you do well that yee take heed 2. Pet. 1. 19. And is it possible any word in the earth should be more certaine then word of God immediatly speaking to him from heauen Certes not in regard of the substance of the thing deliuered For so both the word of God immediatly framed by himselfe spoken from heauen or vttered by the mouth of his Prophet is all one and hath the very same identiall certaintie but both in regard of the manner of deliuery the Prophesies are more sure because they are larger and more copiously expositiue of themselues in case of doubts emergent God speaking but awhile by a voyce immediately framed by himselfe but speaking by his Prophets from the beginning of the world to the end of it which are therefore interpretatiue of themselues and specially in regard of vs Because the voyce of God immediately speaking from heauen to vs is more astonishing and lesse instructiue then otherwise it would be So we see the Children of Israel when God spake from heauen to them Exodus 20. 18. 19. shaken into such an Ague of feare and trembling as Moses himselfe was Heb. 12. 21. that they started backe and stoode a farre off and cryed to Moses O let not God speake anie more vnto vs lest wee die Which naturall feare God does not onely pardon but approue and therefore stooping to their nature and laying aside his owne Maiestie wee shall see in the 18. of Deuter. 16. verse what he sayes to them and by whose mouth hee promises to speake to vs. According to all that thou desirest of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the Assembly saying Let me not heare againe the voice of the Lord my GOD neither let me see this great fire any more that I die not And the Lord sayd vnto me they haue well spoken in all that they haue said I will raise them vp a Prophet from among their Brethren like vnto thee and will put my words in his mouth him shall they heare c. Thus when the Greeks came to see our Sauiour Iohn 12. 21. and God gaue a maiesticall witnesse to him from heauen they were all so horrowed with suddaine amase and affright that some thought it thundred others that an Angel spake from heauen to him but what was sayd none of them all knew And thus our Apostle heere himselfe was for the time that GOD spake in Mount Tabor strucke halfe beside his vnderstanding with feare and astonishment Matth 17. 6. and talked himselfe hee knew not what Luke 9. 33. We see therefore how strongly the Rocke of our saluation Christ